Eid-ul-Fitri 2010

Yes, yes... I know Syawal month came and went. I was just too busy attending all the open houses and weddings and other events. You know how it's like.

So, to sum everything up in a not-so-draggy post, I'll just let you feast your eyes on the photos we took during the month of Syawal.

This Eid, we spent our first day in Tok Mama's hometown in Rembau. On the eve of Eid everyone worked together to prepare some traditional food. They're a must for every Eid and have to be done according to Nek Wan's specification too! - Ketupat and Lemang.


Tok Uda was the one who had to look after the Lemangs since everyone was late (we also arrived later that night, after the Takbir at PJ)


The morning of Eid, Mommy and I got up and got ready as soon as the rest of the family left for Eid prayers.


When everyone came back from prayers, we gathered and took some pictures together in our red outfits (it's our theme colour this year).





Nana Belle gave this to me when we visited her in Scotland in April.


The 4 generations of women in my family.


With Mommy,


Mommy and Dadda,


Mama Lyana,


Wan Andak,


Wan Cu,


Tok Abah,


and Pak Su giving me a money packet.

Then, we went and visit a few relatives...




The next day, we went to Aunty Huda's house in Muar.


It is normal to have 'open houses' throughout the month of Syawal and we are encouraged to visit friends, old and new in this month too. So, we went to some relatives and friends' houses, especially ones that we don't get to meet often.

The first house we went in KL was Cu Jeed's house.


Her mom cooked and we tried Cu Jeed's kuih raya.



We also went to Aunty Abby's house in Putra Heights


and Tok Mae's


and Uncle Rosh's


and Aunty Ciah's (she did her daughter's birthday celebration too)


and finally, Uncle Ded's in Tropicana.


On top af all that, we also held our open house at Tok Abah's place in Subang Permai.

Did we have a good Syawal?
Yes, we did. We had a GREAT Syawal!
Hope you all did too!

Esok Hari Raya!!!

I, Aryanna Nadyne on behalf of my parents Adzfar (Ed) & Ainul Aniha (Nia) would like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers and fans a;

VERY BLESSED AIDIL FITRI,

SELAMAT HARI RAYA &

MAAF ZAHIR BATIN!!


Esok Hari RAYA!!

Both Mommy & Dadda are just too busy preparing & packing my stuff.
I'm just excited to be celebrating my 3rd RAYA already..

Check out my past RAYA experiences here;

• 1st Raya: 2008, 1429H
• 2nd Raya: 2009, 1430H
  

August Birthday Celebrations & Ramadan

How's everyone's Ramadhan so far?

As usual, August is a month of celebration in our family because it's the month of Pak Su's, Tok Abah's and Mommy's birthday. This year, their birthdays happened to fall in the month of Ramadhan.

Pak Su's birthday was the day before fasting started so we didn't have any celebrations. Besides, we just had a Graduation barbecue dinner for him 2 weekends before. It was also sort of a farewell dinner for Pak Ngah Ajad who'll be flying of to Cairo, Egypt in September to further his studies.


Happy Birthday Pak Su @ Kayu SS2

Tok Abah's birthday was on a Sunday, 15th August, and it was the first weekend of Ramadhan so we had an Iftaar get-together on Saturday, the day before Tok Abah's birthday. All Tok Abah's brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces came to Princess Garden for the Iftaar. There were quite a variety of food to choose from and Tok Mama cooked her special Sweet n Sour Crab.
Yummy! It was the first time I tasted crab and I loved it!

After dinner, we prayed together and before the Tarawikh prayers, Ami Iqbal gave a short Usrah and talked about Solat. I prayed next to Mommy and after that played with Kak Alia. After the Tarawikh prayers, Mommy brought out Tok Abah's birthday cupcakes to celebrate his 60th birthday.
Mommy's friend Aunty Dilly joined us that night too.


Enjoying the Terawikh prayers!


Happy Birthday 60th Birthday Tok Abah !


Thank you Auntie Dilly for joining us!

A few days later, on the 17th, it was Mommy's turn to celebrate. She took leave from work and I was delighted because she told me the night before that I didn't have to go to school and I get to go out shopping with both Mommy and Dadda on her birthday. I remember waking up on Tuesday morning feeling really excited. I smiled the minute I opened my eyes and saw Mommy and Dadda still sleeping next to me. Right then I knew she was telling the truth when she said that I didn't have to go to school that day.

