Riang Ria Aidilfitri 2014 (Part 2)

2 Syawal 1435 (29 July 2014)

We arrived at Lan's kampung to visit his grandparents in Felda Soeharto at around 7pm. Pretty much ate yummy food and laze around the compound to wait for my in laws to arrive on Tuesday before heading home.

The kiddies watching one of Lan's uncle "kait rambutan". So much fun eating rambutan freshly picked from the trees. All this while they only see the fruits readily packaged in the hypermarket or pasar malam. So this is a whole new experience for them.

Gorgeous flowers, ripe rambutan and mangosteens (not in the picture) and mata kucing starting to ripen. Super fruity heaven :)

The munchkins having breakfast outdoors while enjoying Nek Nyang's awesome cooking :)

My gorgeous princesses

3- 4 Syawal 1435 (30-31 July 2014)

Time to visit my hometown in Malacca *yeay* We left mid morning and arrived Alor Gajah around noon. Visited my mum's siblings and crashed in Merlimau for the night. Ryan and my parents stayed an extra day. My little boy did not even bat an eyelash leaving mummy behind because he's surrounded by his adoring uncles & aunts -__-

The drive to Malacca was a pleasant one because all 3 munchkins slept the whole way (haha)

Anyway, it was so much fun hanging around with my not so little cousins :) Though I felt a bit sad seeing nenek's house all run down, as I have a lot of sweet memories there growing up, but I guess with everyone living their own lives elsewhere and nenek no longer around, it really can't be helped.....

 I super loved the twins dresses by Poney. 

It is so like something I would wear during my pre hijab days hehe

Muka penat beraya

 The Merlimau clan- minus some :p

 Cheeky Ryan

The munckins with their rockstar : Atuk :p

The rest of our Raya was spent in Klang visiting my relatives and chilling out. The kiddies also received a new raya gift from mummy and daddy which they are currently obsessed with (hehe this call for another entry all together) Anyway it has been a blessed and superfun Raya so far. Alhamdullilah. I can't wait for the upcoming weekend for more family fun *inshaAllah*

Note: For the first time in 3 years I managed to upload my Raya pics early, mostly due to the fact that I've ditched my bulky DSLR for a more compact camera :) Will do a gadget review soon (or not) Till next time. Adios Amigos!!!

Riang Ria Aidilfitri 2014 (Part 1)

Warning: This is going to be a picture heavy post documenting our  Hari Raya celebration :) 

This year Aidilfitri is celebrated with a bit of a twist, due to some changes in traveling plans, for the first time in my entire life, I did not celebrate Raya morning with my parents *sobsob* though it was my idea (nominate me for sainthood, now) it still made me a bit moody for a bit :p It was also the first time where Ryan, Iman and Ranya spend the night in Atuk Malek's and Nenek J's house, obviously they were excited. 

The benefits of spending the night at Jalan Kebun is being able to experience the "kampung style" celebration again - rebus ketupat outdoors, gotong royong, takbir raya and baraan. So it was a good exposure for the little kiddies.

The last night of Ramadan (27 July 2014)

Ryan followed his atuk around kampung for takbir, he was excited as he's able to collect duit raya -__-  The highlight of the event is listening him learn takbir raya within hours and later leading the "doa makan" when the group came over my in laws house. It was so funny when after a confident recital of the doa in Arabic, he forgotten the translation and asked the "packik" in front of him "apa ah? Ryan lupa" *facepalm* At least I know he had fun :)

1 Syawal 1435 (28 July 2014)

Part 1: Jalan Kebun

 My darlings in their blue/silver themed bajus

 Princess Iman who's proving to be the most challenging of the three

 Photo session with the twins while waiting for everyone to come back from Raya prayers

 Group photos

 The many many failed attempt of taking a good and proper family portrait :p

Tengok tu Ryan boleh pulak nak stuck his tongue out *grrrrr*

Part 2: Jalan Tepi Sungai

We reached my parents house at 11am (hahaha) but the twins was already asleep, so we postponed the salam-salam session in the evening before we left for Perak

Seperti biasa the award for the most sincere raya apology goes to my husband which teared up my parents. Ranya even started wailing after a bit when she saw he grandma crying *apalaaaa*

