Winter 2016 : Planning for a Birthday Party for Nabil, Nazran and Nazmi

It was January 2016 and finally I had a free time (and extra money) for our sons' birthday party. Nabil and Nazran was born in December and Nazmi was born in February. First, to get things going, I designed the birthday invite. I just invited a few close friends.

It is going to be Nabil's 10th birthday, Nazran's 7th and Nazmi's 3rd. Good age combination. Those numbers (10, 7, 3) fit into the BIR7HDAY C3LEBRAT10N!!

On Friday, January 29, the day we welcomed Storm Gertrude to the UK, after sending off the kids to school, we went to get some presents for them and ingredients for the main menu and desserts.(Northern UK was the most impacted, but we still get the strong wind)

The night before, after they went to bed, we hung the birthday bunting, pump some balloons and wrap their presents. We keep a few blankets ready to cover everything should any one of them came down to get some water (they did that sometimes, in the middle of the night). 

They will get the light sabers they were asking for quite sometimes, books, stationery and some cool clothes. None of them knew we planned this party. We cant wait to see their faces in the morning! Waking up to the house full of balloons :)

The next morning, YUP, as we expected, they were cheering and laughing and running around the house in joy once they went downstairs and saw all the deco. As I was preparing the chicken rice, they helped me to spread the chocolate topping on the cake I baked the night before and topped it with a few packs of M&M. 

25% of the M&M went into their mouth but I just pretended that I didnt see a thing.

Invisible Pen

Nabil requested for an invisible pen for quite sometimes. I bought it for his birthday earlier this month. In fact, I bought 6 for my other sons, nephew, niece and cousin Jaja. I just drew something on the brown paper. Can you see it?

Click the light and voila! 

Then, they were experimenting with other materials such as wood, MY LEATHER HANDPHONE COVER and of course, SKIN. (Aunty Ani started it first ;p)

Birthday presents for everyone

Yesterday was my nephew's birthday.

I went out during lunch time and grab a few presents for him (5 in total) (H), for my sons (N), my niece (S) and my cousin (J).

I cut out the letters using the blank side of the [leftover] gift wrap.

We have these rules in the house :

1. On anyone's birthday (be it my sons', my nephew's, my niece's, my 8yo cousin's - all se7en of them) - each kid should received at least one similar birthday present. Usually they got 4 (from my sister, me, my brother and my aunt). 

2. The one who is celebrating the birthday, should get extra.

So, in a year, they should received 4 presents each in 6 different birthday celebrations (4x6=24 presents=WOW!). Why 6 birthdays since there are 7 kids? 6 birthdays because Nabil's and Nazran's are only one day apart (Nabil 4 Dec and Nazran 2 Dec, of course, different year) and we usually celebrate it together. 

I love to shop for birthday presents for the kids. You could just buy anything and they will really appreciate it!

Thank you, ZURA!

I always appreciate anything art-sy. I love handwritings!
Just got this from Zura. I LIKE IT VERY MUCH!

Colours for my MIL

My MIL's birthday was on 1 May. 

I gave her colourful kitchenware. I hope she likes it. As far as I can remember, I gave her three (or was it four?) frying pans of various sizes before. She already have two. I JUST CANT SAY NO to these colourful frying pans this time. I hope I will not come across any cute pans in the future or else my MIL's house will turn into frying pan museum.

Seriously, who need more than one frying pan of the same size in the kitchen?

ME.

OUR Birthday celebration

My birthday was on 30 April. My cousins' were on 25 and 29 April. The celebration was held on 1 May. As usual, there were a lot of food and laughter, and the kids were having fun with the balloons.

The food.

I bake a marshmallow brownies and I made honey mustard dipping sauce for french fries.

The best part - as usual - would be the birthday presents :)

haha. macam budak-budak.

Early in the morning, my dad woke me up and said he bought me a deep freezer (he didnt said it is FOR MY BIRTHDAY. He usually bought stuff for my house, for my kids (TV, refrigerator, etc), but since he bought it a day after my birthday, so I just ASSUME it is my birthday present) Surprising, indeed. Me and my husband stared at the huge box on the lorry for a couple of minutes. Really? A deep freezer? wow. 

I am so thankful because there's no space left in our existing freezer to store Nazmi's milk supply. The timing is right. 

My brother gave me this set. From THE shop. Love it very much. 

My sister gave me a WHITE coffee mug. Love it! I even gave her a name. I called her Puteh. I brought Puteh to the office today. I made hot chocolate in the morning. Right now, I filled it with hot water and pretending like I am sipping hot coffee - it gave me a psychological edge to stay awake until 5.30 pm (oi, mengantuk sangat). I dont drink coffee during exclusive breastfeeding. 

My cousins gave me an umbrella - because I told them I want an umbrella for my birthday. A cool transparent umbrella with WHITE handle. 

My mom gave me LOVE.

THANK YOU ALL.

APRIL 2013

It is APRIL already.

You know my birthday is on 30 April.

You can give me books, cheap handbag or hijab.

And you can start looking for gifts for Teacher's Day & Mother's Day in May, and Father's Day in June. I know some people opposed the idea of celebrating these Days and said we have to show our love & appreciation to them everyday. Trust me, I did that. I am a good daughter ;p BUT I need a special day, an occasion, to give them the extra special presents. 

