Morphed

Raising teenagers can be daunting on parents. When will the issues ever end, one might ask? It will never.

Yusof has entered his new phase in his life. He definitely has a mind of his own now...He chooses his own style, charters his future path, over-zealously speaks his mind and so forth. Physically, he's shot up to almost my height and we share the same shoe size. This means, half of my sporting wardrobe not surprisingly lands in his! That reminds me, I need to replenish mine!

Issues which are attached to this metamorphosis are indeed alien to us. Khadijah went through the same morphing process but the issues are definitely dissimilar. The only common thread is that wifey and I are indeed at wits' end, initially! Yes, there is no one proven formula that fits all! Every day we learn new things as parents. And we take it in our own stride...one step at time.

Yusof is attending his Syabab Fatayat's (co-curricular activity organised by his school which teaches discipline etc through community service programmes, marching, first-aid etc) weekend camp and so the house will be a tad quiet with his absence. We miss him dearly!

More art...

I like this; so whimsical. Is it the naive style? Not sure myself.

Got Khadijah an easel, acrylic paints and three sets of mounted canvas last Saturday. Lucky for me there are a few art supplies shops in Taman Melawati which are barely five minutes' away. There is an art institute there hence the many art supplies shops.

She hardly wasted her time to start a piece - of wifey and Hajar but still unfinished. Now I understand why good art pieces cost a bomb! Artistic people just do not bow down to pressure. They take their time to be in sync with their creative juices, don't they?

Charcoal on paper

I turned 41 less than a minute ago...It was just a not-so-quiet dinner at Thaba with my family, my parents, sister and hubby and nephews and niece - cake with candles included. Looking forward to lunch with wifey later today...

In the mean time enjoy Khadijah's pieces!

Khadijah's art adventure

Khadijah was running an art-marathon a few days ago finishing her school art folio. This girl has got talent but refuses to admit it. Saw her charcoal landscape sketch last night and I thought it was good. She had annotated colour schemes on the sketch. I think she's going to transfer the idea somewhere else. True enough, she's asked me to buy readily-mounted-canvas and acrylic paint this weekend. But still she's not disclosing what the big "project" is. I have thought about sending her for serious art lessons but don't know where lah (NJ - any idea?).

Khadijah's piece

Only Ibraheem and Umar have finished their mid year exam. Yusof will finish on Monday and Khadijah on Wednesday. As usual, no pre-exam study is needed for them save for Khadijah who knows of her responsibility.

Ne concrete plans for school hols. Khadijah does not want to follow us if we decide to go on a trip. She'll be with my sister, I suppose! What they have asked is if they can go back to Ayer Baloi. Mmm...how considerate - that will not hurt my pocket!

A party that was

Ib had his birthday party and wifey and I are so relieved. It was a hectic but pleasant week for the both of us after failing to persuade Ib out of his self-planned weekend. You see, his and his siblings' exams started this morning and obviously having a party for him would mean that the last-minute-pre-exam-prep-night is out of the equation! But we eventually relented and let him have the party. It was late nights for mum and dad, though...

Wifey doesn't belive in catering since she wants her touch, exclusively, in the party's spread. So from rolled fondant to curry had to be from her kitchen. She had to give in at some point and asked my work partner's (Superwomanwannabe) maid to fry noodles and ordered roti jala from Kak Jie. I on the other hand had the easier task - party packs (abandoned this idea after Superwomanwannabe suggested tees painting) and decor (how convenient!). I did more than that, though - our maid and I prepared vol-au-vent (it was dead easy [thanks to youtube tutorial]- bought pastry from Bagus, rolled it, cut it with scone cutter and chucked in to the oven) and mini meringue cases for summer fruit pavlovas (left over from wifey's choux pastry egg whites). Easy as it may sound but we had to sleep at about half three a.m. the morning of the party!

The D-day itself was even more chaotic. Three visits to the loacl supermarket and a visit to the nerest mall was my department whilst wifey was holding the fort at home with the help of our maid and a part-time helper.

Whilst scouring for white tees for the kids to draw/paint on and bring them back, I came across plain mugs and decided to organize mug decorating activity for the kids. Tees painting can be quite messy for the younger ones and some of the kids might end up with tees not their size! The kids really had fun decorating the mugs!

