Eid Open Houses Galore!

Here's a compilation of photos we took during the various open houses we managed to visit throughout Syawal. Despite noticing the decline of invites during the first few weeks as Syawal (as opposed to the bulk we received last year), the invitations slowly trickled in and there was even a day when we had to rush to 5 open houses in total!

Second Week of Syawal
We received our one and only invite barely three days before the weekend. I guess the GST, price hike and declining oil prices really took a toll on everyone!

Rizq is Aiden's school friend, hence Aiden was actually counting the days to this open house. The minute we arrived, Aiden barely even looked our way. I felt like I was just chaperoning my son instead of going to an open house! *giggles* But we kindergarten mummies took the opportunity to take photos and gossip, while the kids happily played to their hearts content.

Real Kids mummies! Plus a teacher who is literally their mommy when they are at school.

Took the opportunity to also beraya with my 'neighbour' BBGS gang. I was wearing my Lily Tenun Kurung from Calice for Shopat22.

See how the Real Kids mummies and daddies automatically crowded around together?

Third Week of Syawal
Wow - the invites we received for this week picked up significantly. On Saturday, we had a grand total of 7 open houses. Out of the 7, we only made it to 5. Even with 5, we made an early start but only managed to get home late night.

First stop was breakfast at a neighbour's house. I thought her idea of organizing breakfast as an open house was brilliant.. so brilliant that I decided to replicate it too (more on that later)! Unfortunately no pictures as my sepet eyes are really unflattering in the morning! After a hearty breakfast of nasi lemak and waffles, I rushed to a close neighbour's house to set up a dessert table for Dafiya's birthday party. Remember Dafiya, Ian's girlfriend? This year she wanted (or rather her mum wanted) *chuckles* a Princess theme, hence I baked a princess cake and crown cookies for this party.

After that, rushed home to get the boys ready and after an early lunch at Dafiya's birthday party (sorry we couldn't stay for the cake cutting!), we left SPK for our next open house.

The princess dessert table I created for Dafiya. What do you think of the princess gown cake? I'll write a separate post on this dessert table for those who are planning a princess party soon.

Finally, a photo of the two kids (somewhat) looking at the camera!

On the way out of SPK to our third open house, with my oh-so-glittery ArtDeco Adalynn Baju Kurung by Jovian Mandagie.

Designated driver for the day, looking very glum at having to drive through horrendous traffic.

Our third, fourth and fifth open houses were thankfully centered around Shah Alam. Waze was a blessing too, as we managed to bypass significant traffic. Hence we had a late lunch at Hana's house, early tea at my uncle's house and early dinner at Dayang's house.

The matrics gang!

At the next house, the kids found multiple ways to keep themselves occupied! 

Kids goofing around while I was chatting with my aunt.

Aiden the wannabe Eskimo.

We stayed the longest at our last house ultimately because both the BBGS gang and Real Kids gang were under one roof.

The great thing about the Real Kids gang is that everyone's first child is 6 years old hence going to 'big boy school' next year. All of us are virgin mummies at the experience of primary school!!! Therefore our conversations always seem to gravitate towards homework, school assessments and such. It is so comforting to know that there are other mummies out there equally puzzled and worried about stepping into primary school!

Last house for the day! 

Finally got to beraya with one more person from the BBGS gang at Dayang's home.

The Real Kids mummies gang were at Dayang's house too.

Sporting daddies melayan mummies yang sibuk ber-posing.

The Real Kids daddies!

Selfie with Sofea while her mummy ate. Unfortunately, right after we took this picture she burst out crying!

Despite being in different classes this year, they are still best friends!

A combination of Real Kids plus BBGS!

Contrary to Saturday, on Sunday we had only one open house! It was a Marhaban Aidilfitri by another Real Kids' mummy. The minute we arrived, I immediately lost Aiden as rushed away to play with his friends. When he finally came to the table, he wanted to eat pulak before heading home. We got home so late that Aiden actually skipped school the next day as he was so sleepy!

 Aiden not in picture as he was busy playing. You can barely see it but I was wearing the Pearls Kurung in White and Black by Diana Rikasari for FashionValet.

Fourth Week of Syawal
The weekend started early for us, as we went for an open house as early as Friday night! It was our yearly open house ritual with the SPK gang. We all dressed up in our Raya traditional clothes. It was a potluck, so we contributed rendang to the spread. Other than that, we had mee sup, satay, lemang and KFC for the kids. During Ramadhan, ade jer lah gang yang tertinggal. But this time we managed to get all 6 of us under one roof... for what else... group photo lah!

