Gift Card Collection

Hrishika has been collecting gift cards for a while now, may be the past 4 to 5 years. She has this huge collection of gift cards. Every time she goes to any store she is on look out for new cards. She got the most from Target store. Target has some really good designs.

She arranged some of her gift cards in a circle and took some pictures. She had many left over.

Here are some of her favorites which got a close up.

Her gift card collection is forever growing.

Beauty Is ....

Beauty is fireflies, dancing in the night, their tails glowing

Beauty is the Sun, when it sets behind tall hills

Beauty is a waterfall, when it falls from high, to down below

And beauty is the world, when it's filled with happiness

Because beauty is everything that's loved by you.

a poem by Hrishika Basava

A Visit to Color Me Mine

Hrishika had a day off on October 15th.  So one of Hrishika's friend's mom offered to take Hrishika to "Color Me Mine" along with her kids.  I love that place.  It's such a creative outlet for kids.  Hrishika chose a tile with a Hummingbird carved out.  We just got the finished product a few days later and here it is ....

I think she did a beautiful job painting the ceramic tile.  It looks awesome!!!

By the way the color she chose for the hummingbird happens to be her favorite color, Teal.  It matches this blog's  background color.  That's the reason I designed her blog in Teal and Orange.

Build-A-Bear : Bunny

Hrishika got to go to build-a-bear again. This time it was for Angela's 10th birthday party.

This time she decided to build a bunny and named it "Sea Shore".

This is the outfit she picked for the bunny. White pants with green top. Her friend Jena gave her these pink slippers, since she had two pairs.



Here you can see the bunny all dressed up.



With an Hawaiian lei matching the bunny's dress.

GIFTed Program

In third grade before the school year ended Hrishika got tested for GATE ( Gifted and Talented Education ). Some of the teachers told us that the test has gotten lot harder. Also because of the budget cuts in the state of CA, they said the number of kids and the frequency of the classes will also be reduced.

All that said, she got into the GIFTed program and I'm very proud of her. She did it all by herself. She did not receive any extra coaching, nor did I spend any extra time with her on that. Bravo!!!

On September 15th this year she had her first GATE class. She said it was lot of fun. As part of the GATE class they got to make bandana. As soon as she got home from school that day, she wanted to rinse the bandana and keep it for drying. By the time we got to it it was the day after. After that she had to wait for it to dry. She was so excited with the outcome. I think it looks good.

Weaving With Wool

Hrishika got some left over wool from her grandma. This is what she made. She taped the both ends of the wool. She then actually weaved another strand of wool through these taped woolen strands.

Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History - Gemstones

Last summer we visited Washington D.C. along with our sister's family and my mom. Wahington d.c. has such amazing museums to visit and they are all free. We could only cover National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of Natural History.

Hrishika loved visiting both the museums. She especially enjoyed the gemstone collection in the National Museum of Natural History. She took a lot of pictures of those gemstones. You could take a look at those pictures here ....

Life

Life is like a treasure, Also like a chance.
Use it very wisely, Do the best you can.
Think and learn, grow and achieve.
Because you won't be able to do it forever.
Do all you can today, not tomorrow.
Use your time wisely, And you'll be happy believe me.

a poem by Hrishika Basava

Nature

You hear the rippling of water, so smoothly it flows.
The beat of a butterflie's wings, swish, swish, swish.
You find the beauty of nature,
those beautiful sounds you nicely hear.
But when you go to the city,
where you can only hear the crowd,
You'll miss the sound of nature, and
you'll wish you are home again.

a poem by Hrishika Basava

Reading is Cool : 3rd Grade

This year again Hrishika's class participated in "Reading is cool" program sponsored by San Jose Sharks. This year she was top reader for the month of November 2008. She missed the top reader of the year award by just 2 books.

A Bird's Nest

A mother bird warms her eggs.
After a lot of hard work, Crccrackk!
A tiny bird is born, tweet, tweet.
Even though it might be tiny,
It can make a big change,
If it tries it's best with it's heart.

a poem by Hrishika Basava

Build-A-Bear : Puppy

Hrishika's friend Jena celebrated her 9th birthday at Build-a-Bear. This was Hrishika's first time at Build-a-Bear. So she was excited. Hrishika decided to build a puppy and named her "Cinnamon".

She chose a denim skirt and a lavender top for it's outfit. She also picked out a pink purse for an accessory.



Here you can see the puppy with it's outfit. It was super cute!!



Here you can see one of Hrishika's teddy bear sporting the puppy's outfit.

Solar System

As part of the science adventures class Hrishika got to make the models of the different planets of the Solar System. They used quick drying clay to make these models. For the colors they used ink from the markers.

They did it in two classes:

Outer Solar System:

In one class they got to work on the outer solar system which included Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Kuiper belt.

