January Babies Birthday Celebration

I have been unwell and busy these past weeks so this post come in a bit late, but better late than never.

My girlfriends have been close friends since we were 13, and most of the girls known each other since primary school. But 13 was the age that we all met and became very close. All 20 of us.

Before we have families, we have been doing gatherings like all the time, every birthday occasions. Now most of us are married with kids, gathering is something we really have to plan very well in advance. No more, "let's meet up tomorrow for dinner" No we can't.

So we were off from gatherings for quite a while now, only meet up for engagements, weddings, and kids' birthdays which we often have now.

January 2014 is a good month to start gathering the girls again. It's also good for our kids to get along well with everyone.

So we had our January babies birthday celebrated at Ben's, BSC. Booked for 25 pax, the food was awesome and the place was family friendly too. I love it so much.

Here is the picture of everyone, missing in the foto are the kids, Eijaz, Emir, Suria and the twins, Aisya and Zahra. And of course the hubbies. They are always missing in the pictures, because they are the loyal photographers.

ShoAnne, Ashik, Syikin, Aliaa, myself, Myra, Dini, Aziati, Diyana and Dzue

My Iris rocking in her Chateau De Sable

 

The birthday girls, ShoAnne, Myra and Syikin

 I had fun meeting the girls. And I am already looking forward meeting them again in the next occasion.

Imaan Iris turns 1 party

My baby turned one on 26 Dec 2013. It was a working day so we decided to have a small family celebration at home. We bought a simple blueberry cheesecake from King's because she loves cheese and blueberry.

Mommy, Daddy and Imaan

 

Our little family

My in laws came for the celebration. My bestfriend Latiff and family gave a surprise visit and Aunty Maria, mom's bestfriend also dropped by because she is staying nearby. It was nice of her to wait until 10.48pm because that was the actual time Imaan was delivered into the world, and she happened to there at the hospital waiting for me.

Iris and Lily, two beautiful flowers in my life, messing up their cakes

The actual birthday party was held on 28 December 2013, Saturday at my parents' house in Bukit Jelutong. Attended by over 90 guests of close family and friends, I was honoured to have them spending their precious time with us celebrating our daughter's first birthday.

I didn't plan for any birthday themes, I thought while she is still 1 year old, she won't understand anything, I just wanted to have a simple old-skool kinda birthday that I used to have when I was little. No fancy theme, no fancy games, no fantastic decorations. Konon-konon nak reminisce zaman kita kecik kecik dulu, very old-skool la konon.

Tapi still jugak nak buat some minor décor. We DIY everything, hasil tangan mommy and daddy.

The very humble DIY décor. I love the photos of Imaan from three different faces of her. When she was 2 week, 3 months and 10 months old.

 

Seven tables for family and friends

 

DIY centrepiece on each table. Walaupon quality tak berapa nak elok, mommy and daddy take pride in all these handmade décor and ideas.

For candy table, we didn't have much candies on it, silap sebab tak make orders. Just assumed Wondermilk bukak...sekali tutup daaaa that morning... so had to go to few places to get the few things on the candy table.

Candy table, we had choclairs, sumi jelly, marshmellows, subway cookies, cheese tarts and fruit tarts from King's

DIY door gifts for babies (on the left) and kids (on the right). For babies we just have babies biscuits and rattle. For kids, we had blower, rattle, mask, twisties, mentos, cloud 9, Apollo waffle. Nak old skool sangat, amek kau, Apollo waffle masa kita kecik-kecik punya snacks.

 

 

For cakes, I actually just wanted the same kinda cake that I had when I was 1, a plain white vanilla butter cake in the shape of 1. So I asked my mom to order this cake for me, pretty sure she remembered my first birthday cake. I didn't expect to see clowns, skittles and bendera Malaysia on the cake, but whatever... hahah I don't want to be fussy about it. It's just a birthday party, the most important thing is we had our families and friends attending the party.

 



Imaan's birthday cake ordered from Aunty Noraini, PJ Sek 1. Very nice cake, I love it. 1.5kg cake for rm100.

My Korean princess, style in hanbok, brought by MIL from korea. 

 

Mommy helped Imaan to blow the candle

 

Mommy and Daddy helped to cut the cake

 

With some of my girlfriends. Been friends for 17 years. Missing from the picture, Ashik, Dyla and Myra.

The dragon babies, Adam, Sharleez, Imaan and Lily

 

My little family

 

Birthday presents, whee Alhamdulillah

 

 

The hanbok very hot, changed to her CottonOn dress that is so super comfy, and she is sleepy already towards the end

 

 

I don't have photos of the food. We catered for mee curry, popiah goring pedas and seri muka, cordial drink, bubur kacang hijau and teh tarik. We also had homemade nasi lemak, pasta Bolognese, and egg sandwhiches.