We got up, got ready and Pak Su arrived. He was to join us shopping too! Yippee! In the afternoon we came back for a while and Pak Su helped Mommy with the drill and put together some stuff. After Zohor prayers, we continued our shopping. That night, we had dinner with Tok Abah, Tok Mama, Pak Su, Adida, Mak Lel and Wan Ki at Shogun, Sunway Pyramid. All the August babies received their birthday presents there. Mommy got 2 pairs of tops and a pair of earrings. Pak Su gave Mommy a Man Utd gold shirt too!


Happy birthday Mommy! Look @ my smug look!


We love Shogun!


With my favourite aunts & Mommy's presents!

The month of August have always been a happening one. I'm now looking forward to shopping for Eid.

Happy fasting everyone!

Check out the albums here:

What I've learned in school so far...

Just a quick update on what I've picked up in school since I started attending
CIC (Children Islamic Centre) slightly more than a year ago.

Of course I now know my ABCs and how to count 1, 2, 3 in English, Malay and Mommy taught me to count 1 to 10 in French too. Apart from that, I can now recite the doa before I eat and before I go to bed too.

Nadyne singing the A,B,C..

My latest achievement this past couple of weeks (that I think Mommy and Dadda are so proud of) is to be able to join Mommy and Dadda when performing the solat and read the Iftitah and Al Fatihah in full.

And besides the usual nursery rhymes that everyone knows, I can also sing the 10 Malaikat (10 Angels) song. Don't believe me? Here's the proof...

Nadyne solat - with doa iftitah & Al-fatihah 
(the video a bit dark because we used Dadda's handphone camera)

Nadyne singing the 10 malaikat song..


SELAMAT MENYAMBUT RAMADAN AL-MUBARRAK & BERPUASA!!

Football fever and some other...

Yes, yes... I know I've been really slow in updating this and it's been quite a while now.
Well, what can I say...? I wish I could blame it on the World Cup but really, it was not just that.
It was a whole bunch of other stuff that has been keeping all of us occupied...





But who am I kidding? Of course it was mostly because of the World Cup!
All of us had very little sleep in the whole month of June and early July because of this phenomena that is REALLY new to me but even I got sucked into it!

Mommy, Dadda, Tok Abah, Tok Mama, Pak Su, Adida (Aunty Huda) and everyone else's life had revolved around it. Even Mommy came back from work on time everyday!
We had to make appointments and inform everyone before hand whenever we meet or have family gatherings but once World Cup started, our schedule automatically became one.
We didn't have to call each other to ask. When the time came, we drove over to Subang Permai (which I call 'Princess' Garden') and everyone will be there. It was amazing!

When it was over, we felt a little bit empty and it took a bit of an effort to go back to our normal, pre-World Cup life routine. Fortunately, knowing my family, there were already strings of activities to be done right after. We were juggling between the matches and attending all the June weddings and on top of that, celebrated Dadda's birthday and Mommy and Dadda's 3rd wedding anniversary during the weekends. World Cup came and went and then came the family events...


Peace!! Happy Birthday Dadda!

First there was a small gathering at Tok Mae's house to prepare for Umi Putri's engagement ceremony. In the Malay culture, before we get engaged, we'll have a small get-together to discuss and get to know the future in-laws. Two weeks ago, Umi Putri's engagement ceremony was held at Tok Mae and Tok G's house in Taman Melati, a month after the small gathering.
And then, it was Umi Aida's turn to get engaged. The ceremony was held last Sunday in Tok Amaz's and Tok Pah's house in Seremban. It was a humble but fun and joyous evening for all of us.


My smug look!


With the lovely couple, Ummi Put & Uncle Irsyad..


Enjoying the Dadih!

These had happened on every single weekend of June and July so far and it's not about to end!
Next weekend there will be Nek Wan's tahlil for arwah Nek Tok in Rembau.

Then, Pak Su's convocation will be on the final week of July which we will celebrate with a barbecue party with the whole family on the 31st of July. That'll leave us with only 1 weekend before Ramadhan and fasting starts. I heard that we might have something to do on that one last weekend too.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

I'm also anticipating my Ramadhan weekends to be filled with buka puasa (breaking fast) event and gatherings right on till Eid and even then, my Eid weekends will most likely be filled with open houses too!

Phew... what a great and hectic 2 year old life I'm having... but I LOVE IT!

Some pictures are here;

Dadda's 31st Birthday

Putri Narrima's Engagement 10-07-10

Will update more soon.

Mother's and Father's Day

This post is waaay too late... but I'm writing a short one about it anyway.

Here in Malaysia, we celebrate Mother's Day every 2nd Sunday of May and Father's Day every 3rd Sunday of June (I initially thought it was 2nd Sunday of June). I don't think it's worldwide, every country celebrates them at different times.