Inner Solar System:

In another class the made the inner solar system consisting of the Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and the Sun.

Heritage Quilt

Hrishika had to do this project for her class. Each child was asked to make one quilt square that represented their heritage. Hrishika decided to do a peacock for her quilt, since it was the national bird of India and very colourful. Each child was given a 6"x6" square black felt piece to do the quilt.

This is what she did. She first drew the outline of the peacock using a white crayon. Next she cutout the shape of each feather using a brown card stock. Next she glued a circular silver bindi on each of the feathers followed by a blue colored gem on every single feather. This took most of her time. Next she stuck some of these feathers on a silver twist tie and glued them in place on the felt square. Then she made the peacock body, face and feet with white model magic and colored it with green, peacock blue and brown respectively. Lastly she glued all the body parts on the felt.

It looked amazing!

Science Project: 3rd Grade

For this year's science project Hrishika decided to work on the "Phases of the Moon". She tried explaning as to what causes the phases of the Moon. She made the model of the Moon using styrofoam ball and model magic. She glued it to the top of a CD holder. It looked great. She used globe for an earth and a flashlight for the Sun.




Pictures showing the "Full Moon Phase" with and without light in the room.

Notebook Cover: Hrishika's Style!

Front Cover

Back Cover

Here Hrishika took an ordinary mini notebook and gave it her own style. Basically she made a book cover using a sea green foam sheet. She cut out her name out of a brown foam sheet and glued it to the front cover. Finally she put a small brown bow on top. How pretty. I especially liked the way she cut out her name out of foam. Pretty good job.

Me Collage

At the beginning of the school year each student was asked to make a Me Collage. These were the instructions. Make a collage that is "all about YOU". First think about what makes you unique. Then start gathering materials to create your own "Me Collage". Draw, cut out pictures, or glue things to your collage that tell us what makes you You.

This is what Hrishika came up with ....

She had the following pictures:

• Harshul : whom she absolutely adores.
  
• Grandparents : whom she loves dearly.


• Michael Phelps : All time olympic record holder with 8 golds.


• Tom Brady : QB of her favourite football team.
  
• Backpack : Since she was so excited to go back to school after summer vacation.
  
• Chocolate : Need I say more.


• Chocolate Ice cream : Her favourite flavour.
  
• Board Games : Her favourite pass time.
  
• Star Wars : Her favourite movie series.


• Hawaii : Favourite place to visit.
  
• Gift Card : She loves collecting unique gift cards.

Lemonade!

Hrishika surprised me with this lemonade today.

Look at the presentation. WOW!! She used a lemon wedge and a mint leaf. I think it looks awesome. I guess the effects of food network are rubbing off on her. It was yummy too!!

Way to go Hrishika!!!!

Flowers made with Model Magic

Hrishika made these beautiful flowers using model magic. Her friend Jena gave her the model magic variety pack with a princess mold. Since Hrishika was no longer into princesses she decided to make these flowers instead. She learnt to make the blue flower from her Sharada peddamma. I was totally impressed with the flowers. They are beautiful.

3D Outliner and Mirror Work

While we were visiting India during summer of 2008, I enrolled Hrishika in an art class near my mom's home.  There she got to make this art piece.

It started out as a 12" x 12" plywood.  First she started by painting it all in blue paint.  Next her teacher outlined the design in pencil.  Hrishika used silver colored  Fevicryl 3D outliner  to go over those pencil lines.  Before she could actually draw using 3D outliners, her teacher made her practice using mehendi cones on rough paper.  That practice really paid off.  All the lines came out very good.  Then she glued all those different  mirrors in the design.  It's a beautiful work of art.

Blue Box

I got a plain box from Michael's store. This is how Hrishika transformed it. She painted it blue and added a pink fringe all around the box. She then displayed a heart pendant in the little window.

Reading is Cool : 1st Grade

This year Hrishika's school took part in "Reading is cool" program sponsored by Fremont bank. So each month the top reader is awarded a medal. Hrishika would read a lot of books and as a parent we had to write down the title and number of pages of each book read and had to sign it. It would take me hours to write down all the titles. She was top reader for a few months. However to make it fair and encourage all kids, the teachers decided to give her the medal for just one of the months (January). At the end of the year they counted the total books read for the entire academic year to award the top reader of the year. Hrishika won the award hands down.

Happily Ever After

The Mysterious Witch

By

Hrishika Basava

May 2007

It was a cold, dark day in the forest where owl sleeps on his big, long branch. Owl was very kind. He had sharp eyesight at night and slept during the day. He had brown fur. Usually the butterflies and fox sneak up to his nest at daytime. One day a strange animal came to look at his nest. Who had sent him there? Suddenly the animal went away. Nighttime came again. Owl woke up. He found some fur. "Who came?" he said. He thought and thought. He thought for so long that daytime ame, he drifted off to sleep again.

