Anas's Graduation & Our Holiday Dilemma

Anas's Graduation

I should have written earlier about Anas's Graduation Night. It was really sweet & charming. The concert was so adorable with 3-year olds dressed in animal costumes!! I love pre-school concerts! Anas performed in a few song & dance but the most special performance was his solo poem recital. When his name was called to recite the poem, he looked so tensed that I thought he would chicken out! Thank God he quickly got over it & spoke clearly although he didn't look happy at all - siap muncung sedepa :-D haha! I was so proud of him! 

Anas & Friends - Baru Pre-school pun dah 

pakai graduation gown!

Anas reciting his poem - with a pout

Pom-Pom dance - they had so much fun :-)

Our Holiday Dilemma

What are we doing with the kids for the School Holidays? Well, we cancelled our earlier plan to go to Hong Kong Disneyland as Adlan did badly in his final exams & we specifically told him that the trip will be cancelled if he did badly. It's a matter of principle. However, we had to reconsider our decision not to go anywhere at all as Adlina & Hakim did really well in their final exams (Adlina actually got a prize for highest in English - she got 100%). It wouldn't be fair to penalize them for something that Adlan did or didn't do. Anyway, thinking back, Adlan did make us proud this year with his other school activities (his choral speaking team won first in State & he was in the Petrosains Actology drama which won 3rd prize at National level). Susah betul jadi parents ni.. we want to teach our kids good values but sometimes we are faced with dilemmas..

So, after much deliberations, we decided to take them to Bangkok instead. Flights were booked & schedules planned. Zaharim & I went to Kino @ KLCC last week to get the necessary Guide Book & spent some time together planning. We are so excited about the trip & the kids are ecstatic! 

UNFORTUNATELY, yesterday Bangkok declared a state of emergency on its 2 airports as they are barricaded by protesters who are not happy with the present Thai government!! YIKES!! Of all times, why now??

Now we are in a REAL dilemma.. Our trip is in 2 weeks. Nak pergi ke tak pergi Bangkok ni... HELP!!! 

Simple Pleasures

Mothers are actually quite easy to please. We thrive on simple gestures & acts performed by our kids. It's the little things that they say or do. What are these things? Well, the list is endless.. and all mothers out there will have their own favourites.

What are the things that will make mothers have that warm & fuzzy feeling of being blessed with beautiful children? The things that they do or say that will make us forget that they were so naughty & were driving us up the wall the day before? Well, here are some examples from my list of favourite simple pleasures:-

1. My little one coming to me & saying: "You are the Best Mom in the World" (of course we always believe this to be true!)
2. Hand-made cards saying "I love you, Mama" (even if accompanied by pictures of aliens invading the world)
3. Coming home to hugs & kisses (an atomic hug is always the best!)
4. My boy saying that he can never find a girl as pretty as his mom (haha! tak percaya, but still feeling warm & fuzzy!)
5. Watching them perform in school concerts (especially adorable pre-school concerts)
6. Watching them walk on stage to receive a prize (my pride & joy!)
7. My little girl saying she wants to grow up to be just like me (this actually brought tears in my eyes. really.)
8. Them running to you first when they fall or get hurt (moms have the magic touch of making everything feel better. It's a gift from God.)
9. Their teachers saying how good & well-behaved they are in school (unbelievable sometimes..)
10. Salam & hugs lepas sembahyang

11. Just watching them as they are sleeping (all of them look so peaceful & angelic when they are sleeping, kan? Bila bangun tidur aje... siap!)

As I said, the list is endless. Mothers, if you are reading this, maybe you can add to this list!

Feeling warm & fuzzy inside,
(^_^)

Last Weekend's Adventure

Been wanting to write about the past weekend but have been too busy to write until today. Here's a summary:-

A trip to Museum Negara:

Having gone to the Singapore Museum of Asian Civilization 3 weeks ago, we thought that it's only fair to take the kids to Museum Negara last weekend. We were quite disappointed that the artifacts on display didn't rise to our expectation. There is not enough content, which is surprising since we have such a rich history & cultural journey spanning more than 6 centuries.

None of the exhibits were interactive or made interesting to young visitors. This would have been fine if the galleries had better artifacts on display. Unfortunately, this was not so. I guess they didn't have enough budget to upgrade the museum which is really sad.

Anyway, the only surprise came in the form of Roti Aiskrim that we bought from the pakcik aiskrim outside the museum. I wonder, do all museums have these ice-cream vendors from bygone days?

The Enlightening SDSI Expo:

The cutout from Berita Harian

Now, this "Satu Daerah Satu Industri" Expo was surprisingly wonderful! It was way above what I thought it would be. Melaka has been hosting the SDSI Expo every 2 years for the past 6 years apparently but we never ventured into the exhibition centre in MITC until this year.

