Winter 2016 : Main air belakang rumah

Winter 2016 : Nazmi's first day

It was Nazmi's first day attending supplementary school on Saturday.

His class ends early, so we went to the library together because I want to borrow a few books.

We had a blast eating and waiting for Papa in the cold. Papa picked up abang-abang first, before he came for us.

Winter 2016 : Story Hunters

Year 4 students across the UK are so fortunate because they received free set of Story Hunter books from the Book Trust UK! I could not believe it when Nazreen received the first pack – the books are of high quality, interesting and they are not just for read. There are also activity books and stationeries! They will get a new pack every month and parents need to pick it up from the class teacher.

Image from BookTrust (here)

From Story Hunters - Book Trust UK : To encourage that love of reading, every pupil signed up to Story Hunters will get a monthly personalised pack of books and activities, for a six-month period. Every pack will include at least two carefully chosen books, plus engaging games and resources that children can share with their families – a rewarding way to make the most of pupil premium and build home-school links.

Nazmi usually would be very excited when Nazreen come home with the new Story Hunter pack but due to different reason. So he could do this.

Winter 2016 : Brotherhood lagi

How I keep them close?

Do everything together and share everything (in this case, the warm blanket).

And sleep together. 

They can talk and laugh together for hours before they sleep. We usually make sure the lights out by 9.30 - 10pm because we dont want any trouble with the Council.

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 : Convenient online shopping for Papa's birthday!

I ordered some stuff from eBay and get them to send to Argos for me to pick later. Since I am in the campus most of the time and my husband is busy running errands and managing the kids, so we might not be home when the Royal Mail guy came.

It is truly convenient to be able to choose where to pick up the stuff we bought online, at our own time. I chose Argos at the Manchester Fort Shopping Park as I also ordered some perfume and men’s stuff for my husband at online Boots store. Argos have allocated special collection point for eBay orders.

I told my husband that I just need a while to pick up some stuff at Boots (and pray hard that we will not follow). He decided to wait in the car as it was cold outside. I emptied my backpack earlier and put the books at the backseat. He didn’t notice. I glad I did that because the boxes are massive!

That night, we blew some balloons for papa while he was sleeping, then we surprised him with a loud birthday song and showered him with a lot of birthday presents and kisses!!

Winter 2016 : Nazmi at abangs' school

Lost and found boxes at the school hall.

Winter 2016 : Go out, do something different and starts fresh!

That particular week, I felt like not leaving the house on Saturday morning because I have four essays to complete. But I changed my mind. I had a memorable chat with a PhD candidate, Jason, in the previous week while waiting for my sons (and Jason was waiting for his 5 children) at the supplementary school. His advise is kinda stick in my head. He said going out regularly (and not stuck in front of the laptop 247) is the best way to make him write faster. He will recharge by doing something different and start fresh afterward.

So, I followed his advise. I went out to send my kids to the supplementary school, had a good Malaysian breakfast with my husband and other Malaysians from areas around Manchester, chatting, laughing in between and totally forgot about the essays. But, when all ladies heading to their yoga class.... I just cant sit there and doing nothing.

Soon I found myself walking to the library in the next building and start writing my essays! (oh yes I have the laptop with me all the times)

LOL. Well, at least I went out, I did something different in the morning and guess what? The idea was flowing really fast! 

After the school ended, we went to visit my friend Juliana, who just delivered a baby girl earlier that week. Kids were pretty occupied with the toys.

Winter 2016 : THE BIRTHDAY PARTY

30 January 2016.
A day after the Storm Gertrude.

We were chatting with my parent via Skype when the guests started to arrive. My sons were so happy to see other kids came to their party. New friends in Manchester! They loves the cakes (of course!) and the M&Ms disappeared long before the whole cake finished, as I expected. haha.

 

We had a really fun art and craft sessions. I didnt mind seeing our living room like this as long as the kids were having fun and the guests were enjoying themselves, helping the kids to do some artworks.

My neighbour (who is also my junior in IIUM), a PhD candidate, was struggling to meet a submission deadline that day, therefore, she couldnt make it to the party. I asked her if she could send over her kids to my house and let them stay here until Maghrib so she could focus on her writing. I truly understand what she went through and that was the least I could do to help. And she did! 

It was good to see Naufal & Aesyah really enjoying themselves with crafts and the loud & colourful party poppers :) The kids made these, toilet roll ninjas (in our case, they were actually kitchen rolls cut into two) and straw sculptures.

I had so much fun baking, cooking and entertaining the guests! It is a good break from my study. Cleaning up that evening was a breeze.

I read the news online and surprisingly we are expecting Storm Henry the next day!

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 2015 : Tiny Tots and Toddler Time

It is held on weekly basis at the local library. The librarians teach the tiny tots and toddlers nursery rhymes, play with musical instruments and they read story book to the kids! The parents/carers are involved too.  

It is good to mingle around with other parents and grandparents! Nazmi seems to be enjoying himself in the library, looking inside interesting graphic books (he cant read yet) and trying to communicate with other toddlers of his age.

Winter 2015 : Tiny Tots and Toddler Time

It is held on weekly basis at the local library. The librarians teach the tiny tots and toddlers nursery rhymes, play with musical instruments and they read story book to the kids! The parents/carers are involved too.  

It is good to mingle around with other parents and grandparents! Nazmi seems to be enjoying himself in the library, looking inside interesting graphic books (he cant read yet) and trying to communicate with other toddlers of his age.

Winter 2016 : Homemade clean dough

I am busy shaping the dough and Nazmi wanted to help. I made him a clean dough. The kind of dough that does not stick to your hand or any surfaces and smells nice too. I just mix a plain flour with dish washing liquid. It is good to go.

It keeps him occupied for the whole day.

Winter 2016 : Crochet sleeve for Aiskrim Malaysia

When it was snowing outside, we enjoyed it by eating aiskrim Malaysia inside!
When Nazmi said he cant hold his ice cream because it is too cold, I made this.

Winter 2015 : IKEA, Ashton-under-Lyne

Our first trip there.

We bought a carpet for the living room last week. We have a laminated floor so it is extremely cold in winter. We cant even step on it especially in the evening if we dont put on our slippers.

We need more stuff to keep us warm. So we bought a carpet for our bedroom (GBP9), some throws (GBP5 each) for the sofa in the living room, TV cabinet (GBP9) and other small stuff. The current currency exchange (RM to GBP) made the prices of these similar items are more expensive than IKEA Malaysia.

Winter 2015 : Nazmi painting

He was watching his brothers doing school projects everyday, so, I gave him a chance to play with colours.

Winter 2016 : Gardening in winter

Why not?

In this gloomy and cold weather, I guess we need something to look forward to. The kids are getting bored staying inside so I decided to bring the outside in.

I asked them to wash the empty juice and milk containers. I cut them and asked them to fill it halfway with the soil.

We didnt have any proper gardening tool so we use everything around us to dig the soil and fill in the containers. Our neighbour was laughing when I told them the kids are planting potatoes.  She was like... "in this cold winter?"

We planted some garlic and potatoes. Now we have an indoor garden in winter!

Winter 2015 : Colourful test tubes

My husband bought this cool novelty item. It is a food grade drinking tubes. We use it to drink fizzy drink.

Winter 2015 : Harpurhey Market

Buying some stuff for kids' school projects. I bought used duvet cover and curtains for Nazreen's school project at a charity shop. What project? Stay tune :)

The problem was ...we have the fabric, but we didnt have a sewing machine. haha.

I can hand-sewn it, no problem but I have essays to complete. We constantly pray for Allah to ease our journey in helping our kids with their projects.