Fit for a princess....

I'm a person who need projects...

Not like boring type of projects, but personal and creatives ones which makes me happy. It takes a lot of my time but somehow it doesn't leave me exhausted.

Currently, Lan and I are redecorating the second level of our house. When we first bought the place 6 years ago, we were on a very tight budget and only spent on necessity. The  downside of buying a corner house means we needed to shell out double on grills and window treatment, and with a toddler and twin babies we just wanted a livable space. Having a home straight outta Homes and Living magazine was not a priority (and mainly because we can't afford it haha)

Along the years, we've made tiny changes to our space. I'm pretty happy with how my first floor looks like at the moment. My next project is to set out a room for Iman and Ranya. Currently the twins are sharing a room with Ryan, since they're turning 6 and Ryan 8 soon, we don't think it is appropriate for the munchkins to share a room and I'm sure Ryan would be needing his privacy very soon . The room that are meant for the girls, have been acting as my walk in and some sort of a store room for the past 5 years. You can imagine the junks we've accumulated. 

During the Thaipusam weekend, I've managed to clear up my clothes and moved it into our newly decorated Masters Bedroom. I tell you, after 4 days of sifting and arranging clothes, I told myself I never wanna buy anything ever again. I HAVE SO MUCH JUNK. Like why do I ever need PVC leggings for? I wonder how long my new resolution gonna last, and all those". Your shopping cart misses you, please come back email" is not really helping. 

Anywayyyyyy.... It has been a slow process clearing up the room, I'm at about 60% done and now at that stage where I'm stuck trying to figure out should I throw away all the babies clothes, walker etc or should I keep them. So while trying to figure out my arah tuju kehidupan, I've been busy searching for ideas to decorate the twins room

My current Pinterest mood board. I'm attracted to this simple pastel decors which hopefully will last until the girls are a bit older. No overly princessy character theme rooms for my babies. I'm giving myself a 3 months timeline, hopefully we'll be able to finish this project before puasa. Wish me luck!!!

Project Birthday 2016 : Ryan's Birthday (201216)

From no posting to double postings in a day? You can imagine the kind of mood I'm in especially if I'm at my desk during lunch blogging :p

For Ryan's birthday we decided to go with Star Wars. Seeing that he's 7, I don't go want to go overboard with the deco. Ain't cool yo!!

I used Ryan's Darth Vader, Storm-trooper mask and Death Star Replica and lined it on the stairs for effect. I also printed some Star Wars inspired posters from online. How awesome that even though not a single cent was spend on all this, the look on my baby boy's face when he came down the stairs was as if I spend a million. Ryan was super happy with his little surprise. 

We bought some brownies from Secret Recipe and Banana Cake from Lavender to share with his friends @ Transit. Since Lan and I was not on leave on his birthday, we decided that it will be fun for Ryan to celebrate with his friends instead. He can't stop thanking me that evening. 

We went out on a family dinner that night, we told Ryan to choose his fave restaurant and he opted for Nando's of all things. Fine by me :) As long as he's happy, I'm happy.

This little boy accomplished so much in 2016, I pray that he'll continue to thrive and be happy always inshaallah. I love you so much abang, please always remember that.

Birthday wishes from Atuk. 

Project Birthday 2016 - Iman & Ranya's Birthday Celebration (121216)

I plan to blog more this year. For some reason I feel saner after I write, even on the most mundane stuff. As a start I shall start recording the "important events"  like birthday celebration, holidays and school stuff  that I've missed blogging about. A good reminder of things to be thankful about. 

Initially, Lan and I was not even planning to have any elaborate birthday celebration for the kids. We just wanted to opt for a simple dinner. However, my inner party fairy took over and we decided to throw a small get together on the twins birthday. At 7pm the night before, we were rushing around to get cake and deco's. I put a limit of RM30 on deco and surprisingly everything turned out beautiful. The twins wanted something "princessy and pink" - obviously. My deco job was made even simpler with all the princesses and pink stuff strewn around the house.

We bought a small cookies and cream cake from Baskin Robbins and I stuck a RM2 birthday banner from the cake shop. The tinfoil balloons cost RM3.90 each and the dolls, tiaras and castle is from Iman and Ranya's toy box. 

The cake stands are leftovers from the twins "early" birthday celebration in TCAZ sometime in November. I made it from some Styrofoam, wrapping paper and felt. The idea came from watching some cake making programme on AFC on dummy cakes. Took me about 15 minutes to assemble each stand. I got a lot of compliments on it despite the minimal effort. Goes to show that you do not need to spend loads of money to get awesome results. Just a tiny bit of creativity. 

The twins gorgeous princess dresses is courtesy of Atuk. Iman and Ranya were so happy, they can't stop smiling all day. I guess it is most little girls dream, to be able to dress in gorgeous dresses and tiara. I'm so glad that we were able to make the twins dream come true. 

