Adam's birthday trip - Legoland

We didn't tell Adam where we were going for his birthday trip. But he did guess Legoland at one point. Which tells me we made the right choice. He somehow heard about it from the neighbours but told us it was too far and too expensive for us to go. He was thrilled when we arrived and he saw a huge banner for Legoland!

Mia solat by the poolside :)

cutting his birthday cake on the morning of his birthday. Thank you Pakteh for the cake!

Early morning on his birthday. Straight to Legoland. Wearing his new mama-made birthday outfit.

The kids enjoyed it immensely. There were some height restrictions on the rides, meaning that Mia doesn't get to ride on many, but Adam does pass a few. She didn't have to pay for tickets though, and there were plenty other things to do so I guess it was ok eventhough it was frustrating for her when Adam gets to ride and she doesn't.

I was really amazed at all the structures built out of little pieces of lego. Everything from Masjid Putrajaya (above) to real size human figures. It was awesome. It could not have come out all made up from the factory. Some geniuses (with a cool job description) must've spent time thinking about the shapes and construction of each of these amazing lego structures. Inspiring!

going on a wet ride with Adam

cheeky girl climb over the fence to touch the little lego people ;)

The whole of Legoland is literally scattered with lego pieces. Legos in the middle of playgrounds. There was a huge hall full of all sizes of lego pieces. Here in the picture Adam is constructing a car to race down the track (behind him). To think, a small tub of lego is so expensive, and yet in this place they are so generous with the legos. It's a lego heaven! nobody checked if your child stuffed some lego down his pants. Lego was everywhere!

cool runway for kids (and adults) to race their cars

One of the things I found most clever about Legoland is this: You know in any theme park, there are rides which you have to wait in queue for a long time ? here there have a little 'waiting area' for your children in the middle of the queue and it is full of legos for the children to play with while you wait in queue. As you near the front of the line, there is a small gate where you can fetch your child from the waiting area. Genius!

The birthday boy was very happy. It was a good trip.

Adam's birthday gifts

Adam's 5th birthday is coming up this Friday. Five! We're all excited, especially him. I made him some handmade birthday presents.

This is a puppet theater. It wasn't a surprise gift, I let Adam chose a project for me to sew. He loved it and chose all the fabric himself. It's not his birthday yet but we already enjoyed many performances this week.

I made him a pair of smart pants to fit. He always have a problem with bought pant - if it fits his waist, it'll be too short but if it's long enough for him the waist will be way too loose. Children pants are way overpriced here anyway so as long as he will wear them I shall try to make his pants for him.

The waist has a faux fly. It opens up but only halfway to allow the pants to be put on. The back has elastic for long-wearing.

Then I made a red shirt for him. Red's his favourite colour and if you ask him he wants everything in red.

When he asked me who i'm making these clothes for I told him it's for my 5 year-old friend. He said "I'm almost 5, but not yet. Can I play with your friend?"

These are not expensive gifts. The shirt costed me next to nothing because the fabric was a scrap from years ago. I only had to buy the buttons (less than 50 sen for all). But it was made with a lot of love and I hope he will appreciate that one day.

I love you, Adam..

p/s: we're going for Adam's surprise birthday trip tomorrow! stay tuned for updates soon!

Carnivorous plants alert!

A few months ago, Adam came across carnivorous* plants in one of his books. It was just a small section, but it sparked his interest. He asked if we could grow them. To be honest, when he first mentioned this I thought the plants only grow in the wild, possibly rare, not in Malaysia and there was no way we could grow them in our house. But I entertained his request anyway, and together we browsed the internet - videos, websites - looking for more information on them. He is fascinated by these plants and in particular the venus flytrap. It turned out these plants can be grown in the home, and that in Malaysia there is a local carnivorous plant - periuk kera!

We came across a website - Petpitchers - for Malaysian enthusiasts of carnivorous plants. There is quite a large community there and a lot of information about growing carnivorous plants in our tropical weather. Also, we found a few places to buy them.

This nursery is called 4ZE plant, in Ampang. The owner specialises in carnivorous plants especially monkey pots. He has more than 100 species here.

