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. 

The one where my baby graduated (from kindy but still....)

With just a blink of an eye, it is already December 2015, so much good stuff have happened for the past few months and I shall proceed to blog about it all before the end of the year.

Date: 25 October 2015 (Sunday)

Venue: Crystal Crown Hotel, Klang

Occasion: Ryan's Graduation Day and Iman and Ranya's Talent Day

After 3 years in Tadika Ceria Az-Zahrah, my baby boy has graduated and will be starting standard one next year, Inshallah. He have grown and developed so much and I'm super proud of him Alhamdullilah...

1. Ryan is now able to speak in a more eloquent and less "pelat" manner.
2. He's more comfortable speaking in English and I've seen him use more complicated sentences of late (rather than his usual 2-3 words structure).
3. He's able to independently read his Iqra' textbook, memorize 12 short surah and the first 18 ayat of Surah Yassin.
4. He's able to remember all the actions for all 5 waktu for prayers, we still need to work on his recitations of course. 
5. He's able to read quite fluently in BM *yeay*
6. He's able to understand simple Math's concept (numbers, more-less, big-small etc). He's also quite good with additions (both on paper and mental calculation). 
7. He has awesome geography skills (at least for a 6 year old). He is starting to appreciate the differences between state and country :) He knows for example that New York is in US, Kyoto and Tokyo is in Japan and London is in England. 
8. Ryan love drawing. We got him a sketchbook which he call it his "game book". He will draw his Superheroes, battle plans and maps and pretend that it is a part of "video game".
9. He's able to float and swim for a few short strokes. He's a bit rusty, hopefully we'll be able to synchronized our timetable and get swimming lessons back in our roaster early next year
10. He have become quite a "Master Builder" and is super obsessed with Lego. A hobby that I encouraged. 

As much as we're happy that he's thriving academically, I'm more excited about his emotional, mental and physical development. It is no secret that I'm a huge supporter of "learning through play" and I credit Ryan's improvement in relation to his phonological issues based on the play activities that was conducted at home and his school. Alhamdullilah, we made the right choice in choosing TCAZ for Ryan and his sisters. I admit we don't see the development in 3Ms instantly unlike the more "academic" schools but what I do see is this...

Not only does he have the ability to READ, but there is the love of READING,

He not only know how to COUNT but what COUNT most...

We can't thank the teacher's enough for their dedication. Hopefully Iman and Ranya will also benefit from the school, Inshallah.

Muhammad Ryan Daniel was awarded the Anugerah Mutiara Putera 2015 for his developments and achievement this year. Alhamdullilah he won the special award two years in a row :)

My handsome boy confidently leading the ikrar, My heart burst with pride as a mother who watched him struggle to speak properly 3 years ago. 40% of his development can be attributed to the teachers and family support but I will say the rest he did himself. One of the most determine person I know (adults included :) )

Reciting Surah Yassin as a part of his Pra Tahfiz performance

Play acting the life of a "Turkey Boy"

Princess Ranya who had a meltdown earlier but quickly bounce back and gave the performance of her life :p

My Bollywood Princess Iman, who can't get over the fact everyone was clapping after she and her friend did the cute Indian dance head bopping thingy. "Mummy, kenapa semua orang gelak bila kakak nyanyi???" Hehehe

 My sweet babies, during their first kindy performance. 

 With my little superstars...

Our Birthday in Hijrah

All of us knows our birthday in accordance to the Gregorian calendar but not everyone (myself included) knows our birthday in the year Hijrah. I only know of Ryan's birthday according to Hijrah calendar and that is only because I was praying for him to be born on Muharram but he came 3 days too late. Anyway found this app and thought I should document this in my blog for easy reference in the future :) More post coming soon...