Maximilian Orion Ellis

Beautiful baby boy 2.94 KG - born 09.50am 18 February 2013 at American Hospital, Dubai.

One day earlier than planned, but everything went well. 

So proud of Bec, she has done amazingly this pregnancy under difficult circumstances. We left the hardest one until last, but it was definitely worth it. 

Welcome to the world Maximilian Orion Ellis.

Sebastian turns 3!

Presents! Balloon! Woo!

Neh naw.

Book!

Can't beat a peanut butter pancake for breakfast.

 

The Underwater Zoo was very exciting.

At least the birthday boy was happy to pose at lunch.

I can't believe takeaway pizza got chosen for dinner over all my delicious cooking. At least the smarties on the cake were hit with Bastie.

Sebastian is 3! He is so excited to reach his next milestone. After the other recent birthday's he's very au fait with procedure and had pulled out 'it's MY birthday, I can do it' a few times by breakfast. It's school hols this week so we had a lovely relaxed start to the day with present opening followed by peanut butter pancakes. He loves penguins so we had a trip to the Underwater Zoo at Dubai Mall followed by lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. It was meant to be the Rainforest Cafe but he got scared! We spent the afternoon at home and had pizza for dinner followed by banana chocolate cake and a bar of chocolate for Bastie who isn't so keen on cake.

Sebastian has  remained a love filled little cherub throughout the past year. He is very tactile and loves cuddles and kisses. He is also a very determined little chap who knows what he wants and isn't afraid to stick to his guns. He can also be very particular about how he wants things to be, we went through a few months (when it was hot) where all he wanted to wear was the same two long sleeved dark and light blue striped tops. Every day. I finally resorted to hiding them is desperation as they were ridiculously small.

Sebastian loves playgroup and has a really nice little group of friends there. When they leave the all head off shouting bye to each other out of car windows and as they head down the street. He has a best friend Aidan whom he loves and is counting the days until they are allowed a sleep over - only two years to go boys. He loves reading, puzzles, counting, dancing, play (or not) fighting with Zach and getting horsey and piggy back rides with Daisy.

Sebastian is 95cm tall and weighs 14kgs. His favourite colour is green. His favourite singer is Justin Bieber and his favourite songs are Gangham Style, Beauty and a Beat and We Will Rock You. At the weekend what he likes to do best is play and football. His favourite food is pizza (or pizzol as he calls it) and his favourite drinks are water, juice and cold rice milk. His favourite books are Pooh Bear and Wreck of the Didley. The thing that makes him happier than anything is Mummy and Daddy.

I love Sebastian's sweetness, his sense of humour, his determination and his keen sense of outrage. He's wonderful.

Bx

The big birthday bash.

The party kicked off Gangham Style. Of course.

Our two Cheeky Monkey entertainers kept the kids dancing and playing for 1 1/2 hours. Legends. Sebastian was very upset when they left, he thought they were his birthday gift and he could keep them!

Twelve cups of flour, ten packets of chocolate fingers and twenty packets of Smarties later....

Bastie and his bestie Aidan jump for joy at the arrival of the cakes.

Top blowing from Sebastian although the wind might have beat him to it!

Zach's turn.

Post party bubbles with the Tomblin boys.

Zach and Sebastian had a joint party on February 1.

It was the usual mayhem, 47 excited children, Cheeky Monkey party entertainers doing a sterling job, food galore and rain threatening but holding off apart from a few thrilling drops at the end. The boys both had a marvellous time playing, dancing and eating and I was very proud of them for managing to greet and thank all the their friends for presents despite their excitement.

The party food was tomato penne, sausages, salami, cheese rolls, strawberries and carrots, cucumbers and peppers with hommous. For the adults there was arabic finger food and quite a lot of wine and beer