Last few days, three and a half of us had a coffee morning outside at our favorite breakfast place, The Early Bird. Erin did not joined us as she's at school. Alis on another hand, was on Spring break. It is normal for them to have different holiday as school holidays here is not standardized so it is rather pretty difficult to plan anything due to this circumstances. However, next September, Erin will start her Year One at Alis's school so it should get easier for us to plan any getaway.

If talking about The Early Bird, there's one thing I must have no matter what happen. It's their signature hash brown.. To Die For.. I noticed a few Early Bird inspired cafes opened around the area recently, but by far, none can beat E.B to my personal opinion.

What we had that day... 

:: Alis's choice. Silver dollar pancake ::

:: Mister's.. Waffle with banana ::

:: Mine.. and yep, that's the sensational hash brown ::

:: Him, posing with my sunglass ::

:: Kakak ::

Sighhhhhhh... 

Pardon me if my post lately made you yawn.. Can't help it as food is basically my main fixation nowadays ha ha ha. Put food and handbag in front of me, you won't believe which one I'd choose.. As for now probably till August, my husband should have peace in mind cause I'm more tempted in bendi than birkin.. Not that I can afford any Birkin anyway ha ha ha.. Contoh tak nak kalahhhhh....

By the way, most of pictures below are collection from my Instagram account, as usual and I named this collection my 2nd trimester's cravings hehehe..

:: My kind neighbor  Amy gave me this stingray or skate after I posted on FB how I craved for it. It is very difficult to find skate here because Arabs don't favor fish with bones. When she told her husband about my craving, they went out fishing for it and luckily manage to catch a medium size pari. Masya Allah, only Allah can repay their kindness. I am speechless ::

:: Excused my pari's messy look! I am bad at siang menyiang job. I can cook but kerja siang menyiang is usually the fish monger or my husband's part. Amy gave me half of the stingray and I forgot to ask my husband to help me 'siang' the fish. End result, hancur ikan tu haku kerja kan ha ha ha.. Seriously, it's so ugly but rasa nye ohhhhhh hingga menjilat jari ::

:: Doughnut Ball caused I felt like eating kampung-warung-style donut. Not Krispy Kreme or Dunkin Donut's sort ::

My good friend Kak Ida gave me her homemade rempah murtabak after I bugged her for quite sometimes ha ha ha.. So I made a batch of murtabak out of it.. I just used instant paratha as the skin. Delivered just the same result like normal murtabak I always bought at pasar malam ..

:: Step 1 - Inti.. This one with meat. Mine is without, just potato, eggs and onions ::

:: Step 2 - Mix inti with eggs and onion ::

:: Step 3 - Wrap nicely using the paratha skin that you had stretched to make it as thin as possible. As can be seen, my one fell under ugly category kahkahkah :: 

:: Step 4 - Fry with little oil under slow heat until the filling harden ::

:: Step 5 - What else left to do?? Cut and ngappp lahh  ::

:: A must have partner for murtabak. Jeruk bawang.. ::

:: This is an exception. Not my craving but one of husband and the girls's dinner. Shoulder lamb chop with black pepper sauce, salad and roasted potato ::

:: Last but not least, apam balik! I've been toying with the idea of making this quite sometimes. I used to made this long time ago using different recipe and it turned disaster. This time, I decided to give it another go, with another recipe. Made this for majlis bacaan Yassin at Ayu's house last 2 days. Although, mine is far cry from the one at pasar malam, but alhamdullillah, better than nothing huhh and fortunately, was a hit. Boleh la buat lepas gian ::

Short and sweet update for today.. 

I made this last week, if I'm not mistaken. Ordinary stuff can be interesting with a little twist. My girls is not really a picky eater but it's not like they just gobble everything I prepared also, especially Erin. Alis will just eat what I put in her lunch box most of the time with no complaint while Erin, she would just tell me there and then, to my face if something was not match up to her liking. Such a diva! My husband is more like Alis. He will just eat whatever I put on table, Alhamdullilah.

However, sometimes, especially when I'm feeling extra energetic or extra rajin in this case, I tried to prepare something special for them and the outcome is usually rewarding enough for me to keep going. You know something not too fancy but rather different from what they usually had and this time, I'm toying around with their breakfast. 

I saw a picture in one of the cooking group I was invited in FB and felt that the idea was great and it is quite simple to execute so I gave it a shot. Honestly, anyone can do this, trust me :)

:: For Alis and Erin's lunch box ::

:: For mister's breakfast ::

Happy sausage-ing then ....

Alis Nadeera and Erin Safiyya..

Both were coming from the same womb, different by only 2 years apart but their personalities are like sky and earth. Alis is more reserved, shy and passive especially at her current age while Erin is active, cheerful and bubbly. I just can't wait for number 3's arrival to see which sister's she will resemble. Ahhhh yes, I haven't spill the bean yet haven't I? We're expecting another princess in August. Lovely.. My husband will soon have another lady to spoil, another all-about-pinky phase all over again he he he...

Anyway, not that I meant to compare because it is occurred to me that percaturan Allah is very fair, indeed He is  the wisest and best planner. He made Alis looked exactly like me but having my husband's personality more while Erin's with my husband's face while having character of mine. You know, kepohhh kecohh liddat ha ha ha.. It kept the balance in the family.. If things got too serious, Erin is there to spark things up and while things got too noisy beyond control, Alis is always there to spread the calmness.. They made a good team, working the same way hubby and me worked things up regardless our differences. Sort of.. Well, nothing different from how any other families out there functioning, I liked to believe so.

Out of many differences I've yet to noticed, I realized two very obvious, crystal clear things between those two that separate them far apart. One is the way of thinking and another one is their interest. 

Alis is sooo into arts and she's very good at it. I'm not pretty sure though where she got that artistic trait, probably from my father because my he likes drawing and can draw quite well. She even representing her class in art contest recently. Nothing attract her more than drawings, paintings and such and that's how she spent most of her free time lately, drawing and painting or making anything artsy. Erin on the other hand, loves anything related to music and entertainment, without a doubt, she got it from my father in law.

As how their hobby and interest were different, so did their way of thinking. Alis is usually logical, by the rules and books on most time, observant and predictable. Erin is opposite of all the above. She is spontaneous, does things always her way without a care in the world and surprised us most of the times. 

Let me show you in pictures form on how they can be similar yet sooo different... 

P/s : I'm not boasting or anything here. Mak bapak memang akan nampak anak sendiri pandai and cute kann regardless of what... Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. So please take this post as light reading and a mere sharing between parents or feel free to judge. Not that I care much :)

:: My eldest ::

:: This is common view during every free time, be it after school or during weekends. She always have 'project' on hands. School related or not. If she doesn't have any art homework she will assigned herself her own project. She loves to makes present for us, her teachers and friends herself. Some of the outcome she came out with is really amazing and way beyond my simple minded imagination. My only wish these days is to dedicate a corner and turn it into her proper little art workshop, complete with drawing easel, suitable table, papers and art supplies, everything she need so she can pour her ideas better. May we can make it realize soon, Insya Allah ::

:: This is what she's been working on in above pictures. She usually draw a 2D photo but it seems that 2D is too ordinary for her liking. Therefore she decided to went up another notch by producing 3D flowers instead. She asked me how to make a flower stands a day before and I uncooperative-ly told her that she need a sponge for that matters and we need to get it from flower shop bla bla bla. The next day, she came up with this idea, all by herself !! Gosh I felt like one bad mummyyy :( ::

:: Amazing isn't it? She even made the grass stands ! ::

:: Back view ::

:: Came back from school at the end of the weeks, on Thursday to be exact, and said she need to submit a solar system in any form by next Sunday. We decided to make a poster so I googled a solar system image and picked the one we liked most, and easiest, to my opinion. When I was just about to do the thinking on how we should execute the poster, you know what material we need to use, she already started cutting mineral water boxes!! And as can be seen, the final product of Alis's solar system. All I did was helping with touch up and some simple writing. The one with liquid paper on the black background part coz she can't handled the liquid paper very well. The one using black marker was done by herself. Quite impressive isn't it?  for a 6 years old ! ::

:: This portrait was done by her quite sometime ago but I don't think I ever posted it here. My first self portrait ever, from my eldest point of view ::

:: She learnt about farm at school at one time, came back and immediately working on this picture. I failed to detect dari mana de kutil bunga matahari tuh! ::

:: Drew this within 5 minutes before sleep and presented it as a little gift to her class teacher the next day ::

Recently, they learned about plant at school and a story book that related to plant is Jack and The Bean Stalk. They have been discussing about the story the whole week and they were even requested to bring a pot of plant to school to which they will have to water it everyday and watch it grows. Apart from all that, they also encouraged to bring something related to Jack and the Bean Stalk to share with their class mates by end of the week. Honestly, if it was me, I will just asked my parents to buy me a story book then but clearly, I wasn't Alis. She decided to made her own story book. What she did was, she searched the story from youtube via iPad and copied it line to line, words to words.. For once, I am really grateful that we got her iPad and iPod caused it's finally served it's purpose.

 

Below are compilation of some of her latest works that I managed to captured.. The theme this time is flower and trust me, she drew each and everyone of it free handed! No tekap tekap involved. If you find it hard to believe, trust me I even made her swear that she did it free hand-ly, and not copied from somewhere else ha ha ha. I even asked her to do it all over again and she did just as the previous picture before my eyes so okaylah mummy believe you, now go draw somemore kahkahkah..

:: This is one of Alis's daily activities. Sorry la eh malas nak rotate. Some wrong spellings here and there. Even mummy doing her work pun masuk diary ni ape cerita? Ni diary untuk cikgu ke report nak anta ke papa? ::

And this is Erin's attempt to copy Alis's journal. She asked me to spell word by word as she wrote it. 

1) We are playing - so far so good.. 

2) Her original sentence she wish to write : We are already skype with Papa and Nenek!.. Hurmm let see, We ade extra E, E in Are looked more like C, Y in Already terpisah jauh ke bawah nampak nyer and Nenek is missing a K. She blamed in on not enough space. That's right dik, memangggggg buku yang salah. I asked her to read out again what she just wrote, and she read it like this. 

We Are Already Skype Razmady and Nenek!! 

-__-

"Betul la tuh! Papa kan memang nama Razmady", she answered when I asked her why she read Papa as Razmady.. I am utterly defenseless and speechless. 

Ikut suke mu la dikkkk....

Another example on how different their way of thinking that led to their actions..

They were given the same sheets, the same set of crayons and the same instructions but how come the result is tad too different???

See see see see.... Alis managed to get almost all the words right while Erin's, ermmmmmmmm says who we have to always follow the rules?

If you don't get what she was trying to do, let me help you. Instead of searching for the words as the rule goes, she decided to connect the same letters. Easier that way what?? Ha ha ha...

Last but not least, succumbed to her role as soon-to-be big sis of two, Alis decided to take charge. If you must know, the girls have started sleeping permanently in their own room for the past 2 weeks alhamdullilah and Alis have started to perform solat starting from her 7th birthday, albeit inconsistent. It's okay as I liked her to take things in her own pace. 

Own room hence own rules. I found this note selotape-d on the wall while tidying their room. 

Obviously all 8 rules were meant for both of them but apparently, Erin 's one and only contribution is Rules Number Six. 

Can't agree more.. Her forte, definitely her forte!!

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ... Good one Kakak but guess what? Now I have to teach Alis that sarcasm is not a very good value!

Nonetheless, I had a good laugh :)

Alis turned 7 yesterday. Hubby at Madinah still, so obviously no birthday dinner whatsoever. Any celebration plan will have to wait till Papa comes back. However, it is such a pity and I will left feeling all guilty if I didn't prepare anything for her. So I prepared her home made chocolate cake and cooked for her, her favorite food, Lontong as a surprise. Surprise because I told her the night before when I tucked her to bed that we will get her a cake only after Papa's back a day after her birthday so she wasn't expecting any cake on her birthday, from the way I see it. However, I did prepare goodie bags to be taken to school for all her classmates and she's quite happy and satisfied with it.

The card I created consists of her pictures collage since baby till recent and this is my birthday wish for her to accompany the card.

"Another year for you dear daughter.. Alhamdullilah.. 

May you grow smarter, prettier, mature, cleverer and wiser 

with every passing year, Insya Allah"

Planning to make a cake is easy, the execution is not! 

I am not good at baking, at all. Cooking is different story all together from baking. With cooking, you can adjust to add or lessen the ingredients, depends on your liking and taste bud. No fix measurement.. With baking, you had no choice but to follow the exact measurement, right temperature, correct ingredients and accurate technique to make it works. And it is not helping when I don't own any stand mixer or hand mixer, which is pretty essential in almost all cake recipe. The only utensils I owned that usable in baking is a whisk and spatula that I don't even remember I had for quite a while.

Call me ambitious but as long as I can put a smile on my girl's face, anything is worth to try. However, I do have a plan. I'll do the baking early in the morning just after they left for school. So based on my calculations, should my cake turned into disaster, I still have window of 1 hour or so to run to nearest bakeries and get her another cake ha ha ha. This is my first time baking a 'serious' cake from scratch, with decorating and all. 

Therefore.. Bismillah hirrahmannirahim.... It's do or die..

:: Cake checked! Candles checked! Simple decorations is clearly done by a very amateur baker but heyyy I tried my best okayyyy. The thought that counts! ::

:: Honestly, the texture is still not up to my expectation. Alhamdulillah nonetheless. What more can I say, for a first trial, I couldn't ask for a better result he he he ::

:: Happy daughters all smiling, checked! ::

:: Lontong, if you didn't know already ::