One day that strange animal came again this time with a shimmering witch! The witch said, "Make him sleep fpr 100 years!" A spark of light flew in the air and landed right on owl. Night came. Owl still slept. Daytime came. Owl still slept. Night came. This time his sister, the magician, came and almost broke the spell when the witch came! She siad, "Wanna fight?"

The magician said, "Yes."

The witch said, "Make tree branches fall."

The magician made the branches towards the witch. Finally, a rock hit the witch and she died. The magician broke the spell.

"Thank you a lot, sister," said owl. After that, all was well in the forest.

Rainbow

This is one of the drawings which I happened to scan. So I uploaded it. Hrishika's favourite thing to draw is a butterfly. So you do see a lot of butterflies in her artwork.

Gingerbread House

This year I got a gingerbread house kit from Costco. It came with everything including the candy and icing for decorating the cookie house. I helped Hrishika in putting the house together using icing. She did the decorating with candy. All in all it was a fun project for the holidays. I would highly recommend buying a kit instead of making everything from scratch. It is a big time saver.

WINTER is ........

Waking up and I see raining rainy weather.

Icicles hanging down from my house.

North pole I shouted, I'm in the northpole.

Time to open presents mom said.

Excited me I told my mom the story.

Recognized me it was just a dream!

Bracelets

Paper Butterfly

Color Me Mine: Purse

Hrishika's cousin, Ashi celebrated her 8th birthday at Color Me Mine. Hrishika got to paint this ceramic purse as part of the birthday celebration.

Blue Purse

Yesterday we had been to a Arts and Crafts fair at the local high school. There we saw a lot of crafts. Hrishika and her grandma decided to make their own purse. As soon as they got home they got started. They used adhesive foam to make this purse. Hrishika in fact took it with her to a store the very next day.

Letter To Santa

Believe it or not it is that time of the year again. Yes the holiday season is nearing .... This weekend in the target toy catalog we found a link for kids to print out some games and crafts. One of them was letter to Santa. So my daughter immediately made her dad print it for her and this is what she wrote in it ....

Dear Santa,

for Crishmas I will like you to get me Shimmering Lights
Ariel Doll, Disney Project and Draw, The Little Mermaid Shimmering Lights
Dolphin Chariot, a princess wath (she means watch). It's ok to only give me one
or two but if you do plese get the Disney Project and Draw. i will also like
Little Mermaid Ariel's Ocean Salon.

from Hrishika

Diwali Rangoli

Hrishika watched her grandma do rangoli for our Indian festival, Diwali. She got inspired watching her grandma and made her own rangoli in a steel plate which you see above. She made a diya using kum kum powder ( red colour ) and rice flour ( white colour ). She made some decorations around the diya using turmeric powder (yellow colour). Next she placed a small heart shaped tea light candle on the plate.

Considering she is only 6 years old and her first attempt at rangoli, I think it is a masterpiece!!!

Hrishika's Princess Scrapbook

The other day I was cleaning up Hrishika's room and came across this disney princess book, "My Princess Life". There are a few entries which are hilarious and I wanted to share that. Keep in mind she had just turned 5 when she wrote all this.

The following is from her Disney Princess book, "My Princess Life". These are her answers to some of the questions in the book. I wrote down her answers in orange, exactly the way she spelt them. I wrote what she actually meant in yellow.


My Princess Favorites

• Room in the castle : balkanee (balcony)


• Jewel on my crown : heart


• Place to ride my unicorn : on the rode (on the road)


• Storybook adventure : Areal (Ariel)


• Storybook Prince : Erice (Eric)


• Special outfit : White with flowars (white with flowers)


• Perfume : Pinke


• Nail color : red sparkal (red sparkle)


• Art project : vand (Wand)


• Hobby: swimming


• Sport : basket ball


• Yummy dessert : browny


• Tasty candy bar : chaclet (chocolate)


• How I help others : by klening up (by cleaning up)


• My wish for the future : I had jools (I had jewels)


• A place I'd love to live : star wars galesee (star wars galaxy)


• How I want to change the world: helping


• Song : little red hen


• Color : pink


• Instrument : harmaneca


• Number : 200


• Book : star wars


• Flavor : chocalate

My Princess Friends

• Monoo (Monu) )


• Sapna


• Else (Elsie)


• Vindea (Vindhya)


• Ashvenee (Ashwini)


• Miss Kim (her teacher from pre K)

Our favorite things to do

• play


• have fun


• wath moves (watch movies)


• do swimming


• dance

• wath TV (watch TV)

Our favorite places to go

• to the park


• otside (outside)


• to my room

Gift Wrapping

Just a glimpse at Hrishika's gift wrapping skills. She loves to give gifts and wrap them herself. I do not seem to recall what she had wrapped inside this. I wish I did .....