Aiman’s 11th birthday Party

Yup! This posting is indeed very late, but I have been way above my head with work lately. So, what else is new, huh? *grin*

I still want to blog about it for Aiman’s sake so that he may read it in years to come, so here goes....

Aiman celebrated his 11th birthday on the 22nd of April 2011. Yup! 2 months ago, and only now am I  blogging on it! *blush!*

The last time we did a birthday party for him was when he was in Primary 2. After that, we have been so busy with work that it was not possible for us to make arrangements to have a party for him. In fact, for the last two years, I had to travel for work on his birthday, and so could not be there for him on his birthday, what more to make plans to have a party.

So, this year, we decided to have one, and boy, were there so many things to do!

There was the invitations to make and send out, the place to look for (we decided against having it at our house at I had overtaken the dining room for my crafts *grin* and we did not want to have at the usual McD, KFC nor A&W), the food to order, the games to plan for, the gifts to buy and wrap for the games, the party packs to buy and pack, the decorations, and many more other details.

And, of course, I needed to make the cake. Initially I thought I would just bake a cake of a certain shape, frost it, put on the words “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AIMAN” and I would be done, but nooooo, Aiman had to ask, (well I asked him what cake does he want), and he said, “Angry Bird Cake”, and I went, “Huh! What? What Angry Chicken?” LOL!

Honest! I did not mean to annoy him, but annoyed him I did when I kept referring to it as the Angry Chicken when I went online to look up what this Angry Bird is all about. *grin*

There started my adventure of looking for the right cake – right as in the price! LOL!

I scouted around and even had one shop quoting me close to RM600.00 for the cake! Finally when I posted at NNC, my craft board, asking for where can I order an Angry Bird cake (it started a whole new topic and excitement at NNC when I posted the message! LOL!) did Sabariah recommended to me this online shop Mama Min.

There were many communications between me and her before I finally settled to order the cake from her. I was running out of time, and I still had lots of other things to do. I needed to get this cake thing out of the way before I could concentrate on the other things.

The cake being the center piece of the party, I wanted it to look great. It was an expensive cake, but it was money worth spent. I will tell you why later in this posting.

With the cake finally confirmed, next was the menu. We had already decided on the place at Empire Shopping Gallery called LEX, an entertainment out let that boast of having the tallest and highest giant slide in the region, or was that the world?

We settled on a western menu of Roast Chicken, Fish & Chips, Spaghetti, Mash Potatoes, sandwiches, and added a tray of Mee Siam.

We were expecting about 50 guests – 30 children and 20 adults.

The children would mostly be Aiman’s class mates whose parents would just be dropping off their kids (there were some gate crashers but we didn’t mind. There were plenty of food. However, sometimes I wondered how some people could be so bold though *grin*) and his cousins.

The adults were Aiman’s aunties and uncles, close friends of ours whose kids are Aiman’s classmates but the parents became our friends, and there were also Aiman’s former classmates (they transferred to another school but we the parents still kept in touch with each other).

We were worried that the food wasn’t enough and actually ordered an extra tray of Mee Siam as the party progressed along. We needn’t have worried. There was so much left over that even the 2nd tray of Mee Siam was untouched.

Never mind; we would rather have extra food rather then end up being embarrassed should we run out of food.

Anyway, I spent two weeks before Aiman’s birthday making the invitation cards, shopping for prizes for the games and things for the party packs and coming home to wrap everything up and packing the party packs. There were many late nights trying to get everything ready.

Aiman wanted the party theme to be red, it being his favourite colour. So, I spent many nights printing the invitation cards, the labels for the party packs and the prizes, stickers to identify the children and making program cards to place on the tables, all to meet the red theme.

Even the venue was decorated with red and white balloons.

It really created an exciting birthday atmosphere, although I do wished that I had ordered more balloons, as 50 numbers of balloons were too little for a place as big as LEX.

Aiman was very specific of the things that he wants as the prizes for the games. He wasn’t too happy when I bought something that to him looked kiddish, like pencils, erasers and note pads with cartoon characters on them. I think he is at that age when he is afraid of being laughed at by his friends.

Aiman was also very specific on what he wants in the party pack.

He was even more specific on the games that he wants played during the party. He especially told me that under no circumstances should I have musical chair and passing the parcel. He doesn’t want anything kiddish.

