Project Birthday 2016 : Ryan's Birthday (201216)

From no posting to double postings in a day? You can imagine the kind of mood I'm in especially if I'm at my desk during lunch blogging :p

For Ryan's birthday we decided to go with Star Wars. Seeing that he's 7, I don't go want to go overboard with the deco. Ain't cool yo!!

I used Ryan's Darth Vader, Storm-trooper mask and Death Star Replica and lined it on the stairs for effect. I also printed some Star Wars inspired posters from online. How awesome that even though not a single cent was spend on all this, the look on my baby boy's face when he came down the stairs was as if I spend a million. Ryan was super happy with his little surprise. 

We bought some brownies from Secret Recipe and Banana Cake from Lavender to share with his friends @ Transit. Since Lan and I was not on leave on his birthday, we decided that it will be fun for Ryan to celebrate with his friends instead. He can't stop thanking me that evening. 

We went out on a family dinner that night, we told Ryan to choose his fave restaurant and he opted for Nando's of all things. Fine by me :) As long as he's happy, I'm happy.

This little boy accomplished so much in 2016, I pray that he'll continue to thrive and be happy always inshaallah. I love you so much abang, please always remember that.

Birthday wishes from Atuk. 

H O M E M A D E

One of my main concerns about Ryan and school is RECESS TIME. Other mother's worry about exam results and I worry about food. Talk about priorities ;p 

After seeing him having to fight for the makcik canteen attention on the first week of school, I vowed to prepare Ryan's bekal for both sekolah agama and sekolah kebangsaan. So far I've managed to fulfill this self impose torture 95% of the time (haha). 

I didn't bother with the elaborate Bento lunches because :-

1. It won't survive the journey from home- transit- school 

2. My boy eats very little and I do not want to waste with 6 varieties of fruits and veges 

3. I'm lazy :p

I will usually cook the night before and reheat the dishes in the morning

 I love sandwich cutters. It will make an otherwise boring meal look super interesting :) 

On the days when I'm busy or lazy, I will just throw in some ready made waffles, pound cakes or fruits into his lunch box . We still give Ryan pocket money, so the idea is for him to always have food in case he didn't get the chance to buy from the canteen

One thing that kept me going is Ryan's reaction, He always has something nice to say about the food that I packed for him, which makes the hassle worth it. Just imagine in 2 years I'll be preparing 3 sets of lunches *faint*

Things that matter Part IVV

As much as I hate to think about it, I know there will come an inevitable time when we won't be receiving sweet birthday postings from my dad anymore. I hope and pray that Allah grants my parents and parents in law a long and healthy life (InshaAllah) but in the meantime, I make it a habit to document this sweet messages for Ryan, Iman and Ranya's reading later on. 

The 3 of you are so loved by the people around you. Don't ever forget that and always be grateful. Love you babies....

 Print screens from Atuk Hanif's FB for Ryan's 6th Birthday (201215) and Iman and Ranya's 4th Birthday (121215)

Ryan's First Day of School 2016

Technically we're already in our 3rd week of January 2016 but I'm not gonna miss the chance of updating my blog on one of my babies biggest milestones - Ryan starting standard one :)

Alhamdullilah all went well... Ryan is making the transition quite smoothly and we're slowly getting use to the new schedule and activities. It is a bit hectic for me, having to do a bit more in terms of supervising homework and even having to start preparing daily bento boxes (that is another story for another post) but I'm going to preserver. Anyway, you want to know what I find weird? I did not see a single kid crying while sending to his sekolah agama and kebangsaan. I guess most of the kids are already used to the experience having joined preschool before. 

So much is happening at the moment, some good but most pretty testing. I'm just praying that Allah will give me patience to go through it all :) Have an awesome long weekend everyone...

TCAZ 2015 End of the Year Activities

I've been religiously collecting pictures of the munchkins from their kindy's page so that I can document it all in my blog. I'm sure one day they would love to see their old photos and in case there's no hard copy photos around, they can always rely on my blog *Inshaallah*

Warning: Picture heavy post. 

Little Spy Day : The 5-6 year old was given the task as "spies" to locate the kidnapped 4 year olds. They had to follow the clues provided by the teachers in order to complete their mission :)

Ryan as a spy

Iman and Ranya as kidnapped victims

Trip to KL Bird Park : A trip to learn about birds and its habitats. The children was also encouraged to bring their own camera, and a team of professional photographers was at hand giving the children lessons on how to aim and take pretty pictures. 

My babies together-gather. Last year where they'll be in the same school togather *sobsob*

Festival Kesenian dan Kebudayaan Islam Antarabangsa , Putrajaya : Ryan's trip under his Pra Tahfiz to observe artifacts on  Islamic cultures. There's a video of Ryan being interviewed by a TV crew, will try and extract it from FB and post it here. 

Toys Day Out: The children are encouraged to bring their own toys from home and play together with their peers. I was around during this exercise and I find it very interesting. A good lesson on sharing. 

Sambutan Hari Jadi Perdana November and December Babies: The school had a mega celebration for Nov-Dec babies before year end so that these children will be able to celebrate with their friends. My children insisted on birthday cake a month before their actual birthday and I obliged :p ( I'm a sucker for birthdays hehe). The look on Iman and Ranya's face is worth the trouble, they were so happy and excited. 

I got them cakes from Wondermilk and made the printouts myself. Happy that the kids liked it.

 There's 7 other kids celebrating together with my munchkins

My Babies!!!

Alhamdullilah for a good learning year :) May Allah grant us with more learning opportunity and beneficial knowledge 

Photos credit :TCAZ FB Page. 

The one where my baby graduated (from kindy but still....)

With just a blink of an eye, it is already December 2015, so much good stuff have happened for the past few months and I shall proceed to blog about it all before the end of the year.

Date: 25 October 2015 (Sunday)

Venue: Crystal Crown Hotel, Klang

Occasion: Ryan's Graduation Day and Iman and Ranya's Talent Day

After 3 years in Tadika Ceria Az-Zahrah, my baby boy has graduated and will be starting standard one next year, Inshallah. He have grown and developed so much and I'm super proud of him Alhamdullilah...

1. Ryan is now able to speak in a more eloquent and less "pelat" manner.
2. He's more comfortable speaking in English and I've seen him use more complicated sentences of late (rather than his usual 2-3 words structure).
3. He's able to independently read his Iqra' textbook, memorize 12 short surah and the first 18 ayat of Surah Yassin.
4. He's able to remember all the actions for all 5 waktu for prayers, we still need to work on his recitations of course. 
5. He's able to read quite fluently in BM *yeay*
6. He's able to understand simple Math's concept (numbers, more-less, big-small etc). He's also quite good with additions (both on paper and mental calculation). 
7. He has awesome geography skills (at least for a 6 year old). He is starting to appreciate the differences between state and country :) He knows for example that New York is in US, Kyoto and Tokyo is in Japan and London is in England. 
8. Ryan love drawing. We got him a sketchbook which he call it his "game book". He will draw his Superheroes, battle plans and maps and pretend that it is a part of "video game".
9. He's able to float and swim for a few short strokes. He's a bit rusty, hopefully we'll be able to synchronized our timetable and get swimming lessons back in our roaster early next year
10. He have become quite a "Master Builder" and is super obsessed with Lego. A hobby that I encouraged. 

As much as we're happy that he's thriving academically, I'm more excited about his emotional, mental and physical development. It is no secret that I'm a huge supporter of "learning through play" and I credit Ryan's improvement in relation to his phonological issues based on the play activities that was conducted at home and his school. Alhamdullilah, we made the right choice in choosing TCAZ for Ryan and his sisters. I admit we don't see the development in 3Ms instantly unlike the more "academic" schools but what I do see is this...

Not only does he have the ability to READ, but there is the love of READING,

He not only know how to COUNT but what COUNT most...

We can't thank the teacher's enough for their dedication. Hopefully Iman and Ranya will also benefit from the school, Inshallah.

Muhammad Ryan Daniel was awarded the Anugerah Mutiara Putera 2015 for his developments and achievement this year. Alhamdullilah he won the special award two years in a row :)

My handsome boy confidently leading the ikrar, My heart burst with pride as a mother who watched him struggle to speak properly 3 years ago. 40% of his development can be attributed to the teachers and family support but I will say the rest he did himself. One of the most determine person I know (adults included :) )

Reciting Surah Yassin as a part of his Pra Tahfiz performance

Play acting the life of a "Turkey Boy"

Princess Ranya who had a meltdown earlier but quickly bounce back and gave the performance of her life :p

My Bollywood Princess Iman, who can't get over the fact everyone was clapping after she and her friend did the cute Indian dance head bopping thingy. "Mummy, kenapa semua orang gelak bila kakak nyanyi???" Hehehe

 My sweet babies, during their first kindy performance. 

 With my little superstars...

The Azlan's Merdeka Day Weekend

In continuation of the wedding celebration we had last week, we managed to cram in a whole load of family activities during the Merdeka weekend. We did not plan to go anywhere this time around as we wanted to avoid the Merdeka/Bersih crowd, so our activities are mostly confined around the Selangor area.

Date: 30 August 2015 (Sunday)

The kids cooked breakfast for mummy and daddy. We made savory bread and butter pudding together. They had so much fun and have already requested for us to bake a cake next. I find cooking to be an awesome way to teach the kids in taking instructions.

Restaurant Review: Zawara Coffee
Been meaning to check out this cafe for ages since my Aunt reviewed the place a few months back. The restaurant is situated in Bukit Jelutung and is quite easy to find. Very spacey (with a in house surau/toilet etc). The place is quite laid back, a nice place to lepak with family and friends.

We tried a few dishes, the kids had the Spaghetti Arabiata (not in picture but taste wise it's spicy and nice but nothing special), I got myself the salted egg buffalo wings (nice but would have been better if it was spicier), two types of churos, one with ice cream & chocolate sauce and the other is with butterscotch sauce ( I prefer the chocolate sauce to the butterscotch, but the churos itself is very nice, crunchy on the outside and lighly dusted with cinnamon, super yums, we originally ordered one box but the kids loved it so much we  had to order extras:))

For drinks we had the Tinkerbell ice blended (super bland, I don't like it at all) and Lan had the Hazelnut Latte (he said it's ok) and two bottles of mineral water. We paid around RM85 for everything. Not cheap but the price is pretty much standard for cafe food in Klang Valley. 

Did we enjoy ourselves? A BIG FAT YES and I would totally come again to try out the other food items on the menu. 

*******************

Date: 31 August 2015 (Monday)

We celebrated Merdeka by celebrating my little Malaysians. We treated them to rides, lunch at their favorite restaurant, shared an ice cream sundae, had a haircut, planted a tree and just spent loads and loads of quality time together. Alhamdullilah like Malaysia, my life is not perfect but there's more good than bad in it, and for that I'm thankful :)