Bling bling baby!!

We went to watch Beverly Hills Chihuahua Monday night, starring Chloe the little Chihuahua, with the voice of Drew Barrymore. I love Barrymore -- she can pull off any character and always appear so sweet and innocent, padahal rasanya tak lah innocent sangat kan, *wink*wink*

Little Chloe is the epitome of Hollywood pet dogs -- wearing fabulous designer costumes and eating gourmet food. Siap ada bling bling lagi around the neck. You can say diamonds are Chloe's best friend! It wasn't shown in the movie, but I bet minum pun Evian water aje...

notice the bling bling??

The girls wanted to watch Bedtime Stories but we could not fit the timing of the show into our schedule, so Beverly Hills Chihuahua it was. Truth be told, I yang teringin nak watch this movie after watching the trailer on TV since last month (was it?). Knew it was gonna be another fun Disney movie -- ada Jamie Lee Curtis (she was hillarious in Disney's Freaky Friday - one of our fav movies).

Turned out little Chloe is not your regular dumb blonde Chihuahua after all (think Paris Hilton!). To make a long story short, Chloe managed to trace her roots after a long adventure, albeit accidentally and in the end went back to being a Beverly Hills Chihuahua, only this time with her feet (all four) rooted firmly on the ground! :-D

In the movie, Chloe was shown being transported everywhere in her owner's latest LV dog carrier. And guess what? This morning I saw two little teddy bears belonging to the two girls, each in a handbag wearing bling bling!! Hahaha... it was hillarious!! Konon-konon lah tu!! :-D

close-up of bling bling!!

"ton ton ton ta raa... Chihuahua.. ton ton ta raa... Chihuahua"... can't get the theme song out of my head now!!

A surprise for moi!!

My phone kept ringing every 15 minutes since 5pm on Friday. Like a broken tape recorder, the phrase, "bila mommy nak balik", "what time are you coming home," ajelah yang Maira & Misha asyik dok tanya...

I purposely wanted to stay a little late at the office to try and finish up all the work... it's a busy time of the year now. My plan was to leave after Maghrib, pick up the girls and head straight to my mom's for our monthly majlis ilmu with Dr Fatma.

At 6.45pm another desperate call came again. When I told Maira that I won't be coming up to the apartment and for her to just wait with Misha and Bibik at the security post when I call later, I could hear worried voices in the background. And I heard a couple of voices too.

"Macamana ni... mommy tak nak naik atas..." I heard in the background... hmmmm... I knew the girls were up to something!!!

"We haven't finished our Kumon worksheets, mommy kena naik atas laaa,"... I knew it was a trick... they must have something up their sleeves, I told myself. Haahaa... it was funny...

And since we had to be at my mom's by 9pm, I decided to pack my things in the office and head home. What'dya know?? The moment I came in the door, "SURPRISE!! Happy Birthday!!" with confetti strewn at me!!

The lights in the house were out, two girls were holding a birthday cake and another two holding a giant birthday card!!

It's a surprise birthday party for me!! (tho' my b-day is not until 2 days later ...)

Maira, her two best friends Maisara & Azreen and Misha + Bibik had decorated the house with balloons + Happy Birthday banners + streamers and a birthday spread on the table!!!

I was impresssed!! I told the girls my birthday isn't until Sunday, but they said it would've been impossible for them to plan a surprise for me had it been a non-working day. Betul, jugak kan?? hehe... so they decided Friday was the best day to do it!!

On the table was nasi goreng brought by Azreen, the cake was bought by Maisara's mom (thank you, thank you!!), Bibik made fried meehoon, some mango jellies they took home from class party, oranges and leftover muffins I baked for their class party. I was soooo soooo touched!!! And soooo proud of the girls!! And to think that they managed to keep it to themselves!! Tu yang paling impressed hehe..

It seems they waited and waited for me to come home... sampai laparrrr sangat!! Kesian!! It was half past seven when I got home and apparently the last time they ate was at their class party earlier!! They said they were busy preparing everything and was nervous sampai tak boleh nak makan!! So cute!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you gurrrrrllssss... mommy/auntie really really appreciate it!!