My yellow Le Creuset in action. Tapi tuan rumah punya red Le Creuset lagi menonjol nampaknya. Hand carried from Germany, okeh! *chuckles*

Ian got totally obsessed with Dafiya's Baby Alive stroller. In the end they ended up taking turns pushing each other in the stroller. So cute!

Test photo. Since I was the only one with a timer-operated camera, I became the designated photographer for the night!

Probably the only decent shot out of the lot. It was no easy feat getting everyone to smile at the same time. Look at Aiden - busy watching TV, and Dafiya with her own solo move.

Freestyle shot! No, your eyes are not failing you. The picture is blur... but it was such a nice shot I couldn't resist posting it here.

Another freestyle shot, without (some of) the men. The men dah malas melayan the ladies who wanted to pose all night long. *hhmmmppphhh*

Don't remember who's idea this was. But apparently this is how Che Ta poses. Photographed from below, you can't look at the camera and your buntut must tonggek sikit (I'm soooo not kidding)!

I was wearing the Selma Kurung in Blue and Black by Malaque for Fashion Valet. It comes with a pareo-like skirt too, which can be worn with other tops. I love the skirt, but I thought the top was a tad too loose.

Last picture of the night.

The next day, we had three open house invitations to fulfill - which was really quite manageable if compared to the previous week. Surprisingly, all three invites were in the Shah Alam area again. Come to think of it, this year I don't think we had to venture far from home at all!

So the first invite was from our unit trust agent. And he is one dedicated agent too! He would continue to bug me again and again and again for my latest EPF statement, which is a godsend since I am getting quite forgetful these days. Must be the age factor *gasp*!!! So if you're looking for a good unit trust agent, you know who to ask.

Rerun of our clothes from the dusun durian.

Group photo with our unit trust agent and his beautiful wife.

Next, we went to a BBGS gang open house cum house-warming party. Incidentally, this friend is also an insurance agent! Aaaahhh what a coincidence, all the unit trust and insurance agents must have decided that Sunday was a prosperous day to organize makan-makan! *grin*  Lastly, we headed back to SPK for a neighbour's open house. At that point I was so full with all the food that I ended up only having some lamb and a drink of lemonade.

The next day, we had two open houses, both being Hubby's friends; and I think I must have left the camera at home cos I had no pictures of both events at all!

Four BBGS gang in line! Missing another three!

Final Week of Syawal
Since Saturday was technically the last day of Syawal, the Resident Association of Cahaya SPK decided to have their annual Eid gathering that night. I was responsible for the location setup and food layout, hence that morning I was stationed at the playground supervising the khemah people installing the tents, tables and chairs. After that, we rushed to an open house in Gombak (furthest open house location for this year!) and then back to SPK. And then it started pouring cats and dogs!!! *uuurrrggghhh* Spoil mood betul!

Despite the rain, we had a good turnout this year. The six tents (yes six!!) were absolutely full of people! Other than the common spread such as lemang, ketupat daun palas, rendang, roti jala, kari ayam, mee goreng, kuah kacang, lodeh, nasi lemak bungkus and desserts, we had various stalls too such as kambing, char kuey teow, laksa, cendol, otak-otak, apam balik and even coconut shake!

The only picture of the SPK gang for the night.

And that's the end of Syawal! So many open houses... so much calories!

Heh but that wasn't really the end of it. Remember that brilliant idea of breakfast? Well, I organized a Breakfast Aidilfitri on the first day of Zulkaedah. Technically not Aidilfitri anymore, but belasah saja lah. Separate post coming on that. Till then, toodles!

Hello Tooth Fairy!

Last week (4th Aug to be exact), I came home to a huge surprise. I walked into the living hall to find Aiden sitting on the couch, covering his mouth with his hand. I could tell that he was grinning widely as I could see the smile behind his palm. But I was soooo not prepared for his surprise. He removed his palm and flashed another wide smile. I nearly fell off the couch. Yup, my son lost his first tooth!!!

Frankly, I was extremely unprepared for this. He mentioned I think erm once about how his tooth was shaky. But I brushed it off, since my memories of losing my first tooth was when I was in primary school. "He's too young to have permanent teeth!", my mind rationalized.

Honestly, I never understood how the tooth fell out. What I gathered from Aiden and my maid was that he felt that the tooth was very shaky and ended up extracting it out himself! *shocked face*

The first thing I did was to take a picture of the gaping space in his mouth and sent it to his Daddy. Next, Aiden asked whether the tooth fairy "was going to come and take my tooth and give me a nickel". I burst out laughing, but decided to play along and said yes, and that the tooth fairy was going to give him one ringgit. He answered "But I thought fairies aren't real? And they give a nickel mummy... not one ringgit!" Hahaha fineeeee smart boy... Aiden 2 Mummy 0.

