Delhi : Kembara Khazanah India

My nephew lend me his book on India.

This is my favourite book during the treadmill session after the office hour. 

7 tired grandchildren

My wonderful parent is blessed with SEVEN adorable grandchildren (for the time being) and they take care all 7, everyday until we (me, my husband and my sister) came home from work everyday.

It was not easy, I know. I respect them for being able to manage all 7 everyday. Thank you.

This is the typical view at my parent's at night. Tired kids in a messy living room, waiting for their parents to come home from work.

This is a reminder that I have to go home early starting from tomorrow onwards. My parent needs a good rest.

Selamat Pengantin Baru, Azam

Azam is my cousin.
Welcome to the family, Fiza.

Mia Sara was there too with her mom. She is so adorable.

Mia with my mom, my sons (in brown baju melayu), my niece Sarah, nephew Haziq and my cousin's son Isyraq. Right: Mia and her mom

1M4U 2014 : The preparation

I am the project leader for the Greening of the Urbanscape for 1M4U held in June. Click here for the previous post. For kids, we have organised a Green Ambassador programme. Gonna talk about that in separate post.

Banner / bunting design

I worked closely with the graphic designer on the banner and bunting designs. Honestly I want to do it myself but I didnt have the time. I am a micromanager and I am trying my best to change slowly. I ran here and there to get the approval for the designs and once I have obtained the approval, I ran to the printing shop to get it printed. It took 24 hours to complete.

Button badges

I designed a button badge for the kids, to make them PROUD to be our Green Ambassador. I emailed design to my friend, Tengku Azam, who has a printing company and the badges completed the next morning. I picked them up at 9pm. 

Prizes

On weekend prior to the event, me and my committee went out separately to buy some items for our programme. I am in-charge for prizes for Green Ambassador's drawing and colouring competitions. I bought educational Illusion Science sets and story books for main prize winners and all participants will receive a magic colour sets.

Gardening sets

My committee, Eylia went to IKEA to buy the sets. There was a bit of miscommunication on the figure and she agreed to turned back. I owed her big time. We have chosen the CUTEST gardening set for the Green Ambassadors! I WANT ONE!!

We packed the gardening set together with latex gloves and face towel for each kids. 

Souvenirs

We gave a token of appreciation to other agencies. My friend have extra goodie bags for kids from her previous charity event and she decided to distribute them during this event. Thank you.

Competition areas

I printed labels for both competitions. It was held at my office's lobby. There were two sofa sets at the lobby but the handsome logistic team managed to transform the area overnight.

The team worked hard to prepare the tools and three event areas for my program. Thank you! I went back at 10pm on the night before the event to make sure everything is in place for tomorrow :)

Boxes

I came extra early on THE day with 6 kids. They helped me to bring down 20 empty boxes and prepare the venue for herb planting programme for Green Ambassadors. Great job!

I am grateful for all contribution and assistance I received from everybody to make this event a success. Alhamdulillah.

Post 1M4U : Green Ambassadors

After coming home from the 1M4U event, the kids (Nabil, Nazreen, Nazran, Haziq, Sarah and Jaja) were still pretty excited with their gardening sets. Who wouldnt? It is extremely cute!

My husband helped my mom to plant Pandanus amaryllifolius which I bought at the 1M4U event. Following that, the kids started to work on my mom's herb garden. Then they became a bit territorial over the small strip of land at the back of my parent's house.

Before they started to argue with each other, my husband prepared some plant pots and soil mix so they could do their own stuff in their own pots. We gave two each.

We dont have to teach them how to do it. They still remember clearly what they supposed to do. It is quite impressive to see them handled the soil and vulnerable plants with care.

Baby Nazmi loves gardening. I can tell.

We prepared plant tag for everyone using corrugated plastic board for it could withstand water/moisture. They write their names and shove the tags into the soil, halfway. They were tasked to water the plants everyday.

Green Ambassadors in the making. I am proud.

Shrimp fishing

We went shrimp fishing yesterday! It was my first time.

This is the kind of activity that I enjoy doing with my family on weekend. It was unplanned. As usual. If Sham (my husband) is around, chances of doing spontaneous activities or go for unplanned trip are really high.

We went there with my nephew, Haziq. Minus baby Nazmi. It is a new shrimp pool in Sungai Kertas, Gombak. The owner is my husband's friend. We use perumpun (a kind of saltwater worm) as a bait. Euw. 

We take turns holding the lines. We purposely rented two lines because we knew kids will be running around, exploring the area, watching the shrimp and enjoying their meal at the pool side. Nazreen almost fell asleep twice while waiting for the shrimp to eat the bait.

Nabil was the first one to catch a shrimp. A huge one.

Harvest of the day. Yummy.

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!

Salam Aidil Adha

I made rendang, ketupat pulut and nasi himpit for AidilAdha. We had it during AidilAdha eve. Yummy.

The next morning, we went to the nearest surau to witness people performing qurban. They have just finish sacrificed the 12th cow when we arrived at the first surau.

Then I bring them to another surau. There were three more cows in the lorry and they had a chance to watch the whole thing.

