Ooohhh goodness...

.. what a mess!!!

The above was his latest phrase! You just turned 3 sayang and then you surprised me with that!

Bet this came from the nursery... Mrs Stone, your teacher likes to say that hehehehehe...

Anyway, there was a little celebration for your birthday

Hope you enjoyed it darling!

Birthday boy

It was the letter 'C' week at the nursery, so aptly it was Caterpillar Chocolate Cake with a Candle

And then at night we had our little celebration at home.

Another round of candle blowing!

Many happy returns again sweetheart...

Muahhssss...

Time Flies..

.. when you are having fun!

I can't believe that it's already been 3 years since we first lay our eyes on you. 1,095 wonderful, unforgettable, amazing, unbelievable, sweet days.. How we are blessed...

08:08, on 28.01.08

We are grateful to you Ya Allah

Ar Rahman Ar Rahim

Syukur Alhamdulillah

For bestowing upon us a beautiful son and brother to Qistina

Muhammad Rayyan Faris

Who turned 3 today

We pray that you grow up to be a good Muslim

Lovable, knowledgeable, respectful, kind, strong and all things good

Words can't express how much we love you

We pray and hope that you and us will have many more days and months and years together

To share many more hugs and kisses and laughter and tears

Many happy returns

dearest Rayyan

Anak manja mama and papa

Qistina's baby brother

Allah selamatkan kamu

Sweet tooth

Q & R have sweet tooth. They must have dessert each time after dinner. Since these are the only junk food I will allow (apart from the keropok from kampung which they MUST have during and after dinner), they get to choose what kind of sweet treats they can have.

This week it's smarties chocolate chip giant cookies. Half a piece each, once a day.

Last week - chocolate chip little muffins.

And fairycakes, the week before that.

Did I make all of them myself?

No lah.. All supermarket bought (*all images are from google). :D

Lazy mama... and it is cheaper to buy... (excuses, excuses..)

Hopefully someday my heart will be open to venture into baking these wonderful sweet things. I envy those with this baking oh-so-delicious-treats talent.

Till then, I will just stick to learning how to cook savoury dishes. Speaking of which, tried making dalca last night. Alhamdulillah it turned out fine... Heh..

Edinburgh - Dec'10

Christmas break.

Destination : As above.

Unbelievable weather.

Calf deep snow (are we crazy or what?).

Beautiful place.

Feels like in Narnia.

Stayed near the beach.

-14 degrees.

Had a great time.

Hope you'll enjoy these photos.

Just realised that there's no family photo here.

Did we forget the tripod?

In English We Say.......

..RED! In Spanish we say ROJO (pronounced as roho)!

Qistina and Rayyan is currently so into Dora and Diego so much they have become Spaniards. Hahahahaha... Apart from Spanish here and there, Qistina right now speaks the English sounding VERY English (they speak with a little sing-song way); she used to be very American via Mickey Mouse/JoJo's Circus etc, and then Korean via Pororo (from watching them on youtube). How fast kids pick up languages and slangs... :D

Dora and Diego (Dora's cousin)

Anyway, there is one particular cartoon that I myself enjoy watching here - Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom. The English and their jokes, and the way the punch lines are said, even in cartoons, are a joy to hear and watch. The characters Nanny Plum (Holly's nanny) and the Wise Old Elf always have the best lines - so much so that sometimes Papa and I will crack up laughing hehehehehe... There's (obviously) Ben - an Elf (with his family), and Holly - a Fairy princess (and her royal family), who are best of friends in their little kingdom. Every episode is a different story and as most other cartoons nowadays, they always teach the kids something good.

There's also Peppa Pig - an 8minute/episode cartoon, and Qistina loves it. About a family of pink-coloured pigs who likes to snort; and their friends of many animals. The characters are quite cute, and Qistina now have Peppa's lunch bag, boots and some clothes. Rayyan on the other hand, have a mix of everything - Thomas' jacket, Bob's boots and George's (Peppa's brother) hat/gloves/scarf.

Peppa and her family - Mommy Pig, Daddy Pig and little brother George

Thomas the Tank

Bob the Builder

Well, now that Rayyan will be going to nursery school, he will need a lunch bag too. Ben 10 perhaps?

* all images are from Google

Love thy Neighbour

Our neighbours :-

#27 - Michael & Joanne

#30 - Mike & Joyce

#34 - Matt & Pam

#42 - Susan - coz I only met her and the kids during pick up/sending the kids to school

I am putting this down so that I won't forget their names hehehehe...

:D

Big School

This is a delayed entry, as I was supposed to update Qistina's journey-so-far at the Big School. She went into proper school 5 weeks before the winter break, having the luxury to experience the festive atmosphere of the then upcoming Christmas. She was involved with a Christmas play, which her Papa and myself had the chance to attend and enjoy. Of course the whole event that she took part was recorded on video - mostly for the grandparents and Wan Chu and all other relatives back in Malaysia hehehehee...

First day of school

Anyway, I almost had a heart attack when picking her up on her first day at Big School. There I was (with Rayyan) waiting for her at the gate where all the parents of the Reception students were waiting and one after another the students started coming out. But there was no Qistina. I asked her teacher #2 who then went in to look for her in the washroom. She came out with a worried face. Still, no Qistina. I can feel blood drained from my face. Where could she be?

