Never buckle your kids car seat their winter jacket on , check this post to know why !

Happy Holidays everyone!. With awesome weather in Austin a light jacket like this for $10 U.S. Polo Assn. Boys' Cut and Sewn Fleece Hooded Jacket would be good for kids now.

Car safety is a very serious thing, especially in  the United States, where the speed limits are high and accidents are very common. With the growing crowd in Austin and the traffic on freeway/highway, we see at least one to two accidents per day.

During winter we always make our kids wear their jackets before we get them on the car. Buckle their car seats thinking it is tight and safe. I have done that many times myself. After watching the below video, I am really surprised as to how wrong it is.

Even if the car crash happens at 30 mph speed, it would cause enough damage to the kid. Also I see that my kids are very uncomfortable to sit in the car seat with their jackets on. May be it is a good idea to remove their jackets and buckle them up. In Austin it might not be that difficult to do it compared to places with below 0 degree temperature.

Whatever might be the reason , keep this in mind when you take your kids, as shown on the video we can cover the jacket on the kid or even use a blanket.

Have a safe and happy holidays !. Please share your thoughts on this.

Water Water everywhere !!!

Happy Holidays !!. It feels so good to drive home seeing all the beautiful lights around the city. The holiday spirit is seen everywhere and I like this season. I am pretty sure all of  you are looking forward to the break.

As I was going through Groupon deals this morning, I thought about today's topic. It is not about the Chennai floods, but about something that every Indian who came to the US would have gone through. When I first came to the US, the restrooms and the bath tub in US was something totally new to me.I think many of us would have went wrong with using  the shower curtains for the first time and filled the restroom with water. I was not very happy using the toilet paper either  but eventually got used it it.

When my parents and in-laws visited us for the first time, the biggest thing that  they had to adjust to, apart from all the other things in a new country was the restrooms. This is a very common problem which many of us have gone through but we hardly discuss about it.

I asked some of my friends about what they did , and they said they gave their parents the flush able wipes from Costco. I did the same too. But still my I could see water everywhere in my restroom now and then. It is very clear that at that that age it is very  difficult for our parents to changes things that they have been doing all these years.

When we bought our house the first thing that my father in law mentioned after asking some of his friends, who apparently mentioned that their son/daughter provided a water pipe in the restroom for them in the US , he urged us to get it done. Our builder was not ready to do it. We wanted to fix one but eventually forgot.

Years passed by until I heard about this product Bio Bidet simple Bidet attachment. It is very simple to attach and very convenient to use.It has amazing reviews and also there is a great deal in Groupon for just $24.99. Biodet Groupon deal. Hurry this is a limited time offer . I think this is a great product and will help us to feel more clean.

Since some of you asked me on how to install this check this video :

The best part about this is, you can save so many trees and also the cost of toilet papers in your family's budget.After seeing this, I think my father in law who has not visited us for nearly two years might make a trip soon.

Please do share your experience about this product, good and bad. It will be very good to know.

Five interesting places in Austin to host a birthday party for kids!!

Trail of lights 2015 in Austin Zilker park is a spectacular show of lights. Make sure you take cash when you go, ferry's wheel ride is $6 per person and the horse ride for kids is $4 per rider.We took a Zip pass which is $15 /person and free for kids below 5 years. Check this out for information on tickets Special tickets. We parked near Stratford since it was not closed that day, it is better to get the $15 parking online so that you can park near the park and walk.In general for any information on Trail of lights check this website Trail of Lights FAQ.

Being parents of 2 young kids, we attend birthday parties almost every weekend. We hosted our kids 1st birthday party in a community hall. As they turn 2 or 3 it is better to host it in a more fun place. If it is summer, we can host it in a  park, but during these cold months we are forced to have in indoors. Usually the most famous ones are Chuck E cheese, check this post I wrote sometime back Chuck E Cheese , Pump it up , Little Gym. Check out this deal with Austin Aquarium , we have been thinking to take our kids here for a while now Austin Aquarium, they also have a special deal for hosting birthday parties there. I would like to write about 5 places that we went last year :

1) Hoppin House : This is in South Austin. We had our kids birthday party this year at Hoppin House. Their service was extremely  good and they made sure everything went on smoothly. The best part I liked was that they gave us a fridge magnet with the picture of the kids who attended the party. It is a nice thing to look back when all the kids are grown ups. Check here for more information Hoppin house.

