After our kabob appetizers, were were allowed to go and get whatever we wanted at the buffet, but we were literally all STUFFED from just the appetizers. Plus almost all the food at the buffet was Indian and none of us were much in the mood for more Indian food – so to the dessert bar we went. India has some very different desserts than what we are used to in America so we got a few of each thing to try. The favorite dessert for most of the kids ended up being an icy, milky type dish with jello like chunks in it. I wasn’t super impressed with it, but Ad and the boys thought it was DELICIOUS! The below desserts weren’t much of a hit though. The balls were very very soggy but at least had a nice taste, but the orange things just tasted like straight sugar. I didn’t really care for them and they didn’t even seem to be a big hit with the kids. Adam says they were like “prezels made out of sugar.”
When the staff learned that we were at the restaurant to celebrate Bransons birthday they asked us to wait a moment and then came out with this beautiful birthday cake with Bransons name on it. Then they took a pretty identical picture to this one and within minutes had it framed in a “Black Pearl” frame so that Brans could take it home and remember his special day. It was really so nice. They also sang him Happy Birthday with their darling Indian accents! It made Bransons day!
After lunch we had to drop Adam off at work and then we had a swim party with our good friends the Blairs at our apartment pool. Unfortunately I was a dodo head and totally spaced taking my camera and didn’t get any pictures but the kids had a blast playing together in the water and making up their own games. The Blairs were on a tight schedule though seeing as Wendi’s Mom and sister were coming in from the U.S. that night and they had a lot to get ready for that, but we felt really blessed that they would make time in their busy day to come out and see us. Thanks Wendi, Tyler, Jillian, and Griffin! You guy are awesome!
Afterwards the kids and I headed out for dinner at the forum mall where Branson wanted a tuna fish Subway sandwich. Love this boy and how easy he is to please. Normally I make a meal for the kids birthday dinner, but because I still haven’t found ingredients that I’m used to cooking with yet, cooking has been nearly impossible for me to do. So mostly we just eat a LOT of fruit and cut up veggies at home. It works.
Since we were already in the mall and since entertainment in India is SO cheap, we also decided to hit up the local arcade. I ended up buying a “pass” for $10 that put so many points on a card and you used your card (instead of tokens) to play the games. It was a pretty cool system and it even kept track of any “tickets” you earned from playing games – that you could trade in for small toys with later. Ingenious system!
The highlight for Branson though was that he played a “win tickets” game where you could pull a lever on what looks like a huge gambling machine and wherever the dial landed you’d get that number of tickets. You an see Brans touching the machine in the below picture. The first time Brans pulled it he won 10 tickets. The second time he pulled the lever though he ended up winning 1000!!! The highest amount you could get! He was beyond excited and it made his whole birthday to win that many points! This also allowed him to cash in at the end of the night and get a pretty sweet prize. He ended up picking out a pottery painting kit, and then got a couple spiderman folders for his brothers.