This year, we celebrated Mother's Day on the 9th of May at Chilli's Bangsar with Tok Abah, Tok Mama, Pak Su, Aunty Huda and Mak Lel. We had to wait quite a while to get a table that night because I guess everyone was celebrating but it was worth it. Tok Abah was the one who treated us all to the wonderful dinner. We were so full that night and had lots of fun! Just look at everyone's faces, hehe...






Loot at my 'garang' face!


Special kisses to Mommy!


Another smack on Tok Mama!


My usual 'mammam' pose!

A couple of weeks ago, on the 20th of June, we celebrated Father's Day at Grandmama's in Pavillion, KL. This time, it was Mommy who paid. Tok Mama, Pak Su and Aunty Huda joined us too. It was actually a last minute planning as everyone was very busy during the day. Tok Abah, Tok Mama and I attended a wedding, Mommy had a work event, Dadda had to work and at night, there was football as the World Cup season has started.

So Mommy had called Tok Abah and Tok Mama after her event to organise things and finally everyone rushed back home, changed (we didn't even have time to take a shower!) and Dadda drove everyone straight to Pavillion, KL.



We all agreed to have an early dinner and rush home for football right after so by 10pm, we were already back at home for the football match between Italy and New Zealand. Although everything happened so fast, we really had fun and I'm pretty sure everbody had enjoyed their food.

Dadda's birthday coming up soon.
I wonder what Mommy and I should get for him...

My First Trip Overseas... Part III

After spending 4 days in Edinburgh, we finally came back to Uncle Keith's in Cheltenham on Tuesday, 27th April. On the way back from the airport, we stopped by at Tesco to buy some food and stuff to bring back home to Malaysia.



The next morning, Uncle Keith drove us to Abingdon because Dadda had some things to sort out and we also went to visit Dadda's old school there. A couple of students took us for a mini tour around the school compound but unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos in the school premises.



From Abingdon we went straight to Coventry to visit University of Warwick where Dadda went to study. We bought some souvenirs at the university shop and then headed straight to Aunty Dij's house about 5 minutes drive from the campus. I played with her kids and we had dinner there too. She was expecting us so she had prepared some really delicious food.
Even Uncle Keith had enjoyed the rice with chicken and lamb (or was it mutton?)...
Yum...! Thank you Aunty Dij!
We then drove back to Cheltenham later that evening.



Search Amazon.com for toys r us

The next morning Uncle Keith dropped us at a huge Toys 'R' Us while he rushed off to the office for a while to settle some things. Around noon, he picked us up and drove straight to Aunty Shaly's house in Castle Cary, Somerset. Aunty Shaly too had been expecting us so she had prepared Chicken Rice which we happily ate once we arrived as we were already starving.



After the meal, we went to Stourhead Garden and it was breathtakingly beautiful! Just have a look at the pictures and you'll know what I'm talking about. Sadly, we had to leave later in the evening as we were leaving for home the next day. Mommy and Aunty Shaly promised to see each other as soon as Aunty Shaly comes back for labour or confinement later this year.




On Friday morning, Uncle Keith dropped us off at the bus stop where we took the bus to Heathrow Airport to go back to Malaysia. I was really sad to leave Uncle Keith but was also happy to go back and meet Tok Abah, Tok Mama, Papa and Mama for I had really missed them dearly.
Uncle Keith had really, really helped us a lot while we were there.



Thank you so much, Uncle Keith! Hope to see you again, maybe in Malaysia real soon!
I waved goodbye to Uncle Keith from the bus and after a few hours we reached London.

Our flight was scheduled at 10pm so we had plenty of time to go around London. Mommy and Dadda left our bags at the airport and then we took the underground train to the central of London.

We walked around to look for souvenirs, had lunch at Dadda's favourite kebab store; Taza Kebab, met some of Dadda's friends and finally boarded the plane at around half past 9, but not before Mommy shopped at the duty free shops, hehe...

Mommy had made me change into my pyjamas before boarding so I could go to sleep right after my meal and wake up just a couple of hours before landing to have my breakfast (although it was around 6pm in Malaysia when we arrived).

When we finally landed in Malaysia, Tok Mama, Mak Lel and Pak Su were already outside waiting for us while Tok Abah waited in the car. They were delighted to see me finally running out of the Arrival hall, still clad in my pyjamas.
That night, we unloaded our suitcases and presented everybody with their souvenirs.



So, that was my first overseas trip. I hope I will never forget but if I do, I have these posts and pictures to remind me. I hope to see everyone I saw during my trip again, someday.
I really, really had fun on my trip.
Owh, and I also bought some shortcakes for my friends and teachers in school.

Thank you Dadda, for taking Mommy and I for an unforgettable trip far, far away from home...
We love you!