Safiya's birthday celebration - Part I

8th December 2010

It was a big day for Safiya yesterday. Coincidentally, yesterday was a public holiday in conjunction with Hijrah New Year and as such our parents took the opportunity to organise Safiya's belated birthday party.

This year, Safiya made a request that her school friends are invited as well. After much thought, our parents decided to agree ~ as a compensation for the long delay since Safiya's birthday was actually in October.

In order to fully entertain Safiya's friends and their family, a separate small party was held yesterday morning from 11 until 1.30 p.m. Safiya was ecstatic to see her friends come; namely Amelie (with her two elder brothers), Alexandra, Siena, Theen (with her brother, Kesn), Melanie, Svanik (with her sister, Simran) and Melodie ~ and their parents too, of course!

When our guests first came, we let the children play on our small bouncer with a special appearance by Elmo. Safiya's friends were excited to see Elmo talking and telling stories.

Then, all guests were invited to our kitchen to make their own pizza for lunch. Daddy was responsible at the "pizza counter" while mummy minds the oven. Quite interesting for 3-4 year olds, definitely.

Apart from pizzas, we also prepared mini burgers, smiley potato chips and popcorn chicken for the kids and salad as well as sandwiches for the adults.

After that, daddy brought Safiya's birthday cupcakes ~ homemade by mummy. Everybody at the party said that the cream cheese cupcakes with chocolate ganache icing were finger-licking good! Hehehe...

Then, it was play and splashing time. Mummy's decision to buy the inflatable slide pool while in Australia was a good one, indeed.

After all that fun, it was time for our guests to leave. To everybody who came to the party, thank you for making Safiya's party lots of fun and we'll cherish the memory forever. And here are pictures of Safiya's birthday gifts from her good friends:

Thanks everyone!

P/S: We had another birthday celebration for our family members next. We'll post the pictures soon.

The celebration continues

2nd December 2010

Last night, we received some visitors. Ngangah and her family came to have dinner with us. Her actual purpose is to give Safiya her belated birthday present ~ Ngangah couldn't wait until Safiya's birthday party, she said. Our parents got their birthday present as well.

After dinner, Ngangah hung out with us for a while, and we played ring-a-ring-a-roses with Nazrah.

And what do you know? Just as Ngangah was leaving our home, Nini Laki, Nini Bini and bungsu Hazim came. They didn't tell us why they came but we had a very good instinct that it has something to do with mummy's birthday a few days ago.

We were right. We ended up having a yam ice-cream cake for dessert last night. Hehehe... Funny thing though, the chef wrongly wrote "mama" as "mam" and "babah" as "papa". Oh well, it's the thought that counts!

By the way, mummy would like to thank Nini Bini for the very special birthday present.

Isn't it nice to have families who care about you? Hehehe...

Happy Birthday Mummy!

29th November 2010

It's a very special day today... because it's our mummy's birthday!

After work in the afternoon today, she picked me up from Ugama school and we went straight back home. When we saw daddy's car, we sort of expected that he must be planning something very special for beloved mummy.

And he did! Safiya ran towards the car (after mummy safely parked the car, of course) and asked mummy to close her eyes while Safiya and I directed her towards the dining room. Last time on daddy's birthday, we had steamboat. This time, we had pizza as well as rice with daddy's delicious sweet and sour fish. We also had prawn fritters for appetiser.

Daddy put candles on one of the pizzas and we sang the birthday song together.

Daddy made a special birthday card with all of our help. Those are really traces of our hands, truly!

Hehehe... mummy might be satisfied with the pizza as her birthday cake, but apparently it was just daddy's trick! He had bought mummy's favourite cake; mango cheesecake. Wow, that was good news for Safiya and I too, because we got to help mummy blow the candles twice!

Happy Birthday Mummy! We love you very much!

Birthday celebration at the Rizqun

28th November 2010

In the afternoon today, we went to the Rizqun International Hotel as invited guests to our cousins' birthday party. Of course as with other birthday parties, we had a great time. However, the exclusive place makes it even more special. On top of that, we got to chance to meet Barney!

Hehehe... Safiya was intimidated at first and refused to come near Barney. Mummy didn't give up and slowly walked up to Barney and when they were close, mummy slowly asked Safiya to touch the purple fluffy skin. Fear free, at last.

Despite the loud music, Safwan decided that he was too tired and took a doze off.

Tickly flowers

20th November 2010

Hehehe... Just want to post some pictures that mummy took when we were out and about in our small garden. Safwan likes to play with the flowers, but he felt ticklish when the flowers touch his face. So cute and adorable!

Blessed to be Bruneian

18th November 2010

During the recent Hari Raya Aidil Adha a couple of days back, Nini Bini had a small open house. One of the visitors was mummy's cousin who's baby was also one of the lucky ones receiving kurnia from Her Majesty. He then asked mummy whether she had collected the custom made cover for Safwan's bank passbook.

Apparently, our parents were not aware of it but immediately took note of the information. In the morning today, daddy went to the bank and he was delighted to see what was handed over to him.

"Blessed to be Bruneian" ~ that's what's written on top of the recipient's picture... which is exactly true! Again, menjunjung kasih ke hadapan Majlis KDYMM Baginda Raja Isteri.

A friend's birthday party

13th November 2010

Today, Safiya was invited to attend her classmate's birthday party at her residence. Amelie's mother was kind enough to let me join the party as well. We had 2 hours of fun and games with delicious lunch from McD.

Happy birthday, Amelie and thanks for the great party!

Safwan visits Istana Nurul Iman

7th November 2010

Wow! Double luck!

As many Bruneians must already know by now, close to 7000 babies were chosen by Her Majesty to receive special gifts or kurnia just for being born between 7th October 2009 to 7th October 2010. We are very grateful that our baby brother is one of the lucky recipients.

Another good news is that Safwan was invited to the Sultan's palace this morning, together with our parents, to receive the kurnia. He is really lucky, it's not everyday that one gets to visit Istana Nurul Iman (let alone be invited) but Safwan does this at only 7 months old. Even Safiya and I have never stepped foot on the palace grounds, seriously! Hehehe...

Since coaches waited before 7 a.m. at several designated places, Safwan was already up at 5.30. He had an early breakfast, took a bath and wore his baju melayu. Parents were given the option of not bringing their babies but our parents decided that Safwan will not create a hassle being a good and happy baby himself.

According to mummy, despite the thousands of people flooding the palace, Safwan maintains his happy attitude. Even when lots of babies around him were screaming and crying, he is still as cool as can be. Thankfully! Hehehe...

The treatment at the palace was first class, said mummy. They were served with heaps of food for breakfast, and nappy change and breastfeeding areas were available (complete with free nappies and wipes). Hot and cold water is available all around the palace as well.

We would like to express our heartfelt menjunjung kasih to Her Majesty Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Hajah Saleha for the kindness that Her Majesty has shown to all lucky recipients today.
"Semoga Allah melanjutkan usia Kebawah Duli Tuan Patik"

JIS International Day 2010

5th November 2010

International Day is a yearly event at JIS when all students are urged to wear international costumes, either traditional to a country or dress up as someone famous from a particular country. Last year, Brunei was well represented by my friend, Yadi, who dressed up as Awang Budiman, the mascot for Sea Games quite a while ago.

This year's event was not less interesting; it was really great to see different costumes from different countries. And what better way to see them all than in a parade. Parents were welcome to see the parade and daddy took the day off today especially for this since Friday is usually his working day too.

Safiya wore her baju kurung, while I decided to relive the glory of becoming a Brunei "prince".

Safwan was also present during the event ~ he didn't mind waking up early in the morning, thankfully.

In addition to the parade, this year our school organised another activity called "Around the world in 2 hours". After the parade, we were amazed to see that our classrooms have been transformed. Mine in particular became China and I learned how to make moon cakes, write Chinese calligraphy and so on. I also enjoyed the opportunity to visit other "countries" and gained a lot of information.