Recent Kids Activities - 2009 October

Hi All,
Just to let you know what kind of events you might have missed by not referring to my blog earlier, here is a variety of things that happenned in the last few weeks which we enjoyed with our son (at some of these events, we were accompanied by some of our friends, but as currently I do not have permission from any one of them to include references to their names, so I will better omit such information for now - but pls. leave me a comment if you are OK for me to include your/your kids names in this blog or later posts to this blog):
2009
October
(Special month - DIWALI & Halloween)

• 27-30: Halloween Trick-n-Treating
  
  @Summerwood Apartments from 6 PM to 8:30 PM
  Cost - N/A.
  This is the most fun part of the Halloween day every year for Aakarsh.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  But this year, it was special for Aakarsh as I also had a day off from work this time and was able to accompany Aakarsh for trick-n-treating all through. Aakarsh enjoyed this as he had both his parents with him rather than his mom only as usual.




• 27-30: Halloween Celebrations w/Gigante
  
  @Michael's (participating stores) from 10 AM to 11 AM followed by
  @San Jose Sharks Stadium 2 PM to 6 PM
  Cost - FREE.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This was a hit with the kids - the biggest halloween celebrations that we have been to ever - the whole stadium was converted into a big playground for the kids with jumper houses, a big hay maze and Gigante and other characters to take pictures with + free face painting, balloon toys, pumpkin decoration and lots of other stuff including trick-n-treating games and a small petting zoo. Aakarsh loved it and enjoyed even more when Ansh & Amisha also joined around 3 PM and Aryan joined in the evening.
  Another main thing was the big costume parade which saw around 500 kids participating in the kids costume contest and judged by 3 judges including Barack Obama and Gigante himself!




• 27-30: Pre-Halloween: @Toshiba & Summerwood Community
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  @Toshiba (annual halloween celebrations) & Summerwood (Annual Costume Contest)
  Cost - N/A.
  I can not post pictures of of other colleagues who participated in the Toshiba annual costume contest.
  Similarly, I can not post the pictures of all contestants at the Summerwood (our apartment community) annual kids costume contest.
  But both events were a lot of fun and here are some pictures from both.




• 25: Halloween Pets Parade @Sunnyvale Downtown:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  @Sunnyvale Downtown
  Cost - FREE.
  This turned out to be great Great FUN!! Lots of pets in interesting costumes (checkout the superman dog (Not super dog) in one of the pics) alongwith their mentors & mentor's kids in matching costumes - Aakarsh was in Superman's costume and he found another group there who had SuperGirl, SuperDog, BatDog, BatMobile, but were missing the SuperMan and thus joined them to complete the group - no wonder, their group was specifically interviewed briefly by the organizers during the parade. I also joined the parade in Were-Wolf's costume - Bhavna preferred staying out of the parade and shoot our videos and pictures.
  




• 24: Lowe's FrankenString Magic Trick Build & Grow Event:
  
  
  
  @Lowe's, Fremont
  Cost - FREE.
  This was the second Lowe's clinic we took Aakarsh to - and like the first one, he enjoyed this too - though we reached this time much more relaxed around 10:25 AM (unlike last time when we hurried to be the first one to reach). This time, these guys were out of the aprons and did not want to give away the hammers to take home - but gave the protective eye-glasses to take home (ofcourse the kit and the final trick were for us to take home). But the good things this time were that they gave a certificate of participation this time (unlike SanJose Lowe's) and also told us that if for any reason, we can not register online, we can try coming to the store just before 11 AM on the day of the clinic and try our luck at getting the free kit to take home and make it there (as, we were informed, each Lowe's gets around 10 to 25 extra kits). Also informed to us was that if, if, we have registered online, then we can also pick-up the kit on the day before the clinic in case we know that we will not be able to make it to the clinic on the day. This time's activity involved more nails and some stickers pasting also - which Aakarsh enjoyed quite a bit. It required some careful string tieing and positioning which was taken up by his dad (myself) - Bhavna again preferred to stay behind the camera this time also.
  




• 17: DIWALI Celebrations @Reals:
  
  
  
  
  Fun-filled night enjoyed to the fullest by Aakarsh, ourselves and our friends who shared the fun with us on Diwali - music, Dance (lots of dance from "Jimmy-jimmy aaja-aaja all the way to Nagada-nagada & Bachna ae Hasino") followed by great potluck food and light crackers - we also had prizes for best dancing couple and best kid dancer - all kids were judged best dancers !!
  




• 11: Blue Angels / Fleet Week @SF:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  @Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco
  Cost - FREE.
  I try not to miss this every year - and end up watching this almost every alternate year - But this time was special - first time watching with my Son Aakarsh having proper sense of an Air-Show. He enjoyed the Air Show - especially the Blue Angels part - very much - and he paid full attention to my explanations on different Blue Angel formations - especially the COBRA act.
  




• 10: Lowe's Ball Toss Game Build & Grow Event:
  @Lowe's Ridder Park Dr., San Jose
  Cost - FREE.
  This is really great - all you have to do is register your kid for the free event in time (before the limit of 50 kids is full) - you go to the Lowe's store you registered for before 10 AM. They welcome you nicely, give you the bag with all the necessary raw material for the project (Ball Toss Game this week) including the nails, etc. - they give you a hammer, Lowe's kid's size apron, kid's size protective eye goggles and a brick. EXCEPT the brick, you can take home EVERYTHING ELSE (including the hammer, apron, etc.).
  
  
  I helped Aakarsh positioning the nails and inserting them the initial few mm into the wood, the rest - he was pretty apt at picking up quickly and working his way through the completion of the full working Ball Toss Game. He not only enjoyed the process of hammerring the nails, etc., but also enjoyed playing the game after coming back home - AND more than anything else - he likes to put on the apron almost every day for few minutes since that day. I have already signed him up for the next 2 upcoming Lowe's FREE kids projects.