I'm so blessed to have them. 

A big credit goes to Lan. When most guys won't even bother with all this little party details, he came with me to get the deco's and food preps and was even on chef duty minding the BBQ all day.  Best daddy ever. Alhamdullilah

Big thanks to my parents, my sis and bro in law and the twins Cik Thirah, Cik Nani and Maksu for celebrating with us. Despite being a small celebration, we all had so much fun. 

The twins birthday wish from Atuk. Saving this for them, hopefully they get to read this one day and realized how loved they are by many :) Love you Iman and Ranya, may you'll be blessed by Allah always....

Goodbye 2016 and Welcome 2017

2016 - The highs and lows

2016 is ending soon. It has been a pretty bittersweet year. There's plenty of good things but a considerable amount of confusion, disappointment and heartbreak thrown in the mixed too. I guess that's just life...

Anyway we managed to do quite a bit of road trips to different location this year, starting from PD (with the in laws), Penang, Cameron Highlands (with my parents) and Morib. Alhamdullilah after 2 years of waiting (long story) we managed to have our winter wonderland trip to Korea early December 2016. It was a fun trip for the children and I enjoyed myself too.Will post pics and travel tips in my travel blog soon (yeah right). Travelling with small children is quite an adventure, stress inducing too but we insist on doing it anyway....

Ryan, Iman and Ranya have been doing well too. They've acquired new skills during the past months and have become more independent. I'm so proud of the 3 of them and all their progress. Plenty of things to improve too especially on my parenting habits and the kids listening skills but that will be a continuous work.

Academically, Ryan have had a good year in both sekolah agama/kebangsaan. Alhamdullilah, he managed to maintain in the top 5 position throughout the year. We also managed to keep to our resolution to be "relax" when it comes to school. We made sure that his homework are done, do simple verbal revision on a weekly (sometimes monthly) basis and also enrolled him in football and swimming classes. Ryan being a boy (and due to his sensory issues) has an attention span of a gnat. 

The sports activities helped him release his pent up energy which allows him to concentrate better. Very rarely will we ask him to study in the morning, what I'll usually do is let him run around the garden until his energy is at manageable level, after which I will start tutoring him. So far it have worked quite well :) We've had a blessed year and for that I am grateful. 

But with the smiles, will come the tears too. I recently went through a loss, I was quite heartbroken about it but what doesn't kill you will make you stronger, kan? Inshallah Allah knows best. 

Here's to hoping for a better year and the will to start writing regularly again. 

Must be old age....

Selamat Hari Raya 2016

What do you know, it is already the second last day of Ramadan. Last day of working until my one week Hari Raya leave. Gosh I can't wait.So sick and tired of office already :p

Anyway, I would like to take this opportunity to extend my apologies for any of my wrongdoings which are done intentionally or by accident.Selamat Hari Raya and Maaf Zahir dan Batin. I wish all of you a happy and joyous celebration with your loved one. Take care and safe travel. Au revoir!!!

Loadsa love hugs and kisses.
Muhammad Azlan Ab Malek
Farhanna Mohd Hanif
Muhammad Ryan Daniel
Iman Khadeeja
Ranya Fatimah

A million things to be grateful for....

I cant believe I went through another month without blogging, especially on my favorite month, May being my birthday month and all :p There was a period of time when I can't go a week without at least an entry. Nowadays weeks can go by without a single update.

Some people would probably concluded that the writer's block is mostly contributed to the fact that I have nothing interesting to write about. I'm fully aware that 95% of my blog entries/Instagram and FB posting are about my kids.. Actually plenty of "interesting" things is happening @home and at the work front. Not all particularly positive. I guess my need to filter those happenings does limit postings :p Whatever...

Anyway I had a great birthday celebration. Nothing fancy, I watched movies with the kids, ate ice cream and had fish and chips for lunch. What I've come to appreciate is that though I may not necessary have the "big" things, I am thoroughly blessed with the little things. I just need to be continuously grateful :) Alhamdullillah. 

Accepting that, makes me easier to please. Even the sight of my tomato plants blooming can put me in a good mood for the whole day. Ahhhh.... the joy of being older and wiser (haha like real)

Anyway there's another thing to be grateful of today....

Alhamdullilah for another chance to celebrate Ramadan. May I become a better Muslim than I was yesterday. I'm aiming to make small but consistent change for the better. Semoga Istiqamah. Wishing everyone a blessed and fruitful Ramadan. Inshaallah :) 

Life is a Beach...

It's is Friday evening and the LONG weekend is just around the corner. Obviously I'm in no mood to work anymore. Productivity is outta the window.

Not going anywhere far this weekend. I think I've used up my "jalan-jalan" quoata for the first half of the quarter :) Inshallah major travel plans end of this year, so we're saving up and preparing for that trip. Praying hard that the preparations goes well.