Happy 7th Birthday Nabil!

Today is Nabil's 7th Birthday.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

We celebrated it at my MIL's house, after Nabil and Nazreen finished their reading class.

Happy 4th Birthday Nazran!

Today is Nazran's 4th Birthday.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy 5th Birthday, Nazreen! - bye bye long hair!

14 July 2012 was Nazreen's 5th birthday. We have organised a simple celebration at my parent's with the presence of our neighbours, orang masjid, my parent-in-law, my aunts, uncles and cousins. As it fell on Saturday, we didnt have much time to prepare. I went home from work at night on Friday and I really hope I can prepare the loot bags, all presents and blow some balloons on Saturday morning.

I rushed to a hypermarket with Nabil early in the morning and went back just in time the goldsmith (in the hypermarket) being robbed. And my sister and Sarah arrived just after the armed robbery drama ended. phew.

The food station

My dad ordered Nazreen's favourite food - nuggets, fruit salad, butter prawn, mashed potato, coleslaw, fish and chip, roasted chicken, etc.

We also have traditional kuih and pulut kuning. My sister baked delicious red velvet cupcakes and kek batik.

The present

Lotsa birthday presents for everybody. It is a tradition in our house to buy birthday presents to all children in the family, in this case, 6 kids, for every birthday celebration. And of course birthday boy got extra presents from others. Nazreen got a skateboard, guitar, foldable water bottle, normal water bottle, sweater (from me), some toys, frisbee with LED, chocolate and tons of marshmallow!

The best part of his 5th birthday is he got to cut his own hair. My mom, dad, FIL and MIL took turn to cut off his long beautiful hair. He is attending pre school next year so this is the best time to cut his hair short.

He asked for Ultraman for his birthday but no one bought it. Luckily when Nazreen unwrapped the last present from our caterer...There it is...Ultraman... Dream comes true...

My Nazreen with shorter hair. I gave him the dark blue sweater. He loves it very much :)

The next day, he requested to go to the barber shop to make it shorter. And now, it is shorter. Life goes on.

MyBirthday : Part 02

Birthday celebration with my husband. Nothing fancy. We were in a rush.

 Thanks for the present. It is one of the books in my wishlist. I like it very much.

MyBirthday : Part 01

Birthday celebration at my parent's house. Every year, I will celebrate my birthday with my cousins - Suhana, 25th April dan Dayana 29th April. This is something that everybody can not miss. Thanks to all.

I got plenty of presents.

From my brother :

From my sister :

From my aunty Rabbit :

From my aunty :

From my nephew Haziq :

Happy 4th Birthday Nazreen

Surprise Party and 3 years worth of handbags

My sister SMSed asking us to have lunch at my parent's on 2nd May. Before we went there, we stopped by at my in-laws' house to celebrate my MIL's birthday. She cooked lovely lunch as usual. And we arrived 1-hour late at my parent's. God knows how guilty I felt when I saw my cousin's and my aunt's cars outside our house, after answering endless calls from my mom (where are you? are you here yet? how long more? could u pls hurry up?...). They planned to throw a surprise birthday party for me!!! The food were all cold when we arrived. Some sour faces in the living room add to my existing guiltiness. They were just sit there for hours staring at the food waiting for ME. I AM SO SORRY, ALL *sad* (this is the main thing I wanted to convey in this entry. The rest are just plain stories I wish to keep for the future).

Anyway, we had a blast. My sister has scanned numbers of old photos and we laughed hysterically during the slide show. Then we were all fell asleep due to...mmm...over-eating and too much laughing. I got a full make up set from my sister/mom (?), shower stuff from my aunt/cousin (?) and a lovely Charles & Keith handbag from my brother.

(I know I have flash issue here)

Last two (or was it three?) years he gave me Guess handbag for my birthday. Love it! Love it!

Then he bought me a Salvador Bachiller purse in Madrid, Spain. A bit of stain here and there because I use it a lot. I love it very much.

Last year my sister gave me this handbag for my birthday.

Oh, I love them all (the handbags and the people). I dont have to buy any more handbag for at least three years *giggle*

This is my current handbag. From Cleef, my favourite brand - i love the texture, the heavy-duty material and the colour. An A4 size documents fit inside this bag. (Photo : In Qantas Golden Lounge @ Adelaide - nothing better to do than to capture the image of my handbag and blazer..hmmm..in the washroom).

I also have a document bag by Cleef. Love it! Love it! (Photo : In Sofitel Hotel, Perth)

This is what happened when you travel abroad with the VVIPs. You have no one to capture your photos and you end up taking photos of your bags at different locations all the time. I swear I have at least 20 other photos of my bags (on the boat, on the plane, on the airport trolley, etc) LOL.

(ok, enough about bags)

ohh... they are ONE and FOUR

It is hard to believe Nabil is already FOUR (Well, it is still hard to believe I already have 3 KIDS *wink* sungguh laju). It was all happened very fast. Two days prior, baby Nazran turned ONE. Yay! Two birthdays in one week. I have a greaatttttttttt ideas for their party decoration. But, we have yet to pick a date.