Eya's Fifth Birthday...

Eya's birthday, as usual will fall on either Syawal or Ramadan, being a girl that was born exactly at 1st of Ramadan 5 years ago. This year, initially I was planning to celebrate it at Kepong.

As we still in Syawal, cu planned to gather all of us during his open house. He will do the cooking and later, all of the LL clan will have a sleepover at his home. So, I agreed and thought that Eya birthday should be celebrated there.

Eya, being 5 years old, know what she want for her birthday this year. Me, hubby and her opah will buy different things for her. She is not into expensive toys now, and her choices are much simpler.

She asked:

• Me: Dora stuff, so I bought her a set of Dora plate, mug and tumbler
• Hubby: Cars coloring stuff, so he bought her Crayola Cars and Princess coloring set
• Opah: She asked for masak-masak stuffs, all kind of plastic foods

Her acu bought her bedsheet + Mickey pillowcases, Uncle Shamsir bought her a set of dolls + clothes and Cik Yong bought her smurfette. 

As for the cake, I ordered a small cake with Powerpuff Girls - Blossom on it. The cake was gorgeous, and it cost RM75. I ordered from an online store that is based in Bangi, www.babycakes2u.com. Even the owner is a nice lady. Really loves the cake.

We also bought her a set of tiara and wand, as she told us that she wanted to be a princess this year. Even that two things is costly. Luckily, my friend lent her daughter's fairy wing to Eya. Another RM40 was saved.

Overall, her birthday was a nice one this year. A funny scene was when Zidane blew her candles everytime hubby light it up. She cried her heart out. We have to console her, and later she told us she cried because she didn't know how to blow the candles out. 

Eya, a princess for her 5th birthday....

Lil Update: Puasa, Raya, GH, etc..

Its been almost 2 3 months I wrote to this blog. The main reason is I am so busy. Not that I'm complaining, just that I don't have any spare time to write.

Nothing much has happened in this past few months.

The major one will be Syawal just ended. As for this year Ramadan, we didn't go for any Buka Puasa buffet and we only been to Param for a few times only. Reason for not going to param was all of the params in Bangi are boring. Too many lauk and a few kuihs. Our favourite stall will be the one in front of our housing area. We will get our daily dose of karipap from the kakak.

As for Raya, as usual, we will celebrate it at Kepong and Taiping. Few days before Raya were spent in my mom's house. The normal raya dishes will be rendang ayam, daging+limpa+paru and of course sambal goreng for my siblings. My favourite dish of all time will be rendang limpa. Not many person can eat limpa but this is totally my favourite.

Me and sis baked a few raya cookies and our chocolate chip is a must. I baked sandwich cake and kek masam manis, and this year everything were perfect. Really love the Kenwood mixer.

No special things happened during Raya. Hubby's sibling were all at Taiping except for Abang Duan and Kak Jah. And, as usual, we will travel back to Tanjung Tualang to visit tok chik, and the new LL clan tradition is going to Penang to have our dose of nasi kandar line clear. I didn't spent the night with my family but headed back to Taiping.

As for our GH, we have more neighbors now. Left and right are occupied by female students from MFI, and none of them are friendly. We also managed to attend a few open houses organized by our neighbors.

Raya 2008

Hubby and Eya...

Us with the kids...

This Raya was kind of different to me. First of all, we do not follow our normal raya traditions. Instead of baking and cooking on the raya eve, this time we finished everything early. By noon of raya eve, everything was ready. All of us had some extra time to do last minute shopping at Jusco. This was the first time we ever have extra time on raya eve.

Adik and me were in charge of baking all the cakes and cookies. Adik was brave enough to bake cake sandwich this year, which was something that we must have during raya. We also modified our chocolate chip cookies, instead of the normal walnut, this time we used macadmia nut. It was expensive. For a small packet, it cost about RM8. However, the result was great. Our cookies taste almost similar to Famous Amos.

Mom and Abo cooked rendang and sambal goreng.My rendang limpa this year (cooked by mom) was so great. Its the best mom ever cooked. Rendang was cooked a day earlier.

Sambal goreng was also modified this year. We cut the ingredients bigger so all of us can easily choose what item we like to eat. Before this, everything was so small and it takes us the whole day just to cut all the items. As Abo said, this year sambal goreng was cooked with lots of LOVE, SINCERITY, HARMONY & everything NICE !. Although along said it taste not so good as before, the three of us agreed this was the best sambal goreng.

