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.

Soft Launch for World Habitat Day 2012 Malaysia

Kudos to my x-unit in MHLG. They've done an excellent job in organising the event this morning @ KL Sentral. For someone who did not involved in the preparation, the event seems flawless.

Doodle 01

I found my doodling habit which started when I was in secondary school is making a comeback. These are some of the doodles/drawings in my current note book. Floor plans of meeting rooms and the route to the ladies'.

 And this is on the paper doyley which was laid under the goblet.

I will dig out more doodles from my IIUM note book later. 

Book Club 01

I just finished reading this book - Umar Al-Khattab. Posted by my friend Zura from Penang. It is one of great Islamic books by the writer, if you wish to learn more about the history of Islam. It is simple and easy to understand.

Now I am a few chapters away to complete this book - You Can Be The Happiest Woman In the World. Mye from Putrajaya lend me this book. It teaches you to look at everything from different point of views and some lesson on common sense, according to the teaching of AlQuran and Hadiths. I wish the cover could be more vibrant and more inviting.

I just started this book and I am going to finish it in 60 days. Or less.

Nazreen's hair - the unfortunate incident

My 2nd son - Muhammad Nazreen Syazwan.
Notice anything weird?

HERE.

Nazreen and Nabil played with a pair of scissors. Nabil cut off Nazreen's hair. In front and at the side.

Then they hide the hair under the carpet, they were so afraid that I would found out about the incident. They thought I did not notice but it is SO OBVIOUS. Anyway, Nabil gave Nazreen such a nice bangs. Thumbs up for that.

We will cut Nazreen's hair short on his birthday in July because he is attending preschool next year.

Moving In : Part 13 - Our small piece of land

We have settled in my late grandma's house for nearly a year now. We didnt have a chance to clean up the small piece of land in front of our house. There are bourgainvillas, huge jackfruit tree which sheds dry leaves everyday, palm tree, some flowery plants, herbal plants, some shrubs and a lot of weeds.

We have such a friendly neighbours. Everytime we went out to sweep the floor, hang some clothes, they will came out and start the conversation. Not that we didnt like to have a chat with them, but doing work while chatting with them seems rude (at least to me). That is the major drawback for us to work on the landscape. The last two weekends, when everyone is inside, resting at 2pm in the afternoon, my husband went out and start trimming the palm tree.

After 30 minutes, when I saw no one came out, I joined my husband to sweep dry leaves in my neighbour's compound. It started small at the beginning. And when Aril - the one in black (the best neighbour - here for more) arrived with his cute ladder and started to do serious work, everybody become more hardworking. In the end, we manage to clear the piece of land in front of our house, trim the branches and sweep clean the whole area.

My part. Only small piece of land, but it took me 2 hours to clean it, pulled out weeds, screamed over some fat worms, digged out buried trashes, cans and other unidentified stuff.

BEFORE

AFTER

In the process, there were friendly neighbours from 4 nearby houses came by and have a chat with us. Doesnt it feels great to have such friendly neighbours?????

Next project - Paint the gate. That is another pending project due to friendly neighbours. LOL! Jahatnya aku.

More on our MOVING IN Adventures! Click here.

Hiatus, no?

I told my friends that I am going to be in a hiatus mode until July. I rather start building a nest for the nesting season in October. They didnt like the idea (the hiatus one, not the nest), so I will try to blog once in a while.

Japan - HK trip : Clean office

This is how the Japanese keep their office carpet clean. Go to work in different shoes, take it off once arrived and wear a different (uniform) footwear in the office. It promotes unity. Regardless you are the boos or a tea lady, you will be wearing the same footwear everyday. Maybe the one the boss put on today was the one the tea lady wore the whole day yesterday.

This way they will make sure they put on clean pair of socks everyday. 

Nut about nuts

I was bored. I took dried cranberries from my baking supplies container. Then, I added sliced almonds (leftover from chocolate chip cookies). Whenever I enter the kitchen to cook or bake something, my 3 heroes will be very excited. They will sit properly at the table and ask me to assign them to do anything. I asked them to chop some walnuts.

They keep eating the nuts and cranberries mix. Then I add some rolled oats. Yes, they are still eating it.

Melted butter, castor sugar and lotsaaaaa honey to bind the ingredients.

Bake for... I cant remember, 15 minutes? 

I cut it into squares and it is good to eat!!! 

Minus the sugar and butter, it is truly a healthy snack.

SSR 2012

This is for my ex-collegues who are struggling right now.

I hope you guys get FIVE STARS.

WHD 2012

World Habitat Day 2012. For my ex-colleagues who are struggling right now.

This is how you watch TV

This is Nazreen's favourite spot for watching TV at Atuk's house. Although there are many empty seats, he will opt for that spot.

He usually pulled the sofa apart so there will be a gap in the middle. It is more comfortable.

This is how he looks like after 30 minutes.

Work work work

I have set my priority straight since I gave birth to Nazran, in 2008. No more workaholic wife / mom / daughter. I have become a family-oriented woman since.

Right now, I am blessed with a lot of works. A test from Allah.

Insya Allah, I will try my best to manage my time at work so I can go home early and have quality time with my family. Everyday.



Previous graphic work : Asset Management Workshop (2009)

I browsed through Habitat Blog and I came across this. Old memory.

This is my main design for folder and booklet  for World Habitat Day 2009 programme : Asset Management Workshop for Local Authorities in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Click on the image for larger version. (come, just click so you can appreciate :) It was a time consuming design).

Silhouettes sources : Google

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!