 This budak naughty was also trained to properly minta maaf by his dad. His speech goes something like this "Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir dan batin, halalkan makan minum Ryan"

Hahah so cute Iman and Ryan bermaafan together :p

 Group pic *yeah*

Whateverlahhh semua dah moody and malas nak layan as we were already late to start our journey back to Tanjung Malim. Photos of our Raya in Perak and Melacca coming soon *inshaAllah*

In the meantime, Have a good week back at the office everyone (I'm suffering major Monday blues)

Salam Aidilfitri 2014

MasyaAllah I can't believe that we are already close to the end of Ramadan. Today is my last day at work before my Raya break starts tomorrow for 9 days *InshaAllah*

Anyway I would like to take this opportunity to wish my Muslim friends Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri. I would also like to seek forgiveness from everyone for my wrongdoings through my blog postings, social media entries, actions, perceived body language and words. At the same time I would also like to forgive anyone who have wronged me in any way (whether you want to admit it or not) haha... Kosong-kosong?? InshaAllah

I pray all of us will have a safe trip wherever it is we're going. Please don't text, IG, drink water, put on make up and drive. Haha this is more of a reminder to myself. Do have fun with your loved ones and cherish every moment possible because you really don't know if it will be your last.Please also take the time to pray for the well being of all the wounded and oppressed around the world as you're having fun in the comfort of your own home and in the arms of your family. Finally, jangan main mercun, please :)

Much Love,

Far,Lan, Ryan, Iman and Ranya

Small Actions, Big Impact

Between the last 20 days since I last wrote, so many events have taken place. The biggest event being the tragedy of #MH17 being shot down and the attacks on Gaza by the cursed Zionist. Admittedly these events does not affect me personally but for some reason I’m emotionally drained reading the news feed. I feel so exhausted and terrified.

Picture source from Google

What kind of world would I be leaving my children/grandchildren in the next 10, 20, or 50 years. I’m too scared to even imagine. But I believe wholeheartedly that one person can make a difference, though maybe not huge differences to the entire world or even my kampung (haha) but I can start with myself and the people around me.

First I’m gonna change my own mindset. I’m going to be more proactive and try and minimize my bad habits. I will educate myself and my family on the happenings around the world and find out how I can try and make it better. I’m going to be responsible for my actions; I shall try to behave as positively as I can, I shall not share irresponsible, unverified, hurtful news on social media. I will recycle more, plant more trees, avoid wastage and spend my money in a more responsible way (ok this is going to be the most difficult haha). I will try and give more and expect nothing in return. InshaAllah

I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror,  I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place Take A Look At Yourself, And Then Make A Change…

There are a lot of rants and complaints about the actions of  leaders, the Apek across the street or OTHER people in general, but all the talks made me think, WHAT HAVE I DONE TO MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE?? 

If I die tomorrow, what would I be remembered for? So rather than play the never ending blame game, I’m going to try to make MY WORLD a better place InshaAllah, maybe it is a tiny change but it is a change nonetheless, and I believe if everyone do this rather than spend so much energy bashing on other people, a lot of positive outcome will come out of it. InshaAllah

Remember everyone, a kind word of encouragement can make a difference to one who’s feeling as if the world is coming down on them, a sip of drink and a slice of bread is heaven to one who’s been starving for a week; RM1 is a blessing for one who does not have a single cent.

No grand gestures needed just small and kind actions......

Happy Ramadan!!!

My tiny bit of validation...

Last 2 weeks on the 21 June 201 was Ryan's Report Card day. I was nervous as hell despite him being only 5 years old :p I was imagining the worst case scenario but was of course praying for the best. Alhamdullilah my fears was unfounded because Ryan is doing very well in school.

According to his teachers he's thriving academically, emotionally, mentally and physically. Ryan is a very well mannered boy and listens to instruction well ( I'm mentally wondering why is this not applicable at home? haha) He's also very helpful and loves helping his teacher to clean up the classroom after playtime (How come kat rumah mummy kena jerit2 dulu baru nak kemas ye, abang?)

Academically he's on par with his peers despite of his phonological issues.He's been scoring perfect marks for the past 8 weeks for his Fun English assignments and is able to present in sentences rather than words as was expected for his class. Teacher Ana also said that he has improved on his speech and is not as pelat as last year *alhamdullilah* The best part is despite his limitations, it does not affect his self confidence as he will readily offer input during classes :) I'm so proud of this little boy.

