Annual Iftar Weekend

Oh my! Last few days of Ramadhan and I barely blogged about my Iftar adventures.

As usual, I simply must blog about the annual SPK and BBGS girls iftar. Similar as last year, both events were held during the same weekend. Purely coincidental in nature!

On Friday night, the SPK gang came over. This year, we were five instead of six. *cries* The other family moved to Kedah and couldn't come home for our annual affair.

Potluck style as usual, but a simpler spread this time. My helper made ayam penyek (special request from one of the gang). We also had daging salai masak lemak, sotong telur masin, sambal tempe ikan bilis, sayur campur, telur dadar, ulam and sambal belacan. For dessert I made kek sarang semut and the rest supplemented with murtabak, roti john and tepung pelita.

Glorious food!

No pretty baju kurung photoshoots this year, since some of us were in jeans (moi included). Perhaps a proper gang picture session is required in Syawal! We also took the opportunity to celebrate Ayu's birthday. Since we've all been severely Ducked, we decided to give her a Duck gift card. Beautifully wrapped too!

A dUCk gift card for a special person.

After terawih, we moved to the garden for our yearly tradition. This will be our 6th year writing messages using sparklers. As usual, here's a compilation of our sparkler shots since 2012:

Six years in a row!

Raya 2017! We got this right in the first try!

This year, the anak anak dara dah besar, hence we decided to include them in our yearly tradition too.

"Iftar" with an additional underline at the bottom, and then all the kids joined in the fun too!

Fireworks galore.

The girls' lepak session at the outdoor gazebo.

Past midnight, the men decided that they needed a lepak session at the local kedai mamak. In return, the ladies decided to leave the kids at home and crash the men's party. When we arrived, we quietly took a table mere meters from the men, but behind a pillar... kononnya nak do some sleuthing as well. It was good fun, cos we were giggling away while looking at our spouses. But to the rest of the restaurant patrons, we must have looked suspicious, ogling at men in the middle of the night. *chuckles* But I guess the joke's on us, because after just 10 minutes, our men stood up and walked to the car (to go home). They saw us, smiled, and instead of joining us as we expected them to, they drove off! We laughed so hard that night. Thank god one of us had the decency to bring her wallet, kalau tak basuh pinggan la kitaorg kat kedai mamak tuh.

Spying on our husbands... not!

On Sunday night, Fiza hosted the BBGS annual Iftar. Since the host decided that KFC was the way to go this year, we simply supplemented with desserts and such. I bought murtabak!

For the first time in a longggggg time, we managed to get everyone together under one roof.

Lighting up our sparklers, for our now yearly tradition...

Tadaaaa!

Kids in the garden, before they started throwing pop pops around.

The ladies then continued with our group photo shoot inside the house, while the husbands took care of the kiddos outside.

Formal shot.

Informal shot!

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

Superheroes!

A few weekends ago, Aiden and Ian were invited to a Superhero themed birthday party. (I swear the kids have a more interesting social life than ours.)

It was Ali's first birthday and the event was held at KLGCC. Aiden and Ian were super excited to find an excuse to wear their superhero costumes, but I swear - it's the last time Aiden can wear his Iron Man costume. Dah ketat! Ian on the other hand, inherited Aiden's Batman costume which fitted him perfectly, save for some last minute slight length alteration.

Upon arrival, we were ushered to the photo booth for a family photo. Aiden had a slight blunder during the second shot - he covered the whole camera with his face! *giggles*

The first thing they spotted as they walked into the hall, was face painting. Aiden was already a pro at it, so he sat quietly while the artist drew an Iron Man mask to complement his costume. Ian on the other hand, was not quite cooperative. It was his first experience hence he didn't understand why the brush was tickling his face. I tried to show the progress by letting him see his face through my camera, but he was still fidgety and such. Nasib baik Batman only needed a half faced mask as opposed to a full faced Iron Man mask!

Not a happy face.

Such a pro!

The superheroes dessert table.

Scrumptious brownies. And neat idea to put cookies into jello cups, but unfortunately it made the cookies soggy.

Batman and Iron Man posing with Wonder Woman!

As soon as Ian was done, he raced to the mini slides and ball pit. Aiden went to join the bigger kids at the stage for some fun and games. Seeing that both the kids were occupied, we decided to settle down for some food. I think we were halfway through our meal, when I saw Ian walking at the tables in front of us and asking a lady something. Apparently he was asking the lady to find his parents! *chuckles* I called out to him and as soon as he saw me he came running to me, pointed to the stage (at Aiden, indicating that he wanted to join his brother) and ran to the stage.

