Homemade M&M Cookies

One fine weekend afternoon sometime last year, I was scrambling for an idea to keep Babycakes occupied. And then I thought, why don't we make cookies?

What could be more fun than M&M cookies?

My little baker, my little assistant. She had so much fun picking out the colourful M&Ms to put on the cookies. Of course a lot went into her mouth too.

Proudly showing off her creations. Mummy is so proud of you Babycakes!

The end products. Not the prettiest cookies but they are definitely the most special because we baked them together and it was a perfect activity to refine her fine motor skills. At the end of the day, we get to eat our own baked goods.

Verification for Nuffnang

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Babycakes' Frozen Themed Advanced Birthday Party

This is a belated post. Please do not get confused with the title that  says 'advanced birthday party'. The reason why it was titled as such is because the birthday party was done earlier than her actual birthday. However, this is a belated post. Geddit? Hehe.

OK Babycakes' birthday was on the 27th September but we had to have her party way in advance because Babypie's due date was 9th October 2014. If we were to held the party on the 27th itself, it is too near to my due date and we didn't dare take the risk as I may go into labour early or I may be too tired then. Therefore, we held her party on 7th September 2014. It was a small scale celebration and we held it at our humble little abode. Since she was so into Frozen then (still is), so it is only apt to have a Frozen themed birthday.

We bought her dress at Kenanga Wholesale City (KWC) because we wanted to find some party supplies too. However, we couldn't find any Frozen party supplies at KWC. I have a turquoise maxi dress which suits the theme perfectly. Babycakes was so happy to be wearing matching clothes with Mummy. This picture was taken just before the party started.

Luckily I found an online seller on mudah.com.my who sells Frozen loot bags and Frozen paper cups. I was thrilled and immediately bought the items.

A few days before the party, Hubby filled the loot bags with some chocolates, lollipops, balloons, Frozen stickers and a packet of Milo. Since I still have some leftover angpau from Raya, I put an angpau packet with some money inside the loot bag as well. Seen here Babycakes was already putting good use of the stickers. Good thing that we bought quite a lot.

BIRTHDAY GIRL!

Because the party was small-scaled, we only invited a handful of guests which include close family members and some really close friends. Decoration was so minimal because I was just too tired and heavy (note: lazy) to decorate and because of the limited space we have at our condo. We do have some balloons (what's a party without balloons, right?). As for the foods, we ordered Nasi Ambeng from a dear friend, Murni Suranti. The party was held at 3pm onwards so we thought Nasi Ambeng would be just nice.

The cake was also ordered from Murni so I saved on the delivery cost. Hehe. It was a vanilla cake with buttercream frosting. I ordered a set of Frozen figurines online and I told Murni how I wanted the cake to be. Just before the cake-cutting ceremony, I arranged the figurines on the cake. It is simple but at the end of the day, Babycakes get to keep the figurines, thus avoiding wastage if I were to have them in fondant.

Apart from Babycakes' birthday, we also sort of decided to reveal the gender of Babypie on the same day. All along families were kept in the dark so what better way to reveal the gender if not by the colour of the cake? I asked Murni to bake a blue ombre cake so when I cut the cake, the colour of the cake revealed Babypie's gender. It was not as ombre as I would like it to be and I pointed it out to Murni for her better improvement in the future. By now you would have known that Babypie is a boy but when we cut the cake, everybody was delighted.

We bought two of those foil balloons, also from KWC but one burst when Hubby inflated it a bit too much so what I did was we cut the balloon and pasted the foil onto the wall for decoration. Can you see how happy Babycakes was?

The other half of the balloon is Anna, which is on the other side of the mirror.

 

All in all, it was a fun-filled evening for us. Babycakes was so happy to see her cousins and even happier to see the cake. It was a simple and intimate birthday celebration. It's amazing to see how big my baby has grown and how she surprises me every day with new antics, new skills, tons of questions and non-stop talking. She is also very doting towards Babypie, alhamdulillah. She loves and knows how to entertain Babypie, she loves to make Babypie laugh, she can fetch Babypie's diaper from the other room, she would help us throw the soiled diaper, she would send her bowl, cup or plate to the kitchen sink. There are just too many things about her that I can't put everything in here but she is one amazing, strong and intelligent girl Masyaallah.

Of course above all those, she is also just like any other 3-year olds who has her own mind, who throws tantrums, who answers back, who totally ignores our instructions, who whines and cries, who drives us up the wall, among others.

Mummy may always be the bad cop and nags and scolds you a lot (when you're naughty, which is almost all the time!) but you have no idea how much Mummy loves you and how amazed Mummy is with your achievement. You are a priceless gift from Allah and Mummy prays that you will be blessed, protected from harm, diseases, may you be a good and loving person inside and out and may you grow up to be a beautiful person and make Mummy proud.    

Groceries Shopping Made Easy

I love to do groceries shopping as I can pick and choose what stuffs I want and need to cook for my little family. However, groceries shopping these days is very challenging and not to mention tiring because I have an infant on tow. When it was just Babycakes, we would put her in the trolley and push the trolley and she'll be more than happy to sit and enjoy the ride. Well, that was when she barely had a mind of her own. Fast forward to the current time, she is like a ball of energy who has a mind of her own. We would put Babypie in the stroller but Babycakes would insist on sitting in her stroller too. However this would be impossible for both of us to be pushing a stroller each as we need a trolley to put our stuffs in. It also doesn't help that Babycakes would want to sit in the stroller for one minute, and the next minute she would want to walk around. We would try to persuade her to sit in the trolley. She is also at the stage where she wants everything in her sight especially if it's some toy or chocolate or whatever, really. Try reasoning to a 3year old and chances are, you will fail miserably. 

Another challenge is when we needed to unload the grocery bags to our home. The downside of staying in a high-rise building is when you have to carry so many bags up to your house, it is very inconvenient. We used to have a small cart-like box with wheels where we can put our stuffs in and pull it with us. But it is small and it is broken now. Eventhough we have elevators going up to our floor, it is just so inconvenient to carry so many bags at one go. Mind you, we have to carry Babypie's carrier which weighs a ton, alongside the groceries bags. 

So yesterday for the first time, we got our groceries delivered right to our doorstep. Thank God for technology, we can now shop for groceries via tesco.com.my. Almost everyday we would see the Tesco lorry in our housing area and we always thought how convenient it is to just shop online. So we finally did. No more struggling with our toddler and infant at the supermarkets, no more long queues, no more hassle of carrying the groceries bags. Phew. So much time and energy saved.

Babycakes was excited when the delivery guy came and sent the stuffs. She said "Mummy, orang tu hantar makanan. Ada banana. Kenapa orang tu bagi makanan dekat kita? Kenapa banyak barang? Kakak nak banana. Oooo ada kicap jugak? Mummy beli ke?" In case you didn't notice, this ball of energy also talks and ask questions non-stop. 

So yes, apart from the non-perishable items, I also ordered chicken ribs, chicken thighs, squids, some leafy vegetables and fruits. Best part is, you can book a slot as to when you want your items to be delivered and depending on the time, it is free of charge. This kind of service really helps a lot especially for families with small kids or simply if you have no time to go to the supermarket. Everything is at your fingertips now. What are you waiting for?

p/s: This is not a sponsored post.