Zach's birthday.

Present time!

Thank you everyone for all the great gifts.

Roar!

3pm and it's time to party!

The party gets underway.

The trampoline got a good workout.

As did Hannah, the fabulous party entertainer.

Time to eat.

Cakes! We decorated them with Jelly Beans which are Zach's favourite.

Andy brandishes the knife. I got slightly worried he was going to use it on the stampeding children!

Zach was thrilled with his cakes.

The party had a jungle theme. The animal cake was meant to be a lion but looked more like a monkey.

The beautiful birthday boy.

Birthday pjs.

On 20 January, Zach turned four! Yay, well done Zach!

He got to choose whatever he wanted to do in the morning and he chose to stay home and have chocolate pancakes which is what we do every Friday! We had a party for him at home in the afternoon which was a lot of fun. It was pretty big, 48 children and lots of parents but was actually fairly chilled and relaxing. Apart from when rained threatened just before it started and I freaked out slightly. We had a great party entertainer which made things a lot easier. Dinner was pizza, sausages, cucumber, carrots, hommous, bread and strawberries followed by banana chocolate and coconut cake. Which was actually two big cakes and cupcakes as well. Yum.

The past year with Zach has been our most challenging to date. When he is lovely he is so very very lovely but it's been his year to push the boundaries and boy, has he done so! It's all part of growing up though and I am trying to get through it without losing my patience too much. He is having a wonderful time at school and I'm so proud of how well he has taken to it. He got a wonderful school report which said he is always smiling and lights up everyone's day. Awww. His teacher also said she'd like to develop his listening skills. So would I!

Zach is 104cm tall and weighs 15.8kgs. His favourite colour is blue. His favourite singer is Justin Bieber and his favourite song is Never Say Never. At the weekend what he likes to do best is play. His favourite food is curry and his favourite drink is chocolate milk. His favourite book is I Love My Mummy and the thing that makes him happier than anything else is....mummy!

Zach is a lovely brother. He is still Daisy's number one fan although the bigger and more boisterous Bastie gets, the more they are playing together. He loves kicking a ball around, jumping on the trampoline, wrestling, dancing, lego, playing with cars, colouring, being read to and being really really loud. Really REALLY loud!

We are looking forward to another exciting year with Zach. Now he is four he will be starting rugby next season and I'm sure he is going to continue doing brilliantly in his swimming lessons. All in all, he's pretty wonderful and we are very lucky to have him.

Bx

My Birthday

George, Zach and Bastie playing hide and seek at The Address.

Then playing in the fountain.

The kids hang out. Daisy was thrilled to see Sanna again.

Yay!

Cupcakes with my little cupcakes.

Yum...

...yum...

...yum!

With Nat in the foyer of Zabeel Saray.

On 13 January I turned the big 35!

I had a wonderful day, our great friends Tara, Dajon, Sanna and Elleke were in town for a week, they stayed with us for two nights then we went out for breakfast with them and Katie, Mike and their kids to The Address Downtown. The kids all had a great time running around madly and we had a great time catching up. I felt very lucky to be able to spend my morning (and some of the afternoon!) with such lovely friends.

We spent the afternoon at home and had cupcakes with the kids then went our for dinner with Nat and Jules. Andy had surprised me by booking Amala, an Indian Restuarant at Zabeel Saray on the Palm. The hotel was absolutely gorgeous and the restaurant was fabulous. We started with cocktails at a lively bar then moved on to dinner (they did amazing vegan dishes for me) and more cocktails then back to the bar for more cocktails! It was a great night to top off a great day and Andy and the kdis really spoiled me.

Bx

New Year's Eve

We started off with just charcoal in the fire. It was pretty smoky.

Stacks of Chinese lanterns did a fly by.

Up goes the chair! We got through three of them.

The thick weaved seats smoked pretty bad until they caught.

But looked great when they did!

Late in the night and out come the Metallica hands.

We decided to avoid getting stuck in traffic and stayed home for NYE. Our friends Nat and Jules came over and we had dinner and cocktails in the Gazebo. We had a new fire pit but firewood was sold out all over town, the perfect excuse for Blake and I to bash up some Ikea wicker chairs to burn! We needed them, it was freezing! Had a great night, didn't make it to bed until 4am.

Christmas Day

Andy and I got ourselves a Nespresso. We LOVE it!

A frenzy of stocking opening and bed head.

Stocking loot.

Chocolate pikelets and berries for breakfast.

Zach's lego boat.

Just some of the lovely gifts the kids received. Thanks everyone!

Bastie bounces while Benjy scoots.

The kids present, a spring free trampoline. A huge hit.

Christmas dinner.

Crackers!

We had Christmas Day at home which was perfect for five excited children with new toys to play with. Andy, Blake and Adrianne took the kids to the playground in the morning which gave me a lovely relaxing hour or so to cook in peace and we had the Christmas turkey dinner late afternoon.

Bx

The Kackie's come to town!

Last minute photo add! We had a night out to see Culture Club followed by a few bevvies at Irish Village.

The kids had fun decorating a gingerbread house. My building skills are woeful and it ended up staying flat packed.

We had a great Boxing Day brunch at the Golf Club.

A big reason why it was so great....

One afternoon the Kackie's had a rest from the fun and we went to a party. Bastie was thrilled with the driveway lineup.

Lovely family photo.

Morning out at Black Palace beach.

It was perfect kite flying weather.

We had breakfast at The Address one morning. Here's a couch full of trouble.

Burj Khalifa.

The Address in the background.

Well earned break by the Burj Khalifa lake.

Andy and Blake went quad biking in the desert one day.

Checking out the dunes.

I think this might be Blake.

Accident aftermath.

Good team work boys!

Waiting for the ice cream truck.

A lot of hanging out in the garden in pants went on.

The boys go for a ride at the Golf Club.

Woo!

Yeah!

A very successful dinner.

The Kackie's arrived for their eagerly anticipated Christmas visit on December 20. The kids had been excited for weeks and were thrilled to see their cousins.

It was fantastic to spend some time with Blake, Adrianne and the kids and we had a lot of fun doing a few things and just generally hanging out. We got through all five having a fever at various times without too much bother, result! Flynn and Benjy are such lovely boys and all the kids got on really well most of time. Zach and Flynn got up to lots of naughtiness together which they loved, they are going to be trouble in 10 years!

We managed a couple of nights out without the kids which is always fun!

Bx