I started to panic, my heart was already pounding so fast it literally felt like it will jump out of my chest. I decided to go into the school building, carrying Rayyan while shouting her name! It was a good 2 rounds in the school compound, now out of breath and still without Qistina, my tears started to fall. My mind was racing with so many things. What to tell her Papa? Ok, a little bit DQ here on my part but I couldn't help it..

I went back to where I was waiting for her.

Then her teacher #2 told me that she was located at the nursery adjacent to the school. Phewwwwwhhhh!!!! I was so relieved! Apparently she followed one of her new friends to the nursery a.k.a daycare - her friend's mom worked so she goes there after school and Qistina, thinking that it was a norm, went to follow the new friend!

I waited for a few minutes and there she was, with teacher #1 walking towards me. I then thanked the teachers and told Qistina to wait for me at the gate the next day onwards. Owh what an adventure...

The days after that was fairly ok. On the 2nd day she had a fall while playing, tore her tights and scraped her knees; then the week after that she had 3 'accidents' and came back with loaned uniforms.

3rd week she came home with a letter saying that she was chosen to be a 'star' on the Christmas play and that I will have to make a costume for that occasion. And then onwards she started singing all the songs she learnt for the play. 4th week was a breeze but 5th week she was quite unwell and did not attend school for 3 days..

But in all she is enjoying school. She is now able to read simple sentences from the books she brought home. The winter break was certainly a welcome holiday but she was looking forward for the spring term, which started on 6th Jan.

Goodbye! This is my last post...

... for 2010! Though technically it is only published in 2011, it has been there in draft since the last day hehehehe.... Cheating eh?

Anyway, 2010 has been a life changing year for most part, and bitter sweet memories have been made this year. We are now in a journey of our lifetime, and we pray for a better future.

So what did we all - in a foreign land that is so cold - do to celebrate the coming of 2011?

a. Too cold to go to the park for a picnic, and it was raining..

b. Too lazy to browse around the shopping malls as we are sure it will be crowded..

c. Rayyan has just recovered from bouts of diarrhoea..

But since school is about to open - for both Qistina and Papa, we decided to have a hair cut! Save for me, all the others had their turn sitting on the barber's chair.

the messy-tangling-before-haircut look

the barber-doing-his-thing

the neat-crew cut-school going-after look

My aunt said Rayyan looked like Mawi. Owh nooo!!! :P

Spent about £10 for the three of them. What a steal!!!!

Anyway, i hope it is still not too late to wish everyone a great new year. Hope what you want to achieve in 2011 will be achieved! Till then, sayonara for now...

A medley of all sorts - part 2

It's been a while since this blog gets updated. First of all my hands were kind of tied and I get busy when the kids and their papa is at home during the winter break. Moreover the kids were feeling a little poorly prior to the break so when the school finally closed it was recuperating time. Owh wait, we were away for a while and then time to recuperate. And we had my nephew here. Anyway, this was what that has happened the past 3 weeks :-

1. Christmas Party at Rayyan's nursery

A little get together was organised by the nursery for the kids and the parents to celebrate the holidays. Father Christmas was there to give away gifts to the kids, and Rayyan got a little red control car! Very thoughtful of the nursery. The kids performed some Christmas songs wearing cute little costumes and headgears. Rayyan had Rudolph on his head :D

Rayyan will not be returning to the same nursery, as I am registering him to the nursery adjacent to Qistina's school - more convenient for me so this was like a goodbye party for Rayyan.

2. Qistina's Christmas Play

The Reception classes at Qistina's school organised a little Christmas play for the parents, a few days before the winter break. It's a nativity play about Christmas so there are angels, sheep, shepherd and Christmas stars among others. Qistina was one of the Christmas stars and performed Reach with her friends. I will never forget that day! I was so proud of her I had tears in my eyes hehehehe... Alhamdulillah I captured it on video so whenever I want to re-live that day, I will just watch the video :D

3. The gathering of SARHAL's cucundas

My nephew, or Qistina and Rayyan's cousin came with his mom to the UK on the 16th to experience winter and the snow. Boy we had quite a bit of snow! In fact the weekend before Christmas the whole UK was on a standstill as the weather was really bad - heavy snow! Flights and trains and busses were cancelled, highways were closed, Christmas shopping was halted etc... Anyway, they still enjoyed their stay here and they went to quite a few places.

They gathered back at our place before continuing their journey to Kent and head home. The weather was a blessing to them as they get to spend a bit more time here. We miss you already Abang Ashraff!!

4. Winter break trip to Edinburgh

Read about this here.

5. Sledding!

Abang Ashraff has left the kids with a red coloured sled to play before he departed back to Malaysia. So when the snow stopped, it was a must that we visit the park nearby our house, then covered in snow and has plenty of slopes to go sledding. The kids had so much fun they wanted us to buy a bigger sled! Let the pictures do the talking..

Unfortunately the snow stopped falling after that. No more sledding...

On Christmas morning we went to our favourite place - Stratford Upon Avon and took a picture at the signature riverbank...

That's it for now! See ya later!