I also think that he is traumatized by the game because you can sometimes end up being embarrassed and rejected when you have to rush to grab the chair when the music stops or when the parcel ends up on your lap when the music stops.

Who invented this game? Kids learn early on about being rejected and it could sometimes leave a phychological scar on some kids.  

I remember him ending up crying on his 7th birthday when he was pushed off the chair by one of his friends in his (the friend’s) race to sit on the chair so as not to be eliminated. He also hates it when he has to do all those embarrassing stuff when you open up the parcel to reveal your `punishment’ for getting the parcel.

I am glad that LEX has some very good games just perfect for his age group. We had the Bean Bag Race which I think the kids really enjoyed.

There was also the Tower Can game where you try to build the tallest tower with empty can drinks.

I added 3 more games which my sister, Lin, superbly hosted. Thanks, Lin!

We had the Puzzle Race where the first team to complete the puzzle wins.

There was much excitement when the teams were to be formed as the boys refused to team up with the girls. I had to ask my brother, Azan, to sit in with one of the girl teams as they struggle to complete the puzzle with only two people in the team, whereas the boys had either 3 or 4 people in their teams.

The next game, the quiz, was fun too as it was a quiz to see how well you know the birthday boy. Aiman knew nothing about this game as I wanted to surprise him and as he sat at a corner, he was grinning and blushing as the questions were asked to his friends about him.

My sister Lin added more humour to it when most of the questions were answered correctly by the girls rather than the boys when she asked the girls if they were Aiman’s girlfriends. Aiman’s cheeks turned red at the question. LOL!

The last game was the Treasure Hunt. I had discreetly pasted a red envelope under one of the chairs, and as the kids rushed to go looking for the red envelope, it created more excitement to the already excitable evening.

The highlight of the party was of course the blowing of the birthday cake, the blowing of the birthday cake! Not just any birthday cake, but an Angry Bird Cake! And an expensive one at that too! LOL!

But, before Aiman was to blow the cake, Joshua of LEX suggested that we have all the children take the giant slide down to the ground floor where the cake would be waiting. He was offering the ride at a discount.

Safety instructions being given to make sure
that no untoward incidents happen

I think it was a great idea that got not only all the children excited , but also the adults (My brothers, Ayis and Azan, wanted to take the slide too, but I said No. *grin* My brother Ayis took it anyway! LOL!), but it got me all in a panic mode when I realised that I had to make sure all 14 kids that went down the slide don’t get hurt .

It also occurred to me when we were already at the ground floor as we were going back up to the party place after the cake blowing ceremony that I had to make sure that all 14 children are safely back at the party. I think my heart must have beat a 1000 times as I kept calling out to my sister and brother to make sure that all the kids are accounted for, as we had to go through the sea of weekend shoppers.

I am glad that Aiman chose red as the party theme as it really made all the children stand out in the crowd. I am glad that everyone came dressed in the theme; even the adults. It really helped us to identify Aiman’s friends from all the other children.

Aiman was the last to take the slide down accompanied by the loud cheering of his name by his friends.

When the Angry Cake was revealed at the bottom of the giant slide, it created another round of excitement when the children started booking all parts of the cake. LOL!

I think it was a proud moment for Aiman as not only did he get the cake he wanted, but he was also the envy of all his friends.

In the morning, when we went to pick up the cake, Aiman couldn’t hold back his excitement upon seeing the cake for the first time. He was rubbing his hands in excitement and kept saying. “Cool!” and kept thanking me over and over again.

With so much excitement created by all of Aimans friends, and even the adults, on seeing the cake, it was well worth every single cent spent on it. Some of the kids even came for seconds!

To see Aiman’s face light up at the sight of the cake alone was enough to make every cent I spent worth it, what more when everyone who came was in awe of the cake. Truly, it was money well and worth spent.

Errr......Did I just repeated myself on the worth spent? LOL!

After all the excitement of the evening, soon it was time to pack up and go home. We made sure all the kids were safely claimed by their parents, before we picked our things and left the party venue.

To give us a break from weeks of planning and organising the party, my sister offered to take Aiman home with her as Aiman and Miki still hadn’t had enough of each other.