And the birthday card was so touching as well....

What can I say but Alhamdulillah... thank you, God for blessing me with everything that you have chosen just for me... I am indeed blessed.

To Maira & Misha, my best birthday present is of course having you as my children... to have met your dad and build this little family of ours... may Allah bestow his blessings upon daddy, ya girls... Ameen... The three of you are indeed the best things God had given me... and this time of the year is indeed special... I married my soulmate just a day before my birthday 11 years ago...

To Muslim readers reading this, hope it's not too much of me to ask you to recite Al-Fatihah for my beloved arwah...

Al-Fatihah...

School's out (well, almost!!)

Been awhile since I updated this blog... not much has happened since, just been really busy at work... (sigh)

But today I was on leave. Yeay!! The occasion?? To attend my girls' Performance Day... a hari penyampaian hadiah of sorts.

Maira got 3rd place in class, so she received a class placement prize. She was actually 2nd in class this final semester, but only 60% of the final semester exam marks were considered for final class placement... 30 % came from the first semester exam and another 10 (I think, not so sure on the percentages) from akhlaq, homework etc.

Misha finished 6th in her class, so tak dapat apa-apa laaa... I think I need to put more pressure on the girls, la... I admit I've been quite laid-back in my attitude when it comes to their academic studies lately. Bad mom!! Too late now to nyesal, right?? Well, to give credit to Misha, she didn't do too badly I suppose. Her average was 90%, still A kan?? Just need to be better and better next year. 90% is not good enough!!

The Performance Day also saw 4 teams competing for the Best Performance... macam talent show la... these 4 teams were the top 4 out of 15 teams which competed earlier on.

The PA system was awful... especially during the Primary 3 performance. The children had to repeat, repeat and repeat the first half of their performance... kesian. I think it affected their performance. Well, then again not really. They were still really good. What was affected was the marking by the judges. The head judge, former teeny-bopper from S'pore Maizurah did comment that the judges looked for a 'short and sweet' performance -- one that was not delayed by technical hiccups... hmmm... not the children's fault what if the PA system was bad. Really bad. B-A-D bad!! Ahh well, to me personally the Primary 3 performance was the best and it was pretty obvious too from the applaud they received from the audience. So, they won in my books. Did I mention Maira was in the team?? Heheh... by the way they emerged second runner-ups...

Tomorrow is the class par-tay!! Yeay!! Makes me wish I was still in school. School holiday = tak yah bangun pagi pergi sekolah. Misha especially still can't get over the concept why working people don't have long holidays like school holidays. Hmmm... work holidays?? I wish!! :o)

Of course school party have to bring food, kan?? After lunch outside, we came home and baked two types of muffins – Oreo muffins and banana muffins for the school party. Of course, riuhlah my cute kitchen when the girls take part in kitchen activities hehe. Hmmm… as I’m typing this, the aroma of freshly baked muffins still lingers on (I belum mandi!!) hehe…

Ok lah, before I go hit the showers, here are some photos to break the too-much-text (ramblings) in this post!!

UPDATED: Photos successfully uploaded :-D

The photos snapped by Misha. Mommy too shy to stand in front of the stage and expose backside (badside??)to everyone!!

The girls with goodies for the school party...

Salam Aidilfitri 1429!!

Buka Puasa surprise

The office had a buka puasa do for the staff last night. Spouse and family members were invited to join. I brought my girls, of course.

Went to pick them up from school at 3pm and rushed back to work, arriving at the office at 3.45pm. I was going to join in a discussion with Angkasa*wan Negara (yes, that's what it says on his namecard) Major Dr F*aiz Khaled at 4pm.