This awesome little boy have also been fasting from 7.30am to 5.30pm for the past 2 days. It was such a huge surprise for me because we didn't ask him to do it, though I did explain to him the basics of Ramadan.  When I asked Ryan WHY he's doing it, his reply to me was "sebab semua orang puasa and Ryan nak masuk syurga dengan semua orang" MasyaAllah good enough of a reason for me, love. May Allah continue to bless his little soul :)

 Ryan acting as Imam during school solat time :)

 Picture a bit grainy because I copied it from his report card hehehe

My parenting journey has its ups and down, with Ryan being the first, he's a bit of a guinea pig to us and sometimes suffers from incompetencies and poor choices made on my part and Lan's. Maybe I over think sometimes but I'm constantly afraid that I'm not doing and giving enough attention, opportunities and care to my children so when I do get positive input from a third party it really meant a lot. At least I'm doing SOMETHING right :) 

We still have a longggggg journey ahead. Here's to hoping that we'll be making more positive choices in relation to parenting my 3 little angels *inshaAllah*

Salam Ramadan, everyone. May this Ramadan help us to become even better Muslims than yesterday :)

Let's get SARKY.....

I was googling for sarcastic birthday cards (becoz that is just the way I roll haha) and I stumbled into some of this "someecards" which totally matches  my feelings/mood at the moment....

You know posts like "Far is feeling empty, dejected and heartbroken" - Pastu when people ask them about it they'll go all "nothing, I'll be fine in a month...." Tapi dying for people to keep on asking sebenarnya :p

Ahhhh my fave. These people will post things like "thou shall not backbite and talk bad about your sisters as it is like eating their flesh etc" but in real life their fave past time is to back stab people left, right and center. My problem is they give people who is serious about "hijrah" a bad name. When you don't practice what you preach, you'll lose credibility that when you do talk about things that is proper dakwah. People may also ignore you sebab people just think everything coming out of your mouth is hypocrisy......

Hahaha yup some people just thrive for the drama, takde drama pun carik drama jugak. 

The only problem with the above is just because they LOVE the drama, they think everybody around them appreciates it too... Please leave me alone as I don't want to  co star in your straight to DVD c-rated productions.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh "friends" who'll be there for you when they need you :) and at the same time complaint that we never go out anymore because "you" did not call them. Marilah bersangka baik, maybe their phones only work ONE way......

Agree to disagree je boleh? and just respect the differences without resorting to further negativity, backstabbing, drama dan lain-lain seperti yang dibincangkan diatas.....

I can't control other people feelings and actions but I can control how I react towards it. Here's to hoping that I can react POSITIVELY towards them. Another thing to keep in mind is I can't control how other people think of me as it is not my problem anyway. So if people don't like me or the things I do it is THEIR problem and I should not waste my time thinking about.

Whatever,beaver!!!!

The one on Fire Station and Inherited Kiasuness

I love arts and crafts. It is just one of those things that I don't mind having to cleaned up the mess after. I can sit happily one whole day doing one of my creative projects: scrap booking, refurnishing old furniture, finger painting with the kids etc. 

So when I found out that Ryan is expected to build a 3d object as a part of his Parent-Child school holiday project, I totally jumped at the chance. I went online finding for inspirations (and at the same time practically hijacking the whole project -_-) In the end after a toss between a papier mache dinosaurs model from the Jurassic era and a fire station, the boss Ryan Daniel decided to go with "Fireman Sam's House " :p Mummy have to keep her "dry ice" volcano plans for next time (mak dia memang kiasu sikit haha)

First order of plan is to get Ryan to start drawing a "blueprint" for his fire station. To tell you the truth, I never plan my "creative projects". I'm more of a trial and error kinda girl and I tend to experiment a lot. This is of course not the trait that I would like my 5 year old baby to inherit, so I explained to  him my general plans and told him to draw his expectations on a piece of paper :) See?  a lesson on structure, something that his mummy struggle with until today hehe

:)

Next we collected 2 shoes boxes, tape, straw, alimium foil, milk cartoon, art blocks and started assembling his fire station and fire truck.  I did most of the assembling because again, the plan is mostly in my head and there's no way I would let Ryan play with sharp blades. Ryan helped me with the taping and wrapping.

