Winter 2016 : Mung bean

We bought a pack of mung bean at an Oriental supermarket, Wing Yip at Oldham Road, Manchester.

On weekend, I made a mung dessert with coconut milk and palm sugar. This dessert is originated from China but equally popular in Malaysia. In Malaysia, we called it bubur kacang hijau. Recipe in English here.

The kids took a few beans, placed them on a damp kitchen towel and watch them sprout over a few weeks.

I turned the leftover dessert into bubur kacang hijau popsicle!

Winter 2016 : Ancient Egypt Home-Learning Projects

So this is what Nazreen will learn this term. 

For Ancient Egypt, Nazreen chose to produce a book on River Nile.

First, we discuss on the content and layout. Then Nazreen will proceed with the work. He started with the world map showing major rivers in the world. He traced the map on my laptop screen.

Then he cut each continent, pasted them on the blue card and labeled each river with a pink paper.

These are what he managed to do that night. The world map, animals of the River Nile..

...and diagram showing how people lived along the River Nile longgggg time ago. This is a very detailed drawing and he spent more than one hour to produce this precious.

At the other corner of the room, Nabil pasted together 6 A4 papers to make one big sheet for his Ancient Egypt project. He produces a drawing on the process of pyramid construction.

Similar to Nazreen, he produced a very detailed drawing, however, I didnt manage to capture them because my phone was broken. I was using a very old phone with low resolution and didnt work well at night.

Nabil managed to finish his project that night.

Winter 2016 : I dont know.

I just don’t know. 

Winter 2016 : Coca dates drink

Blend together low fat milk, cocoa powder, banana, dates and oats.

Delicious!

Enough to keep them full for a couple of hours before dinner. It is already dark at 5pm and they keep asking when they could have their dinner.

Winter 2016 : Leisure Library @ Cheetham Hill

When they have new home-learning projects, this is how our Saturday looks like.

Nabil is working on a project on Ancient Egypt pyramid.

Nazreen is working on a River Nile project.

Mama has a lot of critical essays to complete, but equally excited to start the new projects with them haha #ohmypriority

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.

Winter 2016 : Snow in January

We are going to miss this view.

From my bedroom window.

Our neighbours asked us to join them to the Heaton Park (a large park with hills covered with snows and you can sledge there) at 7am but I need to study. I am one day away from my final exam. 

Kids are having fun around the house, playing with what's left from yesterday's evening. So it doesnt matter if we dont go to the Heaton Park. Nazran went inside after 10 minutes because he cant stand the cold.

It was really hard to roll the snow to make a huge ball. I gave up half way. It was painfully cold working with a wet snow. Someone wore my snow gloves and I ended up with thin wool gloves. It got wet pretty quick.

They made these. 
They rolled the snowball at other area with thick snow and put the parts together in front of our house. I have a bowl of warm water ready for them if their fingers started to feel painfully cold.

The snowmen were still standing later that day (and the next day). I keep checking every 10 minutes because I was studying by the window. I saw passers-by took photographs and selfies with these snowmen. lol.

Winter 2016 : Cheese tasting session

We bought a box of different type of cheese during Christmas sale.

We had fun during the cheese tasting session that night because the kids was fighting over the blue cheese. It is the most beautiful looking cheese, they said. Everybody wanted to be the first to taste the blue cheese. HAHAHA. If you have tasted blue cheese, then you know why I laughed. 

Winter 2015 : Manchester Museum

After the kids finished their classes at the Malaysian school (they attended Malaysian school every Saturday, apart from regular UK school on weekdays), my husband agreed to bring the kids to visit the Manchester Museum!!!  

Nabil was so interested with all the mummies, particularly crocodile mummies, while I was about to faint being surrounded my dead animals.

They were so happy to see huge planet models and other solar system-related exhibits which they have learned all this while :)

Nazreen loves dinosaurs since he was small. He spent a very looooong time at each exhibit, in various positions, appreciating God knows what and pretending like he was going to be eaten by the dinosaur.

Fall 2015 : Etihad Stadium

I am not into football, but I can really appreciate the stadium design.