Thanks, Lin! Thanks, too, for hosting the games. Thanks, Kuya, for helping out with the registration of the kids – we had stickers to identify the kids, it being a shopping complex. We wanted to make sure that we can differentiate between Aiman’s friends and other kids who walks in as the party was going on (we had a few of those who boldly walked in and just sat down with the boys!).

Thanks to Ayis for being the official photographer.

Thanks, Azan, for helping out the girl team when they were short of a mate.

Thanks to all our friends, Aiman’s friends, cousins, siblings, my in-laws, and all those who had made the birthday a success. Thanks for being sporting enough to come in the red party theme. It added that extra ambience to the party and made it look like one great party.

My mum said that she heard that it was one great big grand birthday party! Alas, she was not able to come join the party. It would have been even greater had she been around.

Thanks for all the great presents, everyone!

Aiman opened it the next day after coming home from his cousins’(Fatin’s and Fawzan’s) birthday party in Shah Alam.

He is allowed to only open one present a month to play. We have agreed on this since he was 5 years old so that he will appreciate each and every present given. It will take him untill the end of the year when he will finally open up all of them. That, in a way, also means that we don’t need to buy any toys for him untill the end of the year! *grin*

BTW, there is one very special present from Uncle Paul for Aiman.....

Paul had baked and decorated an Angry Bird cupcakes for Aiman when he heard how much Aiman wanted an Angry Bird cake. After all, I did created a lot of excitement at NNC when I was asking about it! LOL!

When Aiman saw it, as was with his birthday cake that Mama Min made, again he rubbed his hands in excited and kept giving the thumbs up. He did it again when I took this photo.

It just goes to show how much he likes Angry Bird, and how much he appreciates the effort taken to specially do it for him. Thanks, Paul!

As tired as I was after weeks of planning for the birthday party, I think it was worth the time, effort and money spent upon seeing how much everyone enjoyed themselves. Seeing the excitement on Aiman’s face was priceless!

Happy Birthady, Sayang! Mummy and Abah loves you very much!

Cupcakes for Mother's Day!

I suddenly got into a cupcake craze recently (will I have to give up this craze to concentrate on the certification program I just applied for?), when my son asked me if we could bake some cupcakes for him to bring to school for his snacks. You can read about it here.

Since then, I have been itching to bake, not just cupcakes, but homemade breads too!

My first bread in a very long time turned out not well risen causing the bread to be very heavy and dense. We ate it anyway with soup.

My second attempt at making bread turned out so much better because it was a quick bread which did not use yeast but just baking soda and baking powder. I had baked Banana Nut Bread, and it was delicious!

My 3rd attempt was making wholemeal bread after finally being able to get my hands on a pack of wholemeal flour at the International Center for Cake Artistry (ICCA) at Kota Damansara last week.

I have been looking high and low for bread flour and wholemeal flour at every grocery stores that I went to but failed to find any. So, when I finally found it at ICCA, I grabbed both packs.

Though this wholemeal bread looks like it is almost perfect, but it wasn't done in the center. I had to take it out of the braed machine and knead it by hand and later baked it manually when my son accidentally switched off the bread machine 2 hours before it should have been done.

It became hard when I tried rectifying it by putting it back into the oven two hours after I had taken it out of the oven upon realising that the center was uncooked/not properly baked.

I hope to try making the wholemael and basic white bread again this coming weekend, and I hope, this time, that it will turn out well risen and light. Wish me luck!

Coming back to my cupcake craze, after making a batch of chocolate cupcakes 2 weeks ago, which Aiman really loves, I just had to try other recipes too!

It was Mother’s Day 2 weekends ago, and initially, I had wanted to go out and get my two mums something which I thought they would both like, but, alas, time was not on my side. But I still wanted to give them something to show my appreciation and love to them both, I decided that something homemade would be the best gift. And what would be more apt to a person’s heart if not through the tummy! LOL! *wink*

I was going back to Kota Bharu for work the Monday after Mother’s Day, and I thought this would work out just perfect for me to bake my mum and my MIL some cupcakes. I could pack the cupcakes for my mum in a cupcake box which I had bought at ICCA which has a cupcake holder or casing to keep the cupcakes in place.

So, that Sunday, Mother’s Day itself, with my son’s help, I first set out to bake the wholemeal bread. While the bread was being done in the bread machine, I started on the Banana Nut cupcakes from a recipe I got off the internet (this internet thingy is really wonderful, isn’t it? You can get almost anything from the internet!) .