Last weekend, we took the kids to the Expo just to past time & we were overwhelmed by thousands of people and hundreds of products from every state of Malaysia. Most of the products are beautiful & seriously underrated. Malaysia has so much to offer! I love the batik (especially from Terengganu). Adlan came back with a gasing from Temerloh, Hakim with a mengkuang hat from Terengganu, Adlina with a clay pendant from NS & Anas with a rotan keychain from Melaka.

Our kids thoroughly enjoyed learning how things are made from scratch, like the songket tenun and the tikar mengkuang. We didn't even realize that our picture was taken by Berita Harian & published in the newspaper last week! Malunya.. wish they had informed us prior to taking the picture, boleh la senyum sikit or posing-posing :-) We were totally selekeh in our weekend let-our-hair-down-seen-its-better-days clothes. Yikes! Anyway, thanks to Hz for the info - otherwise we wouldn't even have known that our picture came out in BH, selekeh & all :-)

(^_^)

Anas is 6

Adorable Anas

Happy Birthday to our darling Anas who is 6 years old! 

Amongst all our children, Anas is the most mischievious. He is smart and confident. He speaks well from a very young age of 2 and from time to time he will amaze us with some bombastic word that he picked up from Adlan or from a show on TV. 

Anas loves to irritate his brothers and he just knows the right button to push to get them into a frenzy. Hakim is frequently up in arms with Anas. Unfortunately, I find it difficult to be mad at Anas when he gets into a mischief because he is just too adorable. Whenever he pouts, you just feel like pinching his cheeks or hugging him tight.

Anas reasons things well for a boy his age. You can have a good conversation with him about many thing, seriously. He has a good memory & he constantly surprises us with things that he remembered from a long time ago. Anas adores his best friend and only sister, Adlina. They play together and have loads of fun together doing art projects & other stuffs. Adlina would read books for Anas or they would tell each other stories. I really hope that our children will stay close together as they grow older.

Above all, Anas is a real blessing to Zaharim and me. 

We love you, darling. Happy Birthday!

2008 Annual Trip to Jakarta!

The staffs of Messrs. Adillah A. Nordin and their respective spouses were in Jakarta for our annual company trip from Thursday to Sunday last week & we had so much fun!! There were 15 of us in the group, with Mak joining us as usual. Zaharim & me, Kak Midah & Abang Rahim, Kak Faridah, Eyta & Azahari, Faizah & Hizam, Pakcik Long & Kak Zaiton, Mas, Cherryl & Masliza. We all had a BLAST in Jakarta!! 

We stayed at Le Grandeur Mangga Dua which is connected to the famous shopping mall called ITC. The hotel was fantastic & the location was perfect! Just a door to separate the hotel & 3 inter-connected shopping malls! Ini sangat-sangat membahayakan poket & dompet! :-)

Things are so unbelievably cheap in Jakarta, especially telekung, Muslim garments & leather products. If you are in Jakarta to shop, I highly recommend these places in particular:-

Jakarta City Center (also known as Warduk to locals) for Telekung, tudung & Muslim attires;

Tanah Abang Block A for fabric, clothes & garments;

ITC Mangga Dua for leather bags & wallets. 

You will be surprised by the variety & most of all: the Price! Murah Murah Murah!! You will be spoilt for choice! By Friday, most of us realized that we needed more Rupiah & we got so excited when Abang Rahim (who is a banker) informed us that we could withdraw money from the ATM machines! WOWIE!! More shopping sakan!! (I told everyone: Don't look at it as How much you have spent BUT How much you have saved! Heehee..)

Over and above all this, our tour guide Hasim took us to lovely restaurants for our meals. Mak (our tour leader every year!) requested freshly cooked food for all meals, so we didn't have any nasi padang at all (Phew! I don't fancy cold pre-cooked meals..). Instead, we had delicious masakan Sunda for most of the meals. Lots of seafood & vegetables! Yummy! 

I really look forward to these annual trips every year. It's not just the excitement of traveling to a foreign land & discovering new things, it's much more than that. It is a journey where we share good times together, we get to know each other better and we create unforgettable experiences & memories together. It's the bonding. That is truly priceless. 

Then, it was time to go home. Everyone takut excess luggage after all those shopping! But fear not, Azahari did his magic trick after some coaching from Zaharim (wink* wink*) & we were way below the limit!! Will not put in writing how this is done but if you need to know for future reference, do give me a call.. heehee.. :-)

Thanks to everyone for making Jakarta a wonderful & memorable journey! 

(^_^) Ikhlas from me & Zaharim