Busy, busy...

It's so weird how you tell yourself that next week will be calmer, and you will have time to catch up on things that have been neglected including the blog, taking pictures of the kids, some orders for friends, etc...but nothing slows down. I guess this is a good thing, and a bad thing. If it were calm, I would probably just be complaining that I felt lazy. Oh well!

 Speaking of lazy...we have been enjoying the spring weather on our new hammock. Well, I have anyways. I think I pretty much steal it away from everyone when we do go out. It is quite lovely and we are happy to FINALLY have one. 

I still have to do some pictures of Gracie for her 9 year old shots. She's growing up so fast. We were bored in the car one day waiting on daddy, so we took a couple of us...

Silly girl! 

Then comes the sickness...both of my kiddos are on antibiotics. I really don't like for them to have to take antibiotics, but sometimes it's necessary I suppose. I think this is Jai's 2nd or 3rd time being on them. He had a sinus infection...and Miss Gracie had a TERRIBLE ear infection. She was completely miserable for about 3 good days. We had planned a trip to the zoo last week, and she wanted to still go so bad. I had the make the decision (stinks making mommy decisions sometimes) to skip out since she was so bad off. I knew that she really wanted to go, but it was a good thing we skipped out. Ear infections are so bad! ;(

I had to share my sweet note with you. She wrote me this on my first night back to work (since she had been sick). She made me put it in my pocket and not peek until she sent me a text (haha) that I could read  it. That made my night! :)

On Saturday, everyone was feeling much better and we went to the Earth Day Fair in WS. We go every year and it's always so much fun. They had to move it inside this year due to the weather, and it was quite crowded. I didn't get hardly any pictures and the ones that I did get were with my cell phone...bummer. Here is Jai trying to hula hoop. 

Showing off his recycling tattoo. 

On Sunday, there was a festival at the temple celebrating Lord Ramachandra's Appearance Day. 

Lord Ramachandra is an incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the ideal king. He appeared in the Treta-yuga, more than two million years ago. Under the order of His father, Maharaja Dasaratha, Lord Ramachandra lived in the Dandakaranya forest for fourteen years, along with His wife, Sita Devi, and His younger brother, Lakshmana. After the demon Ravana kidnapped His wife, Lord Ramachandra, with the help of His faithful servant Hanuman, killed Ravana and rescued her. 

The Youth put on an EXCELLENT drama! Here is some of the Cast... 

...going over the lines...

Hanuman...

Wow...what a big crowd there was. 

Here are a few more pictures of the youth getting ready. They all did such a wonderful performance. I will do my best to post video up of it soon! Gracie gets so nervous before each play...but she does a great job and improves each time. I hope that she will continue to be a part of the drama group. 

Stay tuned for more adventures. Hopefully things will be better documented from now on! :)

Lord Chaitanya's Birthday!

Yesterday we celebrated Lord Chaitanya's Appearance Day! Here is a brief description of what that is for those of you that are confused. :)

This festival celebrates the appearance anniversary of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. It is observed annually (in late February, early March) by Krishna devotees all over the world—especially in the area of Mayapur, India, the place where He appeared in the year 1486. This year, Gaura Purnima falls on Saturday, March 19th (in the western world).

Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krishna Himself, appearing as His own devotee, to teach us that we can gain full enlightenment simply by chanting the holy names of the Lord:

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

Those who witnessed the Lord's pastimes saw Him dance and chant with ecstatic love for God, the likes of which had never been seen before.

Lord Chaitanya encouraged everyone to follow this same process. He taught that anyone—regardless of background or spiritual qualification—can develop their innate love of God and experience great spiritual pleasure by chanting the Hare Krishna mantra.

The present-day International Society for Krishna Consciousness continues the work begun by Lord Chaitanya, who predicted that the chanting of the holy names of Krishna would spread all over the world.

Gaura Purnima means "golden full moon," signifying that:
1) Lord Chaitanya was “born” during a full moon, and
2) The Lord blesses everyone with the soothing, moonlike rays of His sublime teachings.

His followers generally observe this festival by fasting and chanting the holy names all day. At moonrise, a special multi-course feast is offered to the Lord and then enjoyed by all.

I was asked to make his birthday cake and could not have been more honored! It was QUITE a stressful morning though. Luckily, I had baked the cake the day before so all that I had to do was decorate it. Sounds simple, right?! Boy, was I wrong. I was pretty disappointed in the way it turned out. Everything I did to it, seemed to go wrong and none of the design worked out the way I wanted it to at all. I was upset with the color scheme, etc. I worked on this from 9am until 12:30...and this was the result. 

This was the largest cake that I've ever done. I didn't think that I needed to shave the roundness off of each layer because it didn't look that bad. The car ride to the temple proved me wrong. This thing shook like a bowl of jelly the ENTIRE time. If felt each and every crack in the road and I have never been so nervous driving in this lifetime. I was in need of a back massage after we arrived and it was in one piece. Whew! So glad that was over!! It turned out that the colors complimented the altar very nicely. Everyone seemed to love it and it tasted quite delicious! :)

The temple was quite full when we arrived at 3. Usually everyone comes in slowly in the first hour that the festivities begin...so we were surprised to see so many people there promptly at 3. So awesome! 

Our little rascal...

He looked so cute!

The Bharat Natyam dancers did a beautiful job (as usual)! I was waaaaayyy in the back so I couldn't get a good shot! 

The Sunday School Class reciting a story about Nimai. 

Little Gopi Mary Catherine. This was MC and Liam's first time to the temple and they had a great time. Liam was exploring outside pretty much the entire time. I think he had a fall in the (shallow) creek early in the day...but was having so much fun that he didn't mind his wet clothes throughout the day. Poor Liam. haha. 

Getting ready to bathe the deities. (Abhisheka)

An explanation:

During an elaborate bathing ceremony a Deity is bathed not only in water, but also with milk, yogurt, butter milk, honey, clarified butter, sugar, and all kinds of fruit juices. After this bathing, the sacred image is dressed, ornamented, fed and praised with hymns accompanied with bells, drums and other instruments.

Gracie and Mary Catherine in line to bathe the deities. 

Our little Gopi's! :)

All dressed up for the play. This is Nimai, Kamala, and Gracie. 

During Mitra's nice lecture...

Again, I was far in the back and unable to get good pictures. The play began and Gracie was quite nervous. She did so well though. I was a proud mata. :)

The temple seemed to swell as the day went on. It was so nice and everyone was so ecstatic during kirtan!

 Kirtan practice involves chanting hymns or mantras to the accompaniment of instruments such as the harmonium, the two-headed mrdanga or pakawaj drum, and karatal hand cymbals. 

Quick, quick shot of the birthday cake on the altar. I didn't get a good shot of the deities and I'm so sad about that. If anyone has a nice one, please forward to me. Thanks so much! :)

After the (HUGE) feast...we wandered outside for the fireworks and the "Super Moon" :)

Doesn't look so "Super". It was quite impressive in person, but my lame lens (and juvenile photography skills) did not capture it. It was a foggy sky also. Oh well! Hopefully we will be around for the next one and I will have had a few photography classes under my belt. :)

Hope you enjoyed!