Overall, I love everything about the party, and I was so grateful to have our families and friends gathered together for this very special day.

Imaan Iris, doa mommy, semoga baby menjadi anak yang baik dan solehah dunia akhirat. Ameen.

Raya Celebration 2012

We have pretty much decided we are going to spend our first raya in KL every year, now that my atok is not in his best condition to be staying on his own, he will be staying in KL with us maybe sampai bila-bila. Even if he is getting better, he will not be able to be staying alone with my opah in kampung where no one is around to look after. So, yea... first raya insyaAllah will always be in KL.

But we need to take turns to be with who's parents on early morning raya. Pagi raya memang sangat bermakna untuk semua orang, at least to my family. We will bersalam-salam and take photos and makan nasi tomato together, that's our family tradition.

Last year, we spent our first day raya morning with my husband's family in Ampang. This year, it's my family's turn to have that morning with me and my husband. But we went back Ampang on raya eve to buka puasa with my in laws. It's nice to give and take, so far, between me and hubby, takde pernah gaduh nak pegi mana, nak balik mana, we understand each other and the needs to be fair with both families, very well, syukur for that.

So first raya morning, oleh kerana the night before, after we came back from Ampang, my neighbours in the same lorong and my family sedang sibuk berlawan mercun dan bunga api dengan penduduk the other side of Bidai Residence, kami pun join and stayed up very late, semua bagi alasan tak pergi solat raya. Cheh konon-konon.

Mama and Papa

Papa tak pakai baju raya this year, sebab atok still sakit, he didnt want to look beriya beraya. So he decided to wear shirt instead. Tapi colour off laaa...

There is no picture of me salam with hubby, private session, ;) awal pagi lagi dah mintak ampun, takleh nak tunggu solat raya abis.

Me and hubby di pagi raya

With my family

After all this salam and makan session, we headed straight to Kajang to my makngah's place where my atok was. Surprisingly, atok was handsomely dressed in baju melayu. Still bed rest though.

At Makngah's house we had some kueteow goreng and nasi with kurma ayam and rendang. Then we headed to Damansara, hubby's nenek's house where we meet all my hubby's extended family in one place. Tapi tak dapat nak ambik gambar, it was soo packed, and everybody is like scattered everywhere, tak dpt nak berkumpul ambil gambar.

At night, we received guests at Bukut Jelutong.

My in laws came, but tak sempat take foto with my BIL's lil family.

Mama's siblings and my opah from Puchong

Neighbours also came

Second day raya, we went to hubby's mak sedara's house in the morning and then to his tok sedara's house for lunch. No picture, sebab semua concentrate on makanan yang dihidang.

After that we hit the highway and headed to Ipoh to my opah sedara's house (mama's aunt). It took us 4 hours to reach Ipoh (normally 2.5 hours the most).

BBQ on second raya di Ipoh

Third day, we went to Padang Rengas to my other opah sedara's house (papa's aunt).

Padang Rengas family

Yes, no picture of me...!!! Sebab gemuk sangat, malas nak tangkap gambar.. haha :p

We hit the highway to KL, and it took us 6 hours to reach KL, hamaigadd!! Jam tak hengat!

Lepas maghrib, we went to hubby's Pak Ude's house in Damansara for open house.

With hubby's family

That sums up my raya celebration before I started to go back to work. BOO for going back to work!

Hope everyone is also enjoying their raya celebration as much as I did.

Salam to all.

Raya to me

Last year was the first raya I celebrated as a wife.

This year is the first raya I am celebrating as a mom-to-be.

Next year insyaAllah I will be celebrating raya as a mom.

The past 29 years? When I have always been celebrating as a daughter. Lain sangat semuanya.

When I was young, Raya to me was all about new baju kurung (I always had at least 4-5 pasang each raya, tailor-made), new baju casual (always Guess or Esprit), new baju tido (sepanjang malam ada kat kampung mesti pakai new pyjama), new undies (always start pakai new undies first day raya, perasaan dia...sangat best, hahah)  wearing jewelleries (every raya eve, mama will pakaikan rantai, gelang kaki and gelangan tangan to be worn sepanjang raya), collecting duit raya (always been getting almost a thousand every year).

As I grew older, slowly, semua jadi berkurangan. Baju kurung maximum tempah 3 pasang je. Baju casual only a piece or two beli dekat Pakson sale. Baju tido baru sepasang je beli kaftan dari Kelantan. New undies pulak beli dekat Scarlet Jusco yang jual 5 pieces for RM10. Kadang-kadang mama terlupa keluarkan jewelleries from the safe, so, pakai je rantai mama yg ada yg besar gedabak, panjang giler. Duit raya.. hardly reach RM400 a year.