Sometimes, it is nice to just stay home and do nothing, especially during weekends. Days are just too hectic of late. I feel there were times when I do everything at once but enjoying none, I'll just end up feeling stressed out at the start of the week, which is so counter productive for me.

So this weekend I plan to take it easy with some just some plans with family and friends. Other than that I plan to stay home and slug around :p Check out the blog updates of our trip to Port Dickson and Penang. Both road trips was to the beach. I guess you can call 2016, the year of the "beach holidays"- Like real, especially since it was just this two trips so far :p

But our little family do have a preference for the sun, sea and sand that is why we always end up going back for more. Alhamdullilah for the opportunity to spend time with my love ones. May we are blessed with more rizq to see the world together...

Road Trip 1.0 : Port Dickson
Road Trip 2.0 : Penang Island 

H O M E M A D E

One of my main concerns about Ryan and school is RECESS TIME. Other mother's worry about exam results and I worry about food. Talk about priorities ;p 

After seeing him having to fight for the makcik canteen attention on the first week of school, I vowed to prepare Ryan's bekal for both sekolah agama and sekolah kebangsaan. So far I've managed to fulfill this self impose torture 95% of the time (haha). 

I didn't bother with the elaborate Bento lunches because :-

1. It won't survive the journey from home- transit- school 

2. My boy eats very little and I do not want to waste with 6 varieties of fruits and veges 

3. I'm lazy :p

I will usually cook the night before and reheat the dishes in the morning

 I love sandwich cutters. It will make an otherwise boring meal look super interesting :) 

On the days when I'm busy or lazy, I will just throw in some ready made waffles, pound cakes or fruits into his lunch box . We still give Ryan pocket money, so the idea is for him to always have food in case he didn't get the chance to buy from the canteen

One thing that kept me going is Ryan's reaction, He always has something nice to say about the food that I packed for him, which makes the hassle worth it. Just imagine in 2 years I'll be preparing 3 sets of lunches *faint*

Things that matter Part IVV

As much as I hate to think about it, I know there will come an inevitable time when we won't be receiving sweet birthday postings from my dad anymore. I hope and pray that Allah grants my parents and parents in law a long and healthy life (InshaAllah) but in the meantime, I make it a habit to document this sweet messages for Ryan, Iman and Ranya's reading later on. 

The 3 of you are so loved by the people around you. Don't ever forget that and always be grateful. Love you babies....

 Print screens from Atuk Hanif's FB for Ryan's 6th Birthday (201215) and Iman and Ranya's 4th Birthday (121215)

Just one of those days...

At this moment, I just want to go home, crawl into bed and pull the comforter up my head. Work is such a chore sometimes, actually I've been having more and more "home withdrawal syndrome" of late. Maybe it is a sign? A sign for what? I'm not sure myself....

I know I just came back from Port Dickson, but I am in a desperate need for another holiday :) #drama

Hotel and food review of our Johor Trip on December 2015 is finally up. Hopefully, will be able to blog about our PD trip real soon. 

• Foodpedition Johor
• Hotel Review: Somerset Hotel
• Hotel Review: Legoland Hotel

Whatever, enough ramblings for the day. Have a good weekend everyone...

Ryan's First Day of School 2016

Technically we're already in our 3rd week of January 2016 but I'm not gonna miss the chance of updating my blog on one of my babies biggest milestones - Ryan starting standard one :)

Alhamdullilah all went well... Ryan is making the transition quite smoothly and we're slowly getting use to the new schedule and activities. It is a bit hectic for me, having to do a bit more in terms of supervising homework and even having to start preparing daily bento boxes (that is another story for another post) but I'm going to preserver. Anyway, you want to know what I find weird? I did not see a single kid crying while sending to his sekolah agama and kebangsaan. I guess most of the kids are already used to the experience having joined preschool before. 

So much is happening at the moment, some good but most pretty testing. I'm just praying that Allah will give me patience to go through it all :) Have an awesome long weekend everyone...

November S.U.R.P.R.I.S.E

We decided to surprise the munchkins with a trip to Lost World of Tambun last month. We had to attend a wedding of a relative in Tanjung Malim, so I persuaded Lan to go for a quick road trip to Ipoh. Lan was hesitant at first because of the school holidays and the dreaded traffic jam, but he is no match to my power of persuasion :p

Anyway we had tons of fun the two days we're there. The kids did not stop thanking us on the way back which were very sweet, but being stuck in the traffic jam with them was not  fun, esp with the 3 of them refreshed from a long nap and bored to death inside the car haha.

Can't wait for Road Trip 2.0 (Birthday Edition) next week, InshaAllah. May god give me strength and patience to deal with the trio *yes I'm melodramatic like that*

For the ones who has been asking for review of the theme park and hotel, click on the links below for more information. Hope you'll have as much fun as we did :) 

• Lost World of Tambun
• Ipoh Foodpedition 
• Ibis Styles Hotel, Ipoh

Toodles!!!