You can get the recipes here too!

It said that the batter is enough to make 18 cupcakes. I should have spread it over 20 or 22 cupcakes as some of the cupcakes overflowed while baking, thus making some of the cupcakes lopsided.

Maybe my cups were much smaller in size compared to what was recommended, I am not sure, but I had used the standard size cupcakes I bought at ICCA..

Anyway, other than the cupcakes being lopsided, the taste is really yummy! You should really try out the recipe. It’s really good!

My son was excited to get started on the decoration, but we had to wait for the cupcakes to fully cool down before we could frost them.

I started on the frosting in the evening, following the buttercream recipe I had since I started cake decorating some years back. Although I have not been doing any cake decorating in the last 5 years, I don’t remember ever having problems with the buttercreame frosting. However, this time around, my frosting turned out too thin and difficult to handle.

I just could not shape the icing into flowers that I wanted. It just kept coming out flat and shapeless.

When I tried refrigerating it in the piping bag, I ended up almost bursting the piping bag when the frosting at the tips hardened but the remaining of the frosting remained thin.

I was almost losing hope and wanted to just bring home the cupcakes to my mum as plain cupcakes, but my son insisted that the decoration are lovely (my son has a way of making me happy! *smile*) and insisted that I frost all the cupcakes. He even helped with the sprinklers.

This is how the cupcakes ended looking like....

Very kiddish, huh? Oh well...... *sigh* It was worth a try. I am not giving yup. I am going to bake more cupcakes and give the cupcake decorating another go.

I don’t know if my mum and MIL appreciates the kiddish decoration *grin*, but I know that my mum likes the banana cupcakes, and I think she finished every single piece that I brought back (there were six), despite the frosting being all mushy and messy when the frosting melted during transportation from my house to my office to the airport onto the plane and finally reaching its destination at my mum’s house some 400km away!

How they looked before the journey began

How they looked upon arrival. My mum had eaten
a piece when I took this photo! *grin*

The journey started as early as 6.45am from my house, transiting at the fridge in the pantry of my office, before making its way to the airport and then onto the plane, taking a ride on the car to my mum’s house, and finally landing on the dining table of my mum’s house! LOL!

The cupcakes had crossed water (there is a river next to my office), been on the road and taken a flight some thousands of kilometers above sea level! Now that’s what I call a high flying cake well travelled! LOL!

HAPPY MOTHER’s day Ma and Mak! Love you both! Hugs!

Farewell to a dear feline friend....

My son cried for two days when one of his little kittens (there were 3 of them) got ran over by our car one morning on our way to work. My hubby didn’t see it. It must have slept on the tyres of our car the night before. Even when my hubby started the engine, we thought that the little kitties would have been alarmed by the engine running and would scoot off. But, unfortunately, one of it didn’t. *sob*

When my hubby told Aiman about it later that evening when he picked him up at my MIL’s house, his first reaction was a show of strength, or rather, one of denial when he showed no immediate emotions.

He asked which one was it. When my hubby told him that it was the black one (he had named it Abby after Abby the scientist in NCIS. Aiman names all his cats after characters in NCIS and CSI), his response, “Oh, OK, as long as it isn’t Dinozzo”.



Abby is the black one, and Dinozzo is the other one

Dinozzo had been sick almost since birth and we had been taking special care of him, bringing him to the vet and all. He was closest to Aiman. The other kitty is Director Sheppard, also a character from NCIS.

We thought that he had taken the news pretty well, but, according to my hubby, after the initial questions, there was silence, and then my hubby noticed that there were tears welding in his eyes. He cried for pretty much most part of the journey home from my MIL’s house to our house that evening.

When I arrived home soon after that, he came to me with eyes all red and still sniffling from the last tears. He cried all over again upon seeing me. It was heart-breaking. I hugged him and told him that it was fated that Abby had a short life, and that God loves Abby more.

He wanted to blame my hubby for not looking out for the little kitties, but I did not want him to go on blaming others for what’s fated, and told him that he still has Dinozzo and Director Sheppard to take care of who needed him more now that Abby isn’t around to play with them.

He calmed down for a while. In fact, he put up another strong front when we ran a funeral of sorts for Abby and buried her at the end of the road from our house. He refused to shed a tear. It was me that could not hold back my tears as my hubby laid down Abby’s body into the ground and covered it up with loving care.