Makan-makan at Aidan

This was happened long time ago. Aidan's open house for Raya. Aidan is my brother's office. A lot of food as usual. These are my heroes.

And these are my kids who cant wait to grow up and work at Aidan.

These are the future clients of Lot.my.
Stories on lot.my - here or here or here or here.

I like the thought of having the kids area there. Most of the people missed that. I once had a boss who didnt allow kids to enter his house because he was afraid kids will break his expensive vases, jump on his imported leather sofa, spill drinks on the his Persian carpet and... I can list his endless worries here but I rather not. You guessed it right, he never invited me to his house for any events. But the rest of the office were invited :) 

A Trip to A Hypermarket

I had a few trips to a hypermarket with my 4 kids. Sometimes it was a bit tricky but most of the time it was fun. But let's not talk about that because all moms did that, kan? So, no big deal.

For this entry, it is extra special. A trip to a hypermarket with my kids plus my nephew, my niece and my little cousin, Jaja. We use three trolleys in total - one for the kids who felt that sitting inside the trolley is more fun than running down the hypermarket aisle (Sarah, Jaja and Nazran), another trolley for baby Nazmi's seat and another one for the grocery items.

Me and my husband split the list and we went different ways inside the hypermarket. He was with baby Nazmi and I ended up with the other two trolleys (pushed by Nabil and Haziq). The kids were having so much fun in the Trolley Race, Trolley Hide-and-Seek, Move-It-Yourself (sit inside the trolley and try to move it yourself), Stay Still  (squat inside the trolley and try not to move when the trolley moves) (oh, I can create all kind of trolley games for the whole day!) and they couldnt stop laughing all the way especially when I asked Nabil to try his new pair of trousers, inside the trolley. They formed a cute children barricade at both side of the aisle to block people from seeing Nabil.

It took double amount of time to shop and dine that day. When they are in a big group, it is actually more manageable. They move together, wait for one another, no one running here and there and trust me, it is not hard at all. Just that they have different timing for nature calls.

At the food court, I have to take their orders using the S Note since I didnt have a good memory as kedai mamak's staff. We went back at 10pm, right after we send Jaja home. 

And I was told not to take my nephew and niece out anymore after this. LOL.

Big Bad Wolf Fire Sale

The recent Big Bad Wolf Fire Sale was held for four days. I am glad baby Nazmi was born 22 days earlier than the EDD for I am healthy enough to go to BBW sale this time (my entry on this - here). I am still in confinement and Nazmi tagged along in a sling. 

Crazy discount. Some books are as low as RM1. Some are RM3, RM5. 

(Credit : BBW)

I went there with Nabil, Nazran and my nephew, Haziq. I assigned them on a mission to get interesting book for themselves, Nazreen and Haziq's sister, Sarah. They were so thrilled (#strategy). BUT before that, they must pull the trolley bag for me from one section to another.

 (Credit : BBW)

This is how it work - I pass the book to Nabil, he then put it carefully into the bag and Haziq drag the bag everywhere I go. They took turn to pull the trolley bag because it was so heavy. Nazran was with my husband. They use another bag. 

We took a rest at the kids' section when both bags were full. That was when we let them free to choose books for everybody. The highlight of the day.

Muka bangga.

The kids chose nearly 20 books for them. I bought almost 40 books (ok, now I need to re-arrange our bookshelves). These are some of them. I already finished reading 5. 

In the next two weeks, BBW will be in Penang. OMG, should we go to Penang also? lol.

Teach them some responsibilities

This was happened when I went out with my mom - this entry.

My dad have to take care all the kids - 10yo Haziq, 8yo Nabil, 8yo Sarah and 5yo Nazran. I brought Nazreen along with me. Knowing how handful they could be, I assigned them to a specific task, just to get them excited. One person in-charge of security (no one should open the front door), one person in-charge on food (in case Nazran is hungry) and the other one is on cleanliness (clean up the mess after they play).

When we came back, I noticed there were some changes on the tasks. They have appointed Nazran to be the AJK 5 tahun AT FIRST. Then, after a while, when he couldnt stop talking (yes, he is very talkative), they appointed him to be the Ketua Membebel.

I am not sure what is the scope of work for Ketua Membebel but I know Nazran has done a very good job.

Sleep Masks for the kids

I bought eye masks for my kids, niece and nephew to help with their afternoon nap during weekend. It really helps.

My 4yo son Nazran

My 7yo son Nabil

My 5yo son Nazreen - with a new haircut. super short.

My 9yo nephew Haziq

My 7yo niece Sarah

School break 07 : Camping

We camped in Atok's house compound. I wanted to do this long time ago because I love camping very much (here). Before we bring the kids camping for real, we just wanted to see how it goes. Two days before, they came out with a checklist - ubat nyamuk, dapur, air kosong, jaket... etc. so cute. This was when we arrived at Atok's house.

Teambuilding :)

Snack before dinner.

"Fireplace". We use it for BBQ later. They were excited to have a torchlight each. 

BBQ. 

I love how our clothes smell like smoke. Just like the old days. The camping days.

We also put this around the camping site. This was their first time to see this.

Good night!

We planned to go for a midnight walk at 1am, but it was cancelled due to the rain.

CAMPING IS FUN!