Happy 4th Birthday Iman & Ranya (12 December 2015)

My babies is now 4 years old. Can't believe how fast time flies, such bittersweet moment for me to watch them grow but at the same time wanting to freeze time and protect them in my embrace forever *sobsob*

Since we already pre-celebrated their birthday with the kindy mates, I didn't want to have any big celebration done. The twins begged me for a cake to cut on their actual birthday, so we had a small celebration with my parents and our siblings in attendance. Of all the themes they can choose from, the twins decided on the one that is not easily available in Malaysian stores -> "Doc Mcstuffins". There's Minnie Mouse, Frozen, Sophia the First etc but noooo they had to choose Doc Mcstuffins. One of the sales assistant was like "who? what? Princess Elsa nak?" hahaha

I found a set of Doc party hat in GM for RM6 and that is it, no cups, no plates, no nothing. I don't want to spend a lot of money on the personalize ones online so I DIY 90% of the deco and cake.

The Deco: Super simple but the twins loved it. I used readily available table cloth and trinkets in my house to minimize spending and got some helium balloon from GM which cost a small fraction than if we were to purchase it in party shops. The twins were grinning from ear to ear, awesome how kids appreciate the simplest gestures...

The balloons came in the pack of 5, but Lan and I decided to only use 3 and keep the remaining two hehehe. Made the whole deco even more festive :) 

Ice cream cake made by moi. OMG I think I'll just bake the cake the next time. Don't get me wrong it tasted good and looks presentable, but it took me 2 days to complete the process and once it is out of the freezer, it melted within 10 minutes, so it was super messy. Thank god the twins loved the cake.

Clockwise: Party packs and birthday cake banner ( I designed the label myself and printed it out), store bought party hats and plain paper cups with Doc Mcstuffins stickers I bought for RM0.60 per sheet. So much cheaper than the paper cups ones sold online. A little creativity will bring you a long way :p

 Happy babies...

A hug and presents from Abang. They fight all the time, but they are fiercely protective of each other...

 Our tetamu terhormat :p 

Finally, Ranya got the Baby Alive she wanted. The twins received a pair of Nerf Guns, a makeup table (which Lan hated), new wardrobe for their Barbies, Princess Legos, Stationery set, a cash register and new bags for school. Alhamdulliah murah rezeki my babies....

Ohhh not forgetting the gift from their Pak Long : Their own giant bubble set to play with at home. I think we shall start our own giant bubble business at home after this. Hahaha

Alhamdullilah, thank you Allah for blessing me with these two angels. They have made me a better person and also made Lan and I better partners. Mummy, love you very much Iman and Ranya. I pray that you'll grow up into intelligent and solehah young women, who one day will change the world for the better, Inshaallah. Amin

TCAZ 2015 End of the Year Activities

I've been religiously collecting pictures of the munchkins from their kindy's page so that I can document it all in my blog. I'm sure one day they would love to see their old photos and in case there's no hard copy photos around, they can always rely on my blog *Inshaallah*

Warning: Picture heavy post. 

Little Spy Day : The 5-6 year old was given the task as "spies" to locate the kidnapped 4 year olds. They had to follow the clues provided by the teachers in order to complete their mission :)

Ryan as a spy

Iman and Ranya as kidnapped victims

Trip to KL Bird Park : A trip to learn about birds and its habitats. The children was also encouraged to bring their own camera, and a team of professional photographers was at hand giving the children lessons on how to aim and take pretty pictures. 

My babies together-gather. Last year where they'll be in the same school togather *sobsob*

Festival Kesenian dan Kebudayaan Islam Antarabangsa , Putrajaya : Ryan's trip under his Pra Tahfiz to observe artifacts on  Islamic cultures. There's a video of Ryan being interviewed by a TV crew, will try and extract it from FB and post it here. 

Toys Day Out: The children are encouraged to bring their own toys from home and play together with their peers. I was around during this exercise and I find it very interesting. A good lesson on sharing. 

Sambutan Hari Jadi Perdana November and December Babies: The school had a mega celebration for Nov-Dec babies before year end so that these children will be able to celebrate with their friends. My children insisted on birthday cake a month before their actual birthday and I obliged :p ( I'm a sucker for birthdays hehe). The look on Iman and Ranya's face is worth the trouble, they were so happy and excited. 

I got them cakes from Wondermilk and made the printouts myself. Happy that the kids liked it.

 There's 7 other kids celebrating together with my munchkins

My Babies!!!

Alhamdullilah for a good learning year :) May Allah grant us with more learning opportunity and beneficial knowledge 

Photos credit :TCAZ FB Page.