Bila dah start kerja, slowly, semua semakin berkurangan. Baju kurung masih 3 pasang tapi some tempah, some beli ready-made je. Baju casual, baju tido, seluar dalam semua beli kat FOS. Jewelleries, takde pakai yang baru...pakai apa yang memang tengah pakai hari-hari. Duit raya, I give out RM1,000, dapat blk dalam RM300.

Bila dah kawin, semua dah takde. Baju raya cari kaftan yang dah siap je jual kat ruang legar shopping mall. Baju tido, seluar dalam, baju casual dah tak beli dah for raya, pakai apa yang ada. Jewelleries pakai barang hantaran dari suami, my barang kemas yang simpan dalam safe dah tak pernah kelar-keluar dah. Duit raya keluar double than usual, tapi tak dapat balik dah, because my dad stop giving me duit raya sejak kawin.

Yes, everything fades away as you grow older and older, you get less and spend more, you buy less things for yourself because there are other important things to spend on.

Tapi semua tu material je. Each phase of my life has given me different meaning of raya. More meaning of course. We appreciate raya better each year. Dengan penuh rasa kesyukuran, rasa rendah diri meminta maaf dan ampun, saling menziarahi all our family members. And alhamdulillah, I could not ask for a better raya, now that I am a wife and carrying a child in my womb, semua ni memberi erti yang sangat bermakna. Takde baju tido and undies baru pon takpe.. haha my raya will still be complete.  

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri kepada semua. Maaf Zahir dan Batin.
    

1 year old marriage

We celebrated our first year anniversary pergi holiday, no fancy dinner, no fancy hotels. We just went to Cherating.

We booked ourselves Eastern Pavillion by Holiday Villa in Cherating.

It has villas that are named according to the states that we have in Malaysia. Ours was Johor Pavillion.

This is our private villa...

With private pool..

This is the hall of the villa. It has a separate toilet from the room's

The room with attached bathroom

Ini tepi laut, ada tempat lepak-lepak. 

Different from our first honeymoon at Tanjung Jara, laut dia putih. Which I personally prefer Tanjung Jara's laut yang sangat biru warnanya. 

Nothing much nak review about this place. It has great villa and service dia so-so lah. I still prefer Tanjung Jara which has first class service. They treat you like King! Not in Cherating la of coz.

Food wise, makanan dia biasa jer. Not fair to comment coz we only had breakfast there. Other times, we eat outside or tapau KFC back to the villa. (Jauh wooo nak cari KFC, tapi teringin punya pasal...) 

Villa rate, I think that overall, Cherating ni more expensive. In Tanjung Jara, the rate was about RM2k plus for two person, makan 3 times a day, with 3 course meal, every meal. That is all inclusive. Although it was the cheapest room that we could get, it was good enough.

Eastern Pavillion's rate was about RM1k plus, just the room! Not even breakfast was included. If we were to eat in the hotel jer like we had in Tanjung Jara, ntah berapa la agaknya total bill. 

Chewah, asyik puji Tanjung Jara jer ni... ye lah.. berbulan madu pertama kali... Tempat jatuh lagi dikenang, inikan pula tempat bermain.. haha!

Tapi yang different about this honeymoon than the first one.. kali ni.. datang bertiga, bukan berdua lagi dah...

Yes, alhamdulilah.. ada seorang lagi dalam perut yang baru nak menjadi masa tu.. :) :) Bak kata orang, no more honeymoon... It's babymoon! Atau erti bahasa lain adalah, berbulan baby.

Hazrieq Ziyad

Welcome baby boy!

08.02.2011

I am 4 hours-old

Meet my godson, the son of my bff, Zetty Zaihasra with beloved hubby, Harith Hamdan... I am so happy for you guys. Congratulations..

Rasa bangga my bff did it without taking any epidurals. She went through normal labour, and the experience I guess was indescribible..

Oh, btw, sejak-sejak nak kawin ni, bila orang tanya bila my turn, I will automatically say, "InsyaAllah...bulan May, tak lama lagi..."

So semalam, during the visit at the hospital, Harith's mom asked me, "So when is your turn?"

I answered, "InsyaAllah aunty, bulan lima.."

then muka dia macam hairan, dan aku pon hairan la kenapa dia hairan..

Then it occurred to me, adakah mungkin dia tanya when is my turn to give birth????

 Hmm...mungkin juaa... hahah..memang la tak mungkin bulan 5, kawin pon blom :p