Close up of a beautiful monkey pot. Malaysia is home to many species of this plant. Its mechanism of trapping its prey is by baiting them with the sweet smell of nectar, then the insects will slip on its slippery wall and into the watery pots. The insects are then digested by the chemicals inside it and the nutrients are released into the plant.

This is a venus flytrap. Adam's favourite. The traps open up, and when a fly/insect goes in, it will automatically close up, trapping the insect inside and digesting it.

Look how happy this boy was! He walked around the nursery taking photos of everything. An early birthday treat for him :)

This one is another type of carnivorous plant. I think the name is sarracenia, and its trapping mechanism is similar to monkey pot.

This Atok was showing Adam around and helping him to choose plants to start off his carnivorous plant collection. He chose one venus flytrap, one sarracenia and one monkey pot. Now my husband and I are not particularly good growers, many of my plants tend to die on me unfortunately, but hopefully Adam can grow these well....

I was barely aware of these plants before but I think he's got me hooked, too...these plants are amazing!

*carnivorous plants are plants that lure, trap and digest small insects/bugs for growth and survival

Green Hulk

This morning, in the kitchen..

Adam spilled a whole bottle of green food colouring on the kitchen floor. It was a (green) bloodbath in there. He came over, pale faced and apologised to me. I went to the kitchen, fuming, and started to clean up the mess. The kids hover around, trying to get in the action and stepping on the drops of coloring.

Me: Kids! Get out of the kitchen please, I'm trying to clean this!!
Adam: nanak mom...
Mia: I want to watch you...
Me: Out please! It's getting worse when you step on it...Adam, go sit on the black chair and think about what you've done! I'm about to turn into GREEN HULK here kids...
Kids: *whispering* oh no green hulk...let's go...

They sit quietly on the black couch while I clean in peace. A few minutes passed by...

Mia: Mom...
Me: yes?
Mia: Why you tak turn into green hulk yet?

Earthworms

Today he is fascinated with earthworms. We read about worms, talked about worms, watched videos about worms, drew worms, dug out worms.

In the picture there's an orange paper next to him. He drew an earthworm, a milipede and a centipede. Then he said he wrote a book, 'like my worm book'. He read me his book and this is what it says;

"'Sometimes earthworms eat dead leaves and dead grass. Centipedes live underground. Sometimes it can bite people. Milipedes live underground too"

p/s: i apologise for the picture quality. i'm posting from my phone

Knitting lace

When I started knitting I was under the impression that you need to be an advanced knitter before you can start knitting lace. Recently I've been trying my hand at it and realise, it isn't much more difficult than knitting anything else.

This luxurious gold one was made for a friend. It is a small shawlette, coincidentally in a colour that she liked. It knitted up in no time, and gave me the push the knit another one straight after.

I made this one for myself, for hari raya. I have plenty of this gorgeous Fyberspates Scrumptious yarn (some of which I am selling in my shop ). It's a mix of wool and silk, and the result is a soft wispy lace yarn, with a lovely shine from the silk. Beautiful.

Draped it on my shoulder, with baju kurung.

This one is new, just blocked yesterday. The true colour is more beautiful, it isn't captured very well here. It's more of a pink/purple. The size is generous, the biggest out of the three I've made.

I was in the mood to knit lace shawls when I started this one. Now I realise I have another one in the same colour, that I started a year ago, but never finished. I'm thinking of selling this one, any takers?

Salam Aidilfitri

How was your Ramadhan and Eid this year? Ours was a blissful one, alhamdulillah...

This year we celebrated Eid at my Atok's (grandma) house in Muar. When I was growing up we always celebrate Eid here with this huge family. It was such a blessing for me to be able to gather with them for Eid this year, brought back beautiful memories of my childhood.

mintak ampun...banyak dosa ni...hehe..

Adam, Mia and Sarah, their only cousin...we love you Sarah

Ramadhan this year I'd done a record amount of sewing. I made most of our Eid outfits, making it a very handmade Eid. Alhamdulillah..the kids love their mama-made clothes and wore them with pride..

