Staff Retreat in Neemrana

Our school organizes a staff retreat each year, mostly for new faculty, but is also welcome to any faculty and families at the school.   We traveled a couple of hours outside of Delhi this past weekend into the rural area of Neemrana.  Amongst a very local village, our hotel was set along a hillside, and it was once an old fortress and palace.  The hotel was beautiful where each room was unique from the next.  Our room happened to be two floors, a bedroom and bathroom on each floor.  To get downstairs, there was a winding staircase with a long braided rope that reminded us of Rapunzel's hair hanging from the ceiling as something to hold on to as we made our way down the steep clay steps.

Much of our weekend was spent with other families from the school around the pool.  Justin and I also went zip-lining through the hillside.  We also took a great family hike through the countryside to the step well where locals once collected their supply of water long ago.  We walked the stairs to the bottom and admired the architecture of the old building and the birds.  During our hike to and from the well, we also came across lots of wildlife.  Some of the highlights were camels, peacocks, cows, and piglets (the girls loved them the most).

On Saturday, we attended a dance show at the hotel where Indian dancers performed by balancing objects on their heads and interacted with the crowd; we even had flower petals sprinkled on each of our heads during the show.  The girls loved the show and are really embracing all that they can learn about the Indian culture.

Another photo album by Smilebox

First Day of School - 2016

Today was officially the first day of school at our new school.  Kaelia is now entering in to 1st grade, and Taelyn is in 2nd grade.  They both had wonderful days, meeting their teachers and getting to know new friends.  Kaelia's teacher is Ms. Ruebush, and Taelyn has Mr. Rob - both of which seem to very nice fits for each of our girls.

At the end of the day, both girls were all smiles with positive energy and information to report.  Kaelia said she played with a new friend named Sasha while Taelyn said she has a new best friend (already) but couldn't remember her name.  Taelyn also reported that there is boy at her table who "cares very deeply" about making sure his paint colors to do mix with one another.  The best part of the day, however, was apparently lunch.  Both girls loved the lunch and can't wait for tomorrow when they get frozen yogurt.