Aiden lost his first tooth!

Later, when Hubby returned home, Hubby made a big show about how proud he was that Aiden didn't need the dentist to remove his first tooth (and how Aiden was destined to become a dentist... *cue my confused face here*). Aiden was beaming from ear to ear the whole night! Hubby also washed the tooth (I kan penggeli) and placed it in a small container.

Afterwards, Aiden proclaimed that he wanted to bring it to school!!! Erkkkk... Don't think I want my son showing off his tooth to the whole wide world, hence I decided to fall back on the tooth fairy story again. Somehow, I managed to convince Aiden to put his tooth under his pillow and go to bed. But he had so many questions he wanted answered! He kept asking his Daddy whether Daddy had ever seen the tooth fairy before. But when Hubby answered no, Aiden replied "Of course you haven't seen it... because the fairy comes in the night!" Hahaha I was simply gobsmacked! Finally, he dozed off so we quickly took the tooth away and sneaked one ringgit under the pillow.

Anddddd... that wasn't the only good news we received that day. Got a note from the school to say that Aiden has moved on to the green readers. He has finished the yellow books and can now read the advanced books. So proud of my boy! Well done sayang!

Cerita Raya - Part 2!

Oh my, it's nearly the end of Syawal and here I am writing about my 3rd day of Eid! *chuckles*

So after ending the 2nd day of Eid on a high from that ohsoyummy se-besen durian, I was in for a surprise when I found out that we were going to spend our 3rd day of Eid at a dusun durian!

Honestly, it wasn't just Aiden and Ian's first time at a dusun durian. It was mine too! The dusun durian was located just by Gua Charas, about 15 minutes away from the Kuantan exit. Locating the dusun durian was more complicated though. The expanse of each plot of land was hugeeeeee. I shudder to think how each land occupant would ask for help from their neighbours in emergencies. Thank god for smartphones and apps such as "Save Me 999" which you can trigger to ask for help.

The owner of the dusun durian is somehow related to my MIL hence the family graciously invited us to have lunch at their home. They served us rice, fried fish and telur dadar, but despite it being so simple, it was soooo good!! After lunch, we decided to explore the dusun and do some durian picking!

Durians - just waiting to hit someone smack on the head.

I chose to wear a breezy batik crepe in red from Matase Sutera. Saw Scha Al-Yahya wearing this once and immediately fell in love with it! So many people commented about how nicely dressed I was for a dusun durian, but of course lah dress up... dah namanya raya kan!

The boys were clad in red too!

Ian was contented at just running around the dusun. Aiden on the other hand, managed to coax his grandfather to accompany him roaming deeper into the dusun for more durian. They even managed to visit the cows by the dusun, one which was cheekily named Sharizat *giggles*

Posing with my sister-in-laws. Check out Ian exploring the dusun on his own!

Aiden proudly showing off the durians he collected.

Ian looking absolutely impressed with the king of fruits!

Other than that, we posed for pictures, ran after Ian, cabut kemuncut on our clothes and helped Aiden to carry his stash of durians. Aiden managed to collect quite a substantial stash too, hence we had durians for dessert.

There was a swing at the dusun too!

Last picture before we left the dusun.

The magnificent Gua Charas. Did you know that it is actually a temple cave and a tourist attraction for Kuantan? 

After the dusun durian, we visited a couple of other houses and only managed to drive to our hotel close to midnight. Since it was Eid, we decided to stay close to the city and chose Zenith Hotel instead of our usual Hyatt. And for the first time, Aiden got charged for buffet breakfast! Aiden usually gets away with eating for free - he barely eats much for breakfast anyway. But Zenith was unfortunately quite strict about the age. Only kids below 6 eat for free!

Love the chairs at the lift lobby. 

The kids were overjoyed at the presence of a bath tub in the room. Ian also surprised us by helpfully putting his soiled clothes in the laundry basket by the sink, without us even showing or telling! 

It was such a short stay. Next morning after breakfast, we were already packing up to leave!

My six year old boy!

Ian wearing a hand me down from Aiden. Must dig for that old picture of Aiden wearing the same shirt!!!

Final picture in Kuantan. Us in the car, on the way to visit more relatives. And Aiden cheekily mounted a relative's super bike and gave us such a handsome pose!

So that was how we spent our third and fourth day of Eid. Next up, photos from all the open houses we attended during Eid. I probably gained some significant kilos just from that! *cries*