We said a small prayer before heading back to our house.

When we did our maghrib prayers that night, I told him to say another prayer for Abby. He went up to his room and refused to come down. When I went to check on him, he had his nose in a Whimpy Kid book, but he wasn’t actually reading it. He was trying to cover up the tears that were flowing freely.

I sat down on the bed next to him and we talked. I told him that it is OK to cry if you had just lost a loved one. I also told him that all living things will die someday. I told him to be strong for Dinozzo and Director Sheppard. They would need him even more now that Abby’s gone.

He calmed down, but when it was time to feed Dinozzo and Director Sheppard that night, tears flowed freely again. In fact, for the next few days, each time he went out to feed the little kitties, I would find him in tears. It was heartbreaking, but I know, give him a few more days, he will get over the loss, though he will still hold Abby dear to his heart.

It’s been two weeks since Abby’s demise, and Aiman still talks about her, saying that he misses her so much, but the tears have somewhat stopped flowing. I think he is getting stronger.

Aiman had just had a lesson in life. I always hope and pray that he will grow up to be a strong person, and be able to go through even the worse of situation. My hubby and I will not always be there for him, though we always pray that we could at least see him succeed in life and be there when he takes a wife and have children of his own. May Allah answer our prayers, insyaAllah.

Farewell, Abby, our dear feline friend. May you rest in peace. Amin.

Going back to school....

Well, sort of!

I had just applied to enter a program to be certified as a Project Manager under the Project Management Certification Program organised by my department. This program will start at the end of May, 2011 and will run for the next 6 months. I will be going through this program while still working full time.

I just realised that soon after submitting my application that as I go through this program, I might have just at the same time signed off my time to craft on weekends! Ooppps! What have I just got myself into! Oh well! A woman has got to do what she has to do.... LOL!

I have been wanting to give this certification program a go for the last 2 years since I started managing projects close to 3 years ago. My boss has been asking me to take it up so that I can be a true certified Project Manager, and thus be more valuable to the department, and at the same time, I get to increase my knowledge in the field of Project Management to handle bigger and more challenging projects.

I wasn’t ready to do it in the last 2 years due to heavy work load, as this program requires me to prepare project reports every 2 months for presentation based on the 9 knowledge areas recognized by The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). Sounds scary, doesn’t it? Ooops! LOL!

With 80 projects to manage in the last 3 years, trying to fit in a time to prepare 4 project reports for presentation in between the already packed work schedule within 6 months would almost be suicidal, so to speak! LOL!

But, this year, with lesser projects to handle (I think) compared to the last 3 years, but still, none the less busy, I decided to take the plunge and give this certification program a go. And I literally mean taking the plunge as I only handed in my application at 4.45pm, when the dateline to submit the application was at 5.00pm on the 13th of May 2011!

I was so busy with work that it totally slipped my mind to submit my application earlier, but I suddenly remembered when I accidentally met one of the facilitators just before lunch time today. Talk about last minute entry! LOL!

So, friends, readers of my blog, and family members, do wish me luck! I need all the well wishes and support I can get. I might have to give up my craft for a while, but I hope that all my “sacrifices” *grin* will be worth it. I hope and pray that I will do well.

So, looks like Aiman has a study mate! *wink*

Cooking, cooking, baking, baking

This weekend, 30th April to 2nd May, 2011, with a public holiday (Labour Day) falling on a Sunday, we got ourselves an extended weekend!

It’s been so long since I could enjoy an extended weekend what with so much work at the office. So, I was really looking forward to a weekend where I could have more time to take care of the house, cook some of my favourite food and do some crafting.

However, it was not possible for me to have the whole weekend to myself and with the family, doing our own things, as we had two weddings to attend, and Aiman has his usual Saturday classes. We also needed to do some grocery shopping. But, still, I am thankful for the extra time to take care of the house and do some cooking. I even managed to bake!

Usually, on Saturday mornings, we would have breakfast outside and then proceed to send Aiman to his Saturday Art Class. But, as I had missed watching the Royal Wedding of Wills and Kate on Friday, 29th April 2011, as I had to work, and it just so happened that they were running a repeat of it that Saturday morning, we decided to have breakfast at home.