I watched curiously, as he was given a Hulk mask (which was way too big for him, and totally inappropriate for his costume). He struggled with it as it kept sliding. But soon my attention turned to Aiden as he was invited to the front to perform some action moves.

Didn't have time to turn on my video, so here is a blurry shot of Aiden punching and kicking in the air!

Aiden confidently strutting his moves. Can you see Ian struggling with his mask?

As soon as Aiden was done, the emcee attempted to call another boy out, when suddenly he said, "Mayday mayday, mummy needed!" It turned out to be Ian, bawling his eyes out behind the mask! Of course I couldn't see it, nor hear it behind all that racket! Ian was crying because he was frustrated that his mask kept sliding down! *giggles*

Face paint streaked with tears.

Afterwards, Ian refused to return to the stage. He preferred to play at the ball pit and bouncing castle. Eventually he came around to me complaining that his face wasn't nice (sape suruh nangis!!!) and he actually agreed to a face paint touch up! Aiden on the other hand had the time of his life playing various games. (He had like three mouthfuls of food in between games.) He won two games; one of it with Hubby's help who cleverly managed to insert seven straws in his hair! (Quite an achievement if compared to sticking straws into a girls ponytail or braided hair!)

Second round at face-painting. Now he's a pro!

Intricate weave of straws!

Transformers and Iron Man decided to make an appearance too! Aiden was delirious! But Ian kept to the play area so I had some peace and quiet to enjoy my food.

Aiden had the time of his life!

The BBGS gang.

Family photo.

Last shot before we left.

I'm driving superheroes around town!

Anyway, the kids had a blast and refused to leave. We had to tear them away with a bunch of empty promises. In fact, Ian kept saying "I want face, I want face" the next day too! *giggles* But it's all good. Thanks Fiza for having us, and Happy 1st Birthday Ali!

Raya 2016 - Part 3!

We've been getting warnings of deteriorating weather offshore, hence we've been idling for a few days. Which of course, gives me some spare time to blog.

But before I start blogging on my offshore adventures, I simply must recap Part 3 (and later Part 4) of my Eid, which also marked the end of my Syawal onshore. Since I was given the bonus of an extra weekend home, I cramped as many open houses as possible on Saturday (Part 3, this post), while I had guests over all day long on Sunday (Part 4).

On Saturday, we had 5 invites to attend, and incidentally each and every one of it was in the Shah Alam area. It made commute very easy, and we didn't even have time to feel hungry. Everyone certainly fed us well that day.

Kicked off with breakfast at our insurance and unit trust agent's house. Good spread of freshly made roti bom, kuey teow and nasi lemak bungkus. Kenyang! But we still had to make space for 4 other houses!

My three boys matching in green.

After that, we headed to a small get together at Dayang's house. Of all the things she served us, the ikan bilis goreng became the main attraction of the day. Once we started snacking on those, we simply couldn't stop! Next, we all went to Yay's house in Denai Alam. I was already full by then, and I wasn't able to put anymore Raya themed food in my tummy, so I had yummy lasagna instead. Bajrangi Bhaijaan was on TV (have you watched that movie? I thought it was quite good) and as soon as the show ended we said our goodbyes and hastily left for the next house.

Of course, we managed to squeeze in a group photo together.

Missing another two!

From there, we headed to my in-laws place as they were having a small get together for family. They made laksa sarawak but frankly, I barely touched anything as I was already feeling so bloated with all the food I had consumed since morning. After that, we rushed home to get ready for the SPK neighborhood open house where I was in charge of the dessert table. Unfortunately it poured cats and dogs that night. So there I was all dressed up in my beautiful baju raya, only to then pair it with Crocs. Stylo eh?

Love the flowers from the caterers. Definitely drew the attention away from those two balang tutup merah. *giggles*

Due to the rain, everyone had to cramp underneath the tents. The vendors (apam balik, char kuey teow, coconut shake) were also shielding from the rain under their small umbrellas. Seats were limited, the ground was muddy, but the food was good! Despite the rain we still managed to pose for decent pictures.

Wearing Matase Sutera.

Lovely neighbours.

Kudos to the Cahaya SPK Welfare Committee for making it happen.

Okay, stay tuned for Part 4!

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*