2) Thinkery: I think most of you know about this place if you are in Austin. My kids love going to this place, just that we dont have time to take them more often. Best thing about attending birthday party here is that the rest of the day after the party is free. Check one of my post about this place  about it Thinkery also for more information about this place check here .

3) Foodie-Kids: This place is in Far West Blvd. My son was invited to a birthday party here and he enjoyed making pizza and cup cake . It is like a 1 hr cooking class for kids and it is a lot of fun. To know more about this place check here Foodie Kids

4) Book People: This is a good place to host younger age birthday party.They read a book to all kids and let them color personalized sheets and also do a craft with the kids. My kids had fun here. To know more about this place check here Book People.

5)Champions West Lake : This is a GYM kind of place, kids had a blast along with an instructor. I liked that they also let kids to learn balance and showed them some new tricks. Check out here to know more Champions.

As I went through the Evite list, I realized that we have been to many parties and enjoyed everyone of them.  Thanks to all our friends for having us. I know the amount of time and money we spend on making sure everyone has fun. Also if there are other locations that are not well known to everyone leave them as a comment here. I am planning list them under the Cities  tab in my homepage so it will benefit others. Have a nice rest of the week.

Chennai floods relief fund

Hope all of you are doing good. If any of you are looking to get Sam's club member ship there is a good deal on Groupon for first time or for people who are not Sam's club member in past 6 months. Sam's club membership for  $25.

Most of us know about the Chennai floods. It is heart breaking to see the videos on NEWS ,Face Book and Twitter. A lot of mixed emotions ran through my mind seeing all this.I have lived in that city for 22 years and has never seen such a disaster. How did all this happen ? These are some of the reasons that I think could have contributed:

1)People from different parts of Tamil Nadu come to Chennai due to IT expansion and hence its population drastically increased in the past few years
2) That lead to land scarcity for people to live so more lake and low level areas being converted to multi story apartments.
3) Concrete everywhere and no open space  for water to be absorbed by soil.
4) No proper drainage system to channelize water from reservoir during rainy season
5) People who dont follow any rules and corrupted government.
6)Every time when people violated rules they never realized it would come back to bite them.

This video is thought provoking :

I dont think we can fix all the damage already done. We have to just hope that the city gets back to the state where it was before. There are so many NGO's and other go fund me links https://www.gofundme.com/mvc.php?route=search&page=3&term=chennai+flood set up to donate money.

I have done my part please do contribute some money to help them if possible. Also there are many initiatives started but the various Tamil Sangam across US . Below are some of the initiatives to collect money for Tamil relief fund:
Austin : http://www.suvaiindiankitchen.com/ - Their website says "Dine with us and we Send 100% Proceeds For Chennai Food Relief Dec 6 Sunday, All day. & 25% discount on entire order".

Houston:  You can donate through Greater Houston Tamil school at their website http://houstontamilschools.org/ and donate through paypal

Bay Area Tamil Mandram : Bay area Tamil Manram is collecting funds through this paypal link  http://tinyurl.com/huxwkgz

Sacramanto Tamil Mandram : They are collecting money through this paypal link http://www.sactamil.org/jmain/index.php/tamil-nadu-flood

Las Vegas Tamil Mandram: You can donate through this link http://www.vegastamils.org/Home.aspx

Arizona Tamil Sangam : You can donate here http://www.azindia.com/donatefor.aspx?id=21610&donate=donate

It is so heartening to see so many Tamil organisations collecting money for this cause.Please check your local Tamil Organisation and help the people in need. Also if you know of more organisations please add it to the list.