Amira's First Birthday

When your sweet little baby turns one, it's a myriad of feelings.. for me, mostly it's bittersweet. Happy that she's growing up beautifully, but sad that it's all going too fast.. waaayyy too fast. I could have sworn that I just turned away for a few seconds and my pink wrinkly newborn has turned into a sweet babbling toddler.. this despite me telling her "Adik, please don't grow too fast, mama's gonna miss your baby smell..".There are days when I would just close my eyes, bury my nose in her curly hair and take a deep, deep breath, wishing I could memorize the smell forever.. sighhh..

Well, the Strawberry Shortcake Party turned out to be a lot of fun. I was very happy with how all the decor came together and surprise, surprise, most of the guests came dressed up in the theme colours (thanks for being such a good sport!).

The birthday banner..
.. part of the decor.. balloons, balloons and more balloons!

.. a special placecard for the birthday girl!

what's a birthday without a birthday cake.. or two :o) (thank you to the sponsors :o))

.. and here is the sweetest, most beautiful birthday girl on earth (hehe.. please excuse this biased mama again :o)) wearing her strawberry shortcake hairbow..

It was such a pleasure to be able to celebrate her birthday with our family and close friends. Thank you to everyone who made time to join us and brought all sorts of lovely presents, it's very much appreciated. Amira may not remember much (I think Abang Aiman enjoyed it more!:o)) but I'm sure she felt really special and could sense all the love surrounding her..

Today we celebrate her first birthday.. this sweet little girl of ours.. please join us in our prayers for her, for Allah to grant her a healthy, happy and fulfilling life always in His faith.. Amin..

Petals & Berries

Goodie Bags

I really have not been crafting much lately as this has been a busy busy month for me. First it was all the festivities, and then the hospital episode and then since my baby girl, Amira’s first birthday fell during Ramadhan, we decided to postpone the celebration and have a small party, only family and close friends, during this raya month.

With me, parties are serious business (little miss perfectionist!) :o), I loooove planning them. And kids' parties are so fun, fun, fun! From the theme to the décor to the food to the goodie bags to the party games and prizes.. I love preparing for it all.. especially the goodie bags.. it gives me such pleasure being able to shop around for the cute little stuff to be put into the goodie bags and seeing the look of excitement on the little kids' faces when they receive them.

This time around we have decided on a Strawberry Shortcake Theme for my girl (or is it for mama? :o) well, I AM from the first generation Strawberry Shortcake era!). And this is a sneak peak at the stuff going into the goodie bag :o)..

The theme colours are pink, red and green and the flavour is strawberry of course, so I've done my best to stick to that. There are strawberry jellies, strawberry flavoured chocolates, red ladybug chocolates and egg shaped chocolates in the theme colours..

There are also cute strawberry shortcake pencils that I found in Singapore (that's part of the advantage of living down south :o)) and some party blowouts too..

I've also added some strawberry cream biscuits.. yummy!
And these are the bags all those yummilicious stuff are going into.. I personalised it with a Strawberry Shortcake sticker with my daughter's name on it.. (see, I told you it's serious business :o) hehe)

The goodie bags are all packed and ready to be given away.. Oh, wait! How could we forget.. a little something for the parents too..

Some relaxing and calming strawberry flavoured tea to sip after all the running around at the party :o)..

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Bears & Trucks..

..things little boys love. As promised earlier (sorry for the delay), here are the baby boy stuff handy for travelling..

First up, a diaper wipes case in boy bear prints. I've personalised this one for my son. I used fabric paint to write his name.

I also made one in trucks/excavators/diggers prints. Aiman just loves looking at all the variety of vehicles on this one.

And the towels to match.. If you have an active little one like my son, these will definitely come into handy many, many times..

I've also added a diaper case for the boy bear print set..

I have not been crafting for quite some time now and my fingers are itching to start. I actually miss my sewing machine :o) hehe.. Till next craft, take care..

Petals & Berries

Aidilfitri 2008 : Sequel

I never thought I'd be posting a sequel to my Aidilfitri post. On the morning of the 9th day of Syawal, whilst I was in the office, I got a phone call from home saying that my son's foot got hurt by some broken glass from a glass tabletop that fell off its stand (the type of phone call that would make any mom cringe). Not knowing his true condition, I practically flew out of the office to meet my husband who was already on the way to the clinic with my son. The scene at the clinic when I arrived (which keeps replaying itself in my head until now) caught me totally unprepared. I shall spare you the gory details but what I saw made me feel faint (and that is from someone who has a pretty strong stomach!). The doctor on duty at the clinic said he didn't have the proper equipment to treat him i.e. no x-ray facility, probability that his tendon has been severed (yes, it was that bad), so he referred us to the specialist hospital. Long story short, my son had to be anaesthetised (the surgeon didn't want him to be traumatised by the whole stitching ordeal), which required a trip to the OT and yes, the surgeon found the tendon connected to his second toe severed and repaired it and we had a one night stay in the hospital. Alhamdulillah, everything went pretty smoothly.

No, I will not smile for the camera, mama (cheeky face! :o))!

This is the cheeky little boy, who despite all that he has been through, did not cry much (my little man), gleefully entertained the nurses on his ward with his endless chattering, and still had a smile for everyone.












"Socks!"






A whopping RM2700 later (thank god for insurance), my son was discharged. Whenever anyone points to his foot and ask him "What is this, Aiman?" He will smile and say "Socks!". Well that must be the most expensive socks anyone has ever owned!

Here's to hoping (and praying hard) that the rest of Syawal passes by uneventfully!

Petals & Berries

Aidilfitri 2008

1st Syawal came and went. As with the past years, the day was chaotic, exhausting and fun all rolled into one. Grand-aunties, grand-uncles, aunties, uncles, cousins, once removed, twice removed.. I lost track, (in short, everyone and their second cousin twice removed were there!) came in throngs to my parents house. “Who’s kid is that plucking all the flowers off my prized plant?” (patience, mummy, patience..), “Now quit squishing that kek lapis into the sofa!!”, “I can’t find my other shoe, mama!” are common phenomena during the Eid at my parents house :o) there are just sooo many of them and it’s a vicious arrive, eat, drink, shake hands, depart cycle.. almost a blink-and-you’ll-miss-them situation (where are all these people the other 364 days?). We spent weeks preparing the house, the food, etc. and the day just zip by in a chaotic blur :o) However, Alhamdulillah, all of us, my husband and kids, my grandma, my parents, siblings, spouses, offsprings, in-laws all got to meet up together, in good health and spirit, to exchange wishes, seek forgiveness and to spread our love (and behinds!haha! food, glorious food..). We survived :o). Surprisingly, even after all the chaos at my parents' house and all the house hopping, my two energizer bunnies somehow still had some extra energy left to try mama’s and papa’s patience by fussing over bedtime and then some :o) Oh well, hari raya has always been more fun for the kids..

To Everyone:

Salam Aidilfitri, Maaf Zahir & Batin..

(Will be back to crafting soon. If only to keep me sane :o) ha!)

Petals & Berries