One thing which I was supposed to do which became a surgeon's (superwomanwannabe's hubby) job was to come up with the pinata! Ib came back from school Friday evening and told me that SW's children were making one for him and this I verified with SW and had some truth in it....! Lo and behold...Mr Surgeon himself had to finish one after his kids did it halfway....He slept at 6 a.m the day itself to finish it! It turned out lovely! Thanks J**!

It was fun...good turn out and good company. We are glad Ib insisted he had the party!

HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY IB!

B'day Boy

Food

Mini Pavlovas

Baked Macaroni

Croquembouche

Cuppies

Sophia's painted mug

JoJo having a go

The dragon pinata

Mug painting/decorating

Ib wants a party

Ib's turning 8 this 17th and he wants a party. He wants to celebrate it with his classmates. So, mom and dad are frantically organising one for him! It'll be one hectic week ahead for us.

Invitation cards : printed; menu/food/drinks : mum's job; party favours : my department (haven't started); pinata (yes he wants one - this will be about the only party game which I agreed) : my department; decorations : my department; cake : from mum's kitchen (he wants Arsenal dragon themed cupcakes); that should be it, right? - it'd better be!

Until then.....

Labour Day Weekend

It has been a dream of my dad to organize a gathering to reunite his immediate family - his siblings, half-siblings, step-siblings and step-mother. They had, somewhat, grown apart since the demise of my paternal grandad who passed on when I was fifteen.

The house in Ayer Baloi was inhabited by my dad step-sister and her family with my dad's blessing since Tok Ayah's passing-on. She was the caretaker of the house until her demise a few years ago. The house was then occupied by her husband until last November, when my dad decided to refurbish the house as its condition had become unfit for habitation.

Last weekend was just perfect for the reunion; the house condition is almost fully restored and furnished (except the compound), as you can tell from the pictures. My parents organized a thanksgiving and tahlil khenduri for the reunion. Guests were feasted with nasi ambeng; a javanese traditional spread prepared by my mom's siblings who are of Javanese and Yunnanese descent served to my dad's family who are of Arab, Bugis and Malay descent! We are indeed a confused lot but proud to be Malaysian!

I would say that it was a weekend full of emotions, some even had tear-jerking moments; witnessing the reunion of siblings whom have not met under one roof for the longest time was simply awesome! My step grand-mom was there with her grandchildren whom I have not met and all my dad's living siblings were there except for Mak Bal, my dad's cousin who was taken care by my grandparents. At the end of the reunion, promises were made to have such gathering again in the near future; I believe it will be during Eid! I'm looking forward to this coming Eid as we will definitely be in Ayer Baloi (3rd day possibly) to celebrate with re-kindled uncles, aunties, cousins and distant relatives.

First living room area

Second living room area
Nasi Ambeng

Last day in Ayer Baloi; dead tired, I believe

Butterfly in the garden

Some hanging plants

Hajar napping

Newly planted lemon tree

Old-school plant; Puteri Menyembah Bumi (the flowers literally droop to the ground once bloom!)

Pokok Melati

Newly planted Pokok Pulasan

Cempaka tree

The house

L-R Pak Po (half-sibling), Pak Nan (half-sibling), My dad, Pak Ngah (sibling)

Another anniversary of birth

Wifey turned forty one almost eight hours ago..Exactly a year ago, the above pictures were supposed to be posted BUT I procrastinated; so shoot me : ). BTW ignore the U in FOURTY as it was a mistake by the bakers. Those were the cuppies I surprised her with last year together with a handbag.

What did we do for her birthday, you ask? It went uneventful, as usual...Not not really, wifey baked brownies and I ferried Khadijah to and fro her tuition class and later exercised my lungs on the boys to get them study...(the last I checked this word did not exist in their dictonaries).

What was supposed to be a surprise prezzie for wifey became public knowledge a few days before her birthday; so there I presented her with her current dream kitchen gadget (which she has made in no uncertain terms that she wanted it here; truthfully, I would have gotten her anyway even if she had not disclosed it as I'm the happiest person on earth when she decided to take on baking - an activity which I have been hinting that she'd take up for the past 10 years!) a couple of days ago after I arrived from Kuantan.

Presenting her new toy (in white, though!) which she did not defer using nor hesitate in making my every ringgit worth spending (he he he); we had vanilla and carrot cupcakes 3 hours later - - - - -

Oopsie...I have not wished wifey Happy Birthday...So dear wifey.....

"Semoga Allah mencucuri rahmatNya, memurahkan rezq, memberkati segala perbuatan, menerima segala amalan, panjang umur....Selamat menyambut hari kelahiran ke 41"