It was breakfast of instant Chapatti, Dalca, and Sambal Ikan Bilis which I had bought at a Pasar Tani in Putrajaya on my way back from a meeting in Putrajaya on Friday. We also had Mutton Curry which I had bought at a Mamak Bistro next to my office on my way home on Friday.

It was instant, simple, yet it was delicious!

While Aiman was in class, my hubby went to the gym and I sat at Starbucks with a nice tall glass of Iced Caramel Machiato and went surfing and answered my 100s of emails as I have not been able to go online much in the last week or so due to my hectic schedule at work (like, yeah! What’s new! LOL! *grin*) .

After picking up Aiman, we went for lunch before we proceeded to do some grocery shopping. I had many plans to do some cooking during this extended weekend, and so bought quite a number of things meant for what I intended to cook.

We came home and had a short nap before it was time for us to get ready for a cousin’s wedding in Selayang at this place called Ideal Convention Center. Heard of it? No? Neither did we, but we found it, thanks to the GPS on my phone, which I fondly call Cik Kiah as she “speaks” and my handphone being a Nokia (the Kiah coming from the word KIA in NoKIA). *grin*

End of Saturday.

Sunday morning, with it being a public holiday, the weekly maid was off too, so, I took my time getting up, but not later than 7.00am as I wanted to catch The Ultimate Cake Off and Cake Boss on Astro. Really love these two shows! Very inspiring!

I was watching both programmes in between making breakfast, and doing the laundry! LOL! Talk about multi-tasking! LOL! *grin*

After breakfast was done with, I sat about to cook dinner as we had another wedding to attend in the afternoon, and I know myself that once I am out of the house, I could end up being tired or lazy to do anything else after that.

My mum wouldn’t be too pleased to know that I had "cheated" when I cooked this family favourite dish of Kuzi Ayam. I had used this pre-mixed rempah (herbs) by “Yes Halal Rempah Ustazah”, all packed up and ready to cook. All that I needed to do was to add evaporated milk, water and chicken. But, it was the only way I could have this dish with the limited time that I had on my hands and my mum is too far away for me to ask her to help me cook it. So, I guess this “cheating’’ is acceptable? LOL! *wink* I also added chicken giza, raisins and almonds to make the dish taste even closer to the original.

Nothing taste better than mum’s cooking, but, beggars can’t be choosers, so, I guess this alternative is anytime better than no choice at all. Honestly, this pre-mixed herb wasn’t too bad. It tastes almost the same as the original, though nothing could replace mum’s original recipe. *smile*

I cooked enough to serve for two meals.

Also from “Yes Halal Rempah Ustazah” is a soup mix which I made and served for lunch on Monday, 2nd May 2011.

The taste is also not bad. It was quick to do. All I needed was to just add water, chicken and potatoes, and when serving, add the coriander leaves and bawang merah goreng (fried shallots).

On Sunday, after coming back from the wedding, I managed to catch DC Cupcakes at 4.00pm which inspired me to try out some cupcake recipes with the help of my son who was just as eager to help out with the baking as I am eager to try out the recipe.

We tried out this very simple Chocolate Cupcakes which I got the recipe off the internet. It was pretty easy and quick to do. It tastes great too! Not too sweet. Just the way I like it, and I just love the chocolaty taste!

Before I set about making the cupcakes, I first put in the ingredients for a basic traditional white bread using my bread machine. Alas, my bread came out not well risen and a little hard. *sob*

I was very sure that I had measured everything correctly, although I had to substitute bread flour with all-purpose flour as was recommended by a few websites, since I could not find any bread flour at the shops I frequent. I also omitted the dry milk powder and replaced the plain water with fresh milk as recommended by a few websites since I did not fancy buying a big package of dry milk powder but only to use a little.

I am very pleased with the way the cupcakes turned out, but I am a little disappointed with the bread. I am certainly going to try making the bread again. Maybe I should try looking for the bread flour asked for and buy the dry milk powder. I also probably need to get a few new packs of yeast although I am pretty sure the pack of yeast I bought last week has not yet expired.

Oh well! We are still having the hard as a rock and not well risen bread for breakfast on Tuesday to be eaten with the Kuzi gravy *grin*, which I think might just be the right combination. We also still have plenty of the chocolate cupcakes, and we will be having that for the next few days! *grin*