So, that makes me equally excited to go to the stadium with the boys. It is just 15 minutes away from our house. This was during the Storm Clodagh.

The visit marked our 11th wedding anniversary. Still going strong. No blue box this time.

Raya Landscape

I have spent a couple of hours gardening last Saturday. It was truly therapeutic. I helped Nazreen to grow his onions, plant some coriander and transfer all decorative plants as well as ulam raja from the poly bags to proper vase. Re-planting the decorative plants into small vases took longer than I expected, but I satisfied with the outcome (far below) :)

My husband was busy trimming the grass in front of our house, then he laid two bags of soil before putting the new grass we bought a week before. We planned to buy three unit but they only have two left, so Nazran and Nazmi helped to arrange the river stones and pebbles to cover the soil around the grass.

Our green wall, before and after. 

Bean Boozled Challenge

Thank you for my SIL for introducing me to this INTERESTING BEANS and interesting challenge :)

The box contains variety of jelly beans that comes in pair of the same colour but DIFFERENT flavour (you can read it below). i.e one brown jelly bean tastes GOOD, like a chocolate pudding. Another will taste like a canned dog food (and the taste sticks to your mouth a few hours after that - I can confirmed because that was the last flavour I took).

We played in pair and took turn to eat the bean. Me and my husband. My SIL with my brother. Nabil and Haziq. We prepared a plastic bag should anyone of us need to spit it out or throw up (I must say that everybody utilises the plastic bag +_+).

I got  a few good ones - buttered popcorn and tutti frutti BUT I ALSO GOT THE BAD ONES - stinky sock, mouldy cheese, baby wipes and canned dog food. I spitted it out after a few second. THAT TASTE! Euw.

Nabil and Haziq took the same flavour bean - barf - they ran away and puke at the same time. One in the living room and another in the kitchen. It was funny! LOL.

To know what is this challenge is all about, do watch my favourite Bean Boozled Challenge video:

Grab a box now!

Fishing in the flood

One thing about balik kampung is the kids have the opportunities to explore new things that the city couldnt offer. During the flooding season last year, we went back to Kluang.

My BIL and my husband bought a fishing lines for my kids. My FIL prepared the lines.

My MIL prepared some home cook meals and we took off to the paddy field. The flood was quite bad at the paddy field so we couldnt penetrate the area. We just park at a dry area, the middle of nowhere, surrounded by oil palm estate and let the kids experience fishing in the floodwater. 

TOT : Seri Malaysia Bagan Lalang

For this course, I stayed in a very spacious suite with two double beds and two 3-seater sofa, on the ground floor. The kids arrived at midnight, when it was really dark outside. The next morning, when they look out the window, they saw these:

And when they went out the door, take a few (ok, 32) steps to the right, they saw this. It was so convenient to stay at the ground floor and close to these facilities.

I am really happy with this hotel. Not too crowded and the kids really enjoyed themselves in the pool as well as at the playground. We got discounted price during breakfast and lunch. Good food. Definitely we will go there again.

TOT : Positive Wall

At the end of the TOT (here), we need to write down the good values of others on the post-its and stick it on the wall.

These are what they wrote about me. It is a POSITIVE wall. So... 

All the positive stuff

I didnt even know that I have some of those values - ayat tersusun, pandai berkomunikasi, jelas...well, that's the objective of this game. For other people to tell what you didnt know about yourself. Thank you. 

** a few people called me and requested the list of the games. The secretariat is compiling the list. I will share it once I have it.

TOT : Insan Hebat

In one of the TOT games, every group need to list down the qualities of Insan Hebat and present it to the floor.

DIY Sandwich

I grilled a few mini buns and prepared variety of sandwich fillings:

- grilled barbeque chicken, 
- homemade mini beef burger using minced meat and spices,
- steamed crab meat with mayonnaise, 
- scramble egg, 
- caramelised onions, 
- cheese, 
- mustard; and 
- sauces.

We let the kids choose and make their own tiny sandwich.

They really had fun experimenting with different type of sandwiches, one after another.