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*