Summer Loving ain't it a blast

We having been creating packing, to do and last minute detail lists for the past two weeks preparing ourselves for our first family trip back to Minnesota in almost two years.

To say we are excited does not even come close.

Jimmy has been making a list of all the food her is going to eat and topping the list is drinking gallons of milk!! Kay is looking forward to her Raggy Ann dolly she left in her room of which Mom and Dad have no idea what she is talking about. Billy has no rel clue what all the excitement is all about.

In the mean time we have also been having several going away dinners with our friends her. We had a fabulous dinner on Friday night with a bunch of our friends from Palm Meadows. The entire wing of the local Italian Restaurant was full and the food kept coming to the point that we finally told them to stop. The menus was:

Starters
Mixed Grill Roulade, Caprese, Bruschetta, Pizza veg., Ham Parma and Melon, Salami, Crocchette Patate
Pastas
Lasagne veg. or
Pesto and Mushroom Pasta
Main Courses
Mixed Seafood Grilled Italian Style (Tuna, Kingfish, Calamari) or
Aubergine Parmizane
Mixed cheese platter
Desserts
Tiramisue or
Spuma di Chocolate
Along with coffee and water

The best part was no corking fee!!!

We also had a nice quiet dinner with our friends the Herkelmens, first time on the blog!!, also avid readers of the blog along with fellow Targeters and bloggers, the Fischer's at yet another Italian Restaurant . We had a wonderful evening top off with Bob and his Yagermeister.

The weekend ended with the first ever 10k here in Bangalore we did not run the race however our friends Patty and Petra did and we say well done!!

Happy Mothers Day

To all Mothers everywhere I apologize for not getting this adulation out earlier, however as you all know that balancing life with children in tow sometimes costs time.



This message of peace, happiness, joy and thanks goes out to all Mothers ,however there are a number of Mothers that will receive special attention, in no particular order.



Grandma Murphy, Tom's Mom, worked tired less and not without effort raising 7 , yes 7 children, sometimes referred to "my little Angels" and more often that not " My little devils".


Grandma Kay has always been available to help out any way she can. She does a tremendous amount of baby sitting and child watching. She has come to visit in India and even came all the way to Korea to see where her Grandkids were born. Recently she even hosted our sister Brigid's marriage to Dennis on her dock in Florida! She is currently in route back to Minnesota and while we are visiting she and Grandpa Jeremiah will celebrate their 50th Anniversary with all seven children, 5 in laws and 14 Grandkids. Happy Mothers Day Grandma Kay we love you!





Grandma Bunny, Tracy's Mom, was very busy raising three girls of her own. The girls were into all kinds of sports and now all have children of their own and live all over the globe. Bunny has come to visit us her in India and has countless times travelled to Costa Rica to visit Julie and her two kids. Grandma Bunny and Grandpa Jim spend the summer in Michigan and get to see Tammy and her kids there. She as well as Grandma Kay came to Korea to see where our kids were born and even snuck Tom several bags of much needed M&M's. Grandma Bunny and Grandpa Jim are currently preparing to travel to Minnesota so they can visit us while we are there. For all you do, Happy Mothers Day and we love you Grandma Bunny!





Mommy, I have to go poopy! Mommy I have to go PeePee, Moomy where is my BEBE, TRACY!!! All common phases around our house. No matter that Tracy is up most days by 6:00 and off to the gym to train for the MS150, (she is still taking pledges) then gets the kids school lunch packed, then breakfast then out the door to work and not home again until 9:00 most nights, We sometimes just can't give her a minute rest!





She has risen to the level of Director, started a women in Power program to enable women her to realize their inner strenght and demand more respect and acknowledgement for the roles and contributions not only in a their job but in their society as well.


Meanwhile she has provided us with a life experience that is well... awesome.The chants of GO Mommy Go will heard not only in South India but the south Metro of Minneapolis and St.Paul as well when Tracy completes yet another MS150 and yet another year of being the worlds greatest Mom.

We need to do a special call out and mention to the other Mom's in our lives that made it possible for us to parent....

The kids birth Moms gave us the biggest gift you could ever give. They gave us love, life and the hope of a bright future for our kids. I cant imagine having the strength to do this, but we are eternally grateful that they found this strength in themselves. They are in our prayers everyday.

Our Foster Mom's are another incredible group of Moms. They cared for our kids in the early/hardest days of their life. They experienced the sleepless nights, crying and general tentativeness that comes with caring for a tiny new born baby. They did this KNOWING that these kids would grow up in a different family far far away from their care. Unbelievable courage and selflessness

We Thank God for you ALL and We love you "Mom"!!

Happy Mothers Day

The Good,The Bad and the Baby

Saravana and Sunita announced the birth if their 'girl baby" on Monday the 28th of April. We went to visit and Kay and Billy were totally enamored by the baby and could not leave her alone.

The baby is now living at Sunita Mother's house for the next 4 months and then booth baby and Mom will move back to Saravana's home. There will be a big party and naming ceremony the first week of July so look for that blog then!!

The couple are doing great and are a both very happy, which is good.

The bad news is that Saravana has decided to no longer work for Target thus he will not be our driver anymore. We have been blessed over the past 19 months with him taking care of us and we will really miss him. He took care of the kids, always lent a helping hand when we needed him.

He will find a new job soon and we will still be in contact with him so wish him good luck!

The Bangalore Bunch (sung to the tune of The Brady Bunch)

This is the story, of a clan named Murphy, who were bringing up 3 very active kids.
All of them had hair of brown, from Korea, the youngest one Balu.

This is the story, of a pack of Marstons, who were bringing up 3 dogs of their own.
They were 5 souls, living all together, and they were very calm.

Then the one day when the Murphy’s met the Marstons, and we knew it was much more than a hunch, that this group must somehow form a family, that’s the way we all became the Bangalore Bunch.

The Bangalore Bunch (dam dam da)
The Bangalore Bunch (dam dam da)
That’s the way we all became the Bangalore Bunch!


As you can guess and see from the photos, there are a few additions to our family (for a few days). We volunteered to dog sit for Andi and Mike’s dogs for the long holiday weekend.

Mooti (Hindi for fat) and Chunk (from my favorite movie The Goonies) are bulldogs and Walter a pug (no idea where his name comes from but it fits him and he does look a bit like Walter Mathial).

The kids have been SO excited about this weekend for weeks.They wanted to name the dogs themselves and were disappointed when they learned the dogs already had names. Then, they allocated them out (as good merchants would) so that each kid has one dog “my dog”. We had to keep reminding them that the dogs were going home in 4 days and they weren’t ours “forever and ever”.

Each morning you could see and hear up tramping down the street, each dog with one kid. Jimmy was up at 6:00am each day to see "his" dog. He was so enamored with them that we'd find him sleeping in the guest room just to be close to the dogs.

The dogs met all our friends, went on 16-20 "walks" a day and were basically celebrities for the weekend. I think they'll be glad to get home. But... it was a really fun way to spend a long weekend at home. The kids loved it!!! Thanks Andi, Mike, Chunk, Mootie and Walter!!!!