Iftar Weekend with the SPK and BBGS Girls!

It was certainly a crazy weekend... we had to squeeze two major buka puasa events that same week!

As always, Hubby doesn't like to go out for iftar. He's willing to make an exception somewhat for the first half of Ramadhan; but the last ten days are a big no-no for him. That, plus the dateline of my helper leaving for her Raya holidays... meant that we had to squeeze iftar with both equally important groups, on the same weekend!

On Friday night, the SPK gang came over. Pot luck style as usual. Out of the six, one is always the designated cook. She is so good at cooking and efficient in the kitchen, that she usually ends up making the main dish. The rest supplements it with whatever we can. So that day we had ikan patin masak tempoyak, pucuk tempoyak, ikan talapia sambal, sup tulang (made using that famous Noxxa), ayam goreng, daging hitam, sayur campur... and for moreh, meehoon goreng, satay and murtabak!

Superb dessert line too - cucur udang, buah melaka (some people call it onde-onde), karipap, tepung pelita (Aiden's favourite), keropok (for Ian) and last but not least, I ordered an orange cake with chia seeds. Chia seeds are now all the rage for losing weight, so that night we used that rationale to justify our cake frenzy session!

Extensive spread.

Dessert area... oh my calories! And that's 10 cups of rice for six families. 

The men enjoying their food after solat maghrib. The ladies... lepas azan dah terus makan!

Moreh time!

Cheeky group photo.

After the group photoshoot, we moved to the garden for our yearly tradition. We've been writing messages using sparklers since we became friends in 2011, making this our 5th Eid together. In 2014, we realized that we had to start including the year within the message, so that we could keep track of the photos. So here's a compilation of our sparkler shots since 2012 till now. (Read about our past iftars here and here.)

From bottom to top, 2012 till 2016.

Here are the full shots from this year's attempt:

The full 2016 shot.

That's not PM but rather DM6 - the number signifies the number of ladies in the gang.

This one is a new one - one of the daddies eagerly joined in for the 'underline' at the bottom.

The next day was all about the BBGS ladies. Last year it was held at my house, but this year we decided to beralih angin to Dayang's house. Out of the 7, only 5 were able to make it. Since I was in charge of dessert (they were hoping that I would make pavlova), I took the lazy way out and bought cucur udang instead. #soontobemaidless #malasnakkecahrumah

Aiden was given a huge privilege that night. Since he was the only child fasting that day, he was allowed to sit at the big table with the other adults. I've said this once but I'll say this again - I am really impressed by his dedication at fasting. Hubby and I never expected for him to be able to fast full day, everyday, to date. He has exceeded our expectations!

Kesian Aiden gigit jari tunggu waktu berbuka.

All of us smiling after a full meal of nasi arab.

Then we moved on to desserts!

Meanwhile, the kids were busy in the toy area. Ian seems to really enjoy cooking! #realmencancook

Oh my, two anak dara flanking Aiden!

Ian finally came out to join the fun.

My BBGS girls have started adopting the tradition too!

Here's our shot for 2016. (Dayang, how come you can't even make a straight number 1???) *giggles*

Confident enough to hold it on his own!

While Hubby was taking shots of Ian holding his own sparklers, I was always just by Ian's side to ensure that he didn't touch the fire... or anything of that sort. Of course nothing happened while we were being vigilant. Just a few minutes later while the gang were doing our sparkler messages... as soon as the sparklers died out, I immediately walked to Hubby to review the shot, andddddd guess what happened.... Ian came up to me and grasped the end of my sparkler, in an attempt to take it. Although the fire had died out, it was still hot! He immediately let go and started crying. I was shocked... but thankfully nothing serious - only a slightly reddish mark on his palm. *sigh* Hard lesson learnt - always throw away your sparklers before reviewing the shot!

Last photo for the night.

As if one camera wasn't enough!

Thank you SPK and BBGS ladies, for a wonderful iftar together. You know who you are! *smiles*