I got this idea to build the fire truck after watching an episode of "Art Attack". So easy ok, parents should try it at home :) It took me less than 15 minutes to assemble this.

The next day while his little sisters were taking their afternoon naps, Ryan and I started painting the models. The painting was 80% done by Ryan, mummy just did some touch ups and I tried teaching  him some lessons about "shading" which he totally ignored.

After the paint has dried, we started assembling the "things that can be found in a fire station". We searched for pictures in accordance to the scale of our model and printed it out. Ryan later cut off the printout and started assembling and pasting it on his model.

Final product. Alhamdullilah. Ryan and I worked hard on this project and we're both so happy with the results. Thank god we didn't do some half way job because most of the other parents and children put in a lot of effort in their art work too. At least I know Ryan can stand tall and won't be embarrassed during show and tell.

 

Atuk also brought him to the Klang Fire Station so that he can have an idea on how a real life fire station looked like. Ryan enjoyed the trip and was so happy that he got to ride on a real fire truck :)

Thank you Mr. Fireman!!!not only are they busy saving lives and putting off fire but they also made this little boy felt so welcome with their hospitality that Ryan can't stop talking about his trip to  anyone who would listen.

Anyway, stay tune for next year, we shall see if mummy can find the energy and ideas to create not one but THREE models for all 3 children. Memang kena cuti seminggu la jawabnya nak buat :p I know some people would say "Alah, suruhla Lan buat satu" . I'll be like....

Not that I don't trust my husband's creativity (or lack of it hahaha) but I'm a too much of control freak to let that happen :p Sorry, B. You can clean up after we've made the mess if you want....

The one with a farm and skypark...

Gosh I can't believe that it is already June. Felt like we just celebrated new year. Next thing I know it would be December. Anyway Ryan is in the middle of his school holiday, we did not planned for any trip this time around, more like impromptu visits as and when the opportunity appears :)

Despite the school holidays, Iman and Ranya's timetable is pretty much the same. We still sent Ryan to kindy but signed him up for "Hafazan AlQuran classes" schedule on the second week of his holidays. I'm also scouting for other art/music classes to fill his time to avoid boredom on his end. On our end we try to find some fun activities for him to do at home during the weekends and not forgetting to start constructing his 3D model "homework" to be submitted on 16/06/2014. I don't know how I'll fare next year with 3 kids in pre-school *pengsan*

My parents and Ryan was away last weekend to attend a wedding in Perak. Lan, the twins and myself had to stay home because daddy was busy with work and can't take leave :p  When my parents came back from Perak my cousins Anis and Yanni tagged along, my mind started concocting plans for a quick trip to the petting zoo. Been wanting to visit "Farm in the City" since I first saw a bunch of pictures of people taking the trip there on Instagram. Managed to convinced Lan to make the last minute trip, dangling the fact that we have two extra babysitters at our disposal who can help distract Ryan (haha I'm horrible, I know) The fact that the farm is nearby also helped my case :)

It was a good trip. For more review and photos CLICK ME

We decided to checked out One City Skypark for lunch. I think the shops are not fully opened yet but they do have quite a variety of restaurants available. However, my cousins are not the adventurous type so we opted for Secret Recipe 

There's a huge checkers and snake and ladder board for some competition. Looks cool seeing people throwing giant dices around.

 Ryan and Maksu Yanni enjoying their desserts

The kiddos taking a walk on the skywalk. I was too chicken to walked on it. Gayat ok. Anyway I saw some makcik/amoi wearing jubah/skirts walking through this. Macam not appropriate kot sebab, people downstairs looking up may get a glimpsed of your undies. Given it is 10 level up but still........

 walking in the rain with my handsome fella. Thank god we always carry an umbrella in the stroller. The "ultraman" pose have taken over the "peace" sign thanks to pengaruh rakan sebaya. I think so anyway-lah since Lan and I don't really encourage watching the show at home.

Adik(s) was strapped safely in the stroller since it was drizzling. Abang got to walk about for a while since mummy wants to take photos. Hahaha anyway loved this shot of my little man.

So where to next? Can't wait to discover new places with my little munchkins.