We took the lift from the ground floor and it stopped on the first floor. Guess who was in the lift?? The Angkasawan himself!! (he was early for the meeting). That was a nice surprise for the girls. A couple of months ago, Dr F*aiz was at their school giving a talk and Misha had come home complaining that she waited in line forever to get his signature but when she reached Dr F*aiz's table, the big boys pushed her away and she fell on her knees!! Kesian :-(

Back to the scene in the lift -- my boss who was with him introduced me and I told the Angkasawan about Misha's incident and the friendly Angkasa*wan terus shook her hands. Malu pulak Misha time tu... haha... it was cute.

I later adjourned to my meeting (sans the girls, of course) with the Angkasa*wan and he later joined us for the buka puasa.

Dapatlah Maira & Misha ambik gambar with him puas-puas!

The friendly dentist also layan all the anak-anak yatim from two orphanages who were invited to the do. He was genuinely nice, that I can say.

In November last year I took the girls to meet with the first Angkasa*wan Dr Sh*eikh at one of the exhibitions. After a session of picture-taking and shaking hands, the girls (who were on cloud nine for the rest of the day) claimed they did not want to wash their hands forever!! Haa... penangan Dr SMS. I must add that he is really really good-looking (kalau tak bercakap le) :-)

Dr S*heikh with us in Nov last year.

Raya on my mind (already??)

Dah siap shopping raya semua? Ya, though I confessed to having completed shopping raya for my girls in Jakarta & Bandung last month, I couldn't resist getting them more stuff when we jalan-jalan at the mall last week. It was actually to get my maid some baju raya, but ended up getting the girls three new items each as well. Tu lah akibatnya shopping masa puasa... nafsu makan disekat, so nafsu shopping yang dilayan... ish ish...

I also got them a pair of ready-made baju kurung each on Sunday. I thought the baju looked sooo adorable... cannot tahan la... this is on top of 2 baju kurung which my mom tempah for them the other day. Now, have to think of a way to explain to mom pagi raya when the girls tak pakai baju yang dia buatkan... how ah? Dahlah she always tell people that she has given up buying things for me because I always dislike what she gets. Mesti dia kecik hati, kan? So my plan is for them to wear the more 'glamorous' baju kurung (glamorous sebab ada jahit labuci, tu je...) which I bought in the morning and then change into the 'sweet and humble' baju kurung which mom made in the evening. Ok kot...

My fav raya cookie Melting Almond dah sampai. My choc chip cookie and kuih samperit belum buat lagi. Plenty of time left to do some baking. The office will be closed for a week (three days of forced leave for everyone) during raya. A total of 9 days off work. Yeay!!

(Gambar untuk sekadar menghiasi post... these cookies are not mine...)

I have always always loved raya. Family gatherings, fabulous food, baju raya, melawat saudara-mara, rumah yang berseri-seri dengan cahaya Syawal etc. It truly is the best time of the year.

However, raya is different for us now. No more baju sedondon for the 4 of us. Just three. Of course, the difference is much much more than that. Ye la... what is raya without the one you love?? No more salam pagi raya from suami yang dikasihi and the list goes on (dah start sedih dah, so I better stop here - if I can help it, I takmo bersedih2 sgt).

Ok lah... sebelum dapat beraya, let's continue to menghayati Ramadhan yang tinggal 18 hari saja lagi. Insya-Allah the last ten nights of the current month of Ramadhan will start on Saturday night, 20 September, and the 27th night will then fall on Friday night, 26 September (thanks, Prof R*dza for the info). Hence, we can start to prepare/plan the necessary to grab the blessings and forgiveness from Allah SWT during this important period.

Selamat beribadah, y'all!!

And off we went...

Finally, the day came for our much-deserved break and we left last Tuesday afternoon. It was time well spent and I am happy my girls enjoyed themselves. (more stories and pictures later)


Alhamdulillah... thank you, God.

A kampong getaway

Am letting the pictures speak for our recent wonderful experience in a kampong resort @ Janda Baik...

lounging around...

what a wonderful wooden walkway...

pretty tiles...

the girls' closest experience of being in a kampong...

their first sungai experience...

It's as though time stood still in the kampong...

We had barbeque!

And the lonely kitten who bid us farewell...