That said, I seem to have lost the sewing momentum now. I had 'Make Adam's birthday gift quickly!' on my schedule today but found myself updating my spiderweb infested blog instead. Huh. We'll see if I can get into the swing of things again.

My brother inlaw got engaged this Eid, too. Selamat Bertunang Ija!

Anyway, selamat hari raya Aidilfitri. Good to be back on this blog again.

(is anybody still reading this space or not i wonder? ha)

mommy's knitting room

mommy's knitting room

I have an announcement to make. I have just opened a new knit shop, selling some of my favourite knitting supplies. I am not a very business-minded person but I want to give this a go, and hopefully both me and my kids will learn something from the experience. A new adventure commence!

Please come visit and spread the words! Thank you!

Camping trip at KLD

Adam has been asking me daily to 'make fire' and go fishing. He wants to make fire in front of our house! It's about time we take that boy camping. So last week we did. We went to Kem Lambaian Danau, an outdoor camp that usually organises outdoor courses for big groups. The owners are my uncle and auntie, and the camp was empty at the time so we had the place all to ourselves. The camp is at a beautiful location, out in the wild and right next to a big lake.

*bear with me this entry's full of pictures

Adam making our tent with Tok Busu and Tok Auntie

This is the book that inspired this trip. Back when we were in the UK, I found this book second hand at a market. The title is 'The curious boy's book of Adventures'. I was planning to give it to him when grows up, maybe 7 -10 years old? All kinds of interesting things in there for curious boys from camping to hunting to making rockets and writing secret morse code. But Adam found this book and it has been one of his favourite book ever since.

When the tent is all set up and the fire started, we went fishing at the fish pond next to the lake..

Adam and his diy fishing pole

we caught 4 fishes and my husband got the biggest one - 2 kilos ikan patin!

Adam spent hours tending to the fire. He's been dreaming about this for a long time. He didn't get bored and never even asked for his toys or ipod.

In the late afternoon we went on the boat around the lake. In the picture Mia is holding some 'monkey pots' plant (periuk kera) that grows wild over the lake. In the background is my cousin who grew up around the camp and is the ultimate 'lake boy'. He was our guide when we were there.

These trees are big with big trunks but the trunks are hollow and the trees, big as they are, grow floating on the water like lilypods. My cousin said if you're stranded around water this tree is good to find as they  make good rafts.

Then we went swimming! If this isn't 'wild swimming' I don't know what is. The water looks murky because the floor of the lake is mud and there are lots of water weeds floating around. But the water is clean and lovely to swim in.

there are a lot of treasure to be discovered. Here's an escargot, breeding wildly on the shore. They also found and caught some little prawns there.

the boys went on a canoe trip

That night we had a barbeque!  those two big fishes covered in foil are the fishes we caught that day...ikan patin..huu sedap! and so fresh. the rest of the fish we kept for masak tempoyak pulak later..pergh..Adam insisted to be the chef. He refused to leave the bbq until all the food's been cooked.

The next morning we went on the four-wheel around the wilderness surrounding the camp. There are 7 lakes around the back, they used to be mines. From one of the laks you can view Gunung Ledang. We stopped some interesting places along the way. The tranquil lakes made me feel like diving in for a swim! According to my cousin in one of the lakes there's a spot where local village boys climb trees and jump into the water! Sounds like the kinds of childhood I want for my kids. Oh my.

One of our stops was to the 'Canyon'. This is a natural canyon shaped my moving water. Those holes you see are homes to thousands of little blue birds - Tiong Pasir. This was an amazing experience for us. The place is huge, full of bird holes everywhere. We even found some hatched eggs!

Mia next to pokok senduduk, picking the flowers and fruits. This plant grows wild around the canyon. You can eat the fruit and it'll make your tongue purple.

It was only a short trip and soon we had to go, very reluctantly! Adam was crying for a while because he didn't want to leave. We promised to come again, soon! Such an adventure we had. Thank you so much Pak Busu, Auntie and Iwan for your hospitality! can't wait to go again...