Abo also treated us to a nice buka puasa buffet before he left for his degree, on the weekends before raya. After that, the 4 of us together with our cousin, nabila went to buy jeans at Pertama Complex. It was such a great moment. Eya and Zidane was asleep after the dinner and we left them with their opah.

On the day of Raya, the guys went for sembahyang sunat while the girls prepare breakfast. Eya was an early riser that day as usual. I dressed her with the new baju kurungs we prepared for her. This year she got 2 baju kurungs. By the way, our color theme for this year was blue, along was green while cu's family was turqoise.

Adik was our photographer for the day. She snapped about 150 pics for the first raya. We did a lot of different pose for that day.

My Only Family....Loves all of you...

This year raya was a little different as we going to send abo to the airport later that day. He is going to UK for his degree in electronics. Everybody important to the family were there, including several of Abo's friends.He went in about 11 pm. Adik and along were the saddest. They hugged and cried. As for me, I was sad too but I really couldn't cry. My one and only little brother. Make us proud. Next year raya, it will be just adik and me again.

Salam Aidilfitri

I've stopped giving out traditional kad raya years ago. Its maybe after I started working. Giving raya card is something that I look forward when I was studying. Now, as e-card is easily available and with the help of blogs, its become easier for me to wish everyone 'Selamat Hari Raya'.

Note: E-card was courtesy of www.speedfinger.org

First Part:

I would like to generally wish all my best friends Selamat Hari Raya and Maaf Zahir dan batin.

For my special friends:

To Masyu, Selamat Hari Raya. I hope you could forgive me for any kutukan, sindiran, sesi umpatan bersama, email2 panas (if any) and anything that I might do that may hurt your feelings. I hope you will enjoy your raya with your family in Teluk Intan and do enjoy eating all the food especially lemang and rendang. Jangan risau sangat, tak lari ke mana TLS tu.

To Nurul and Ira, Selamat Hari Raya. Eventhough we may not be that close now, I still considered you as my best friends. I do apologize if I did something wrong to you, e.g. not contacting you as much as I can, didn't come to any events that you hosted. Irr, still terkilan pasal takleh gi potluck hari tu. Lain kali, aku try sedaya upaya untuk pergi. Enjoy your raya with family. If any of you is in Perak for this raya, do come to hubby's house.

To Oya, maybe you don't know about this blog but I still want to wish you something. I really hope you will be here to celebrate the raya. I just hope this year you have a nice celebration with Kairil.

Second Part:

To all my Sussex friends, especially Amy, Bett, Evi, An, lil Ardini, Indah, Rozi, Nor, Mas, Seha, Selamat Hari Raya and Maaf Zahir Batin from me and hubby. Really miss the old time.

To all my blogger friends, especially to all the links in here, although we never met, I really loves our cyber friendship. Selamat Hari Raya and selamat bergembira di kampung halaman. Don't forget to keep blogging...

Last but the most important part:

I really don't know how to do all the raya forgiveness drama, so I try to put here what I really want to say during that moment.

To abang, I really want to apologize for all my wrongdoings to you. Only you know what. Thank you for really understanding me.

To Eya, my baby, lil angel, this is your second raya. Its the first raya when you can walk and speak. Its going to be havoc. Mama loves you soooooooooooo(infinity) much.

To along and kaklong, this will be your first raya with Zidane. Enjoy it. Its awesome. Sorry for any mistakes that I might have done. Selamat Hari Raya. To Zidane, Selamat menyambut your first Aidilfitri! Makyang loves you so very much!

To abo, I don't know whether I can send you or not, but forgive me for any mistakes that I might have done to you. Have a nice raya celebration there. Remember me when you eat the choc. chip cookies. Really going to miss you. Next year, make sure you send the Salam Perantauan to us.

To adik, you are the best sister anyone could ever have. Thanks for everything you have done/bought for me. Although I'm the big sister, I want to apologize for any inappropriate actions that I have done. Enjoy your raya even if you're alone.

To mom, I will apologize to you personally. But, in here, I just want to say, forgive me for anything that I do to you that may hurt your feelings. Forgive me for my mistakes. Forgive me for everything.

I hope everyone will have a great Raya this year. I couldn't wait for malam raya when I will sit in front of TV to watch all the sampaikan. Need to finish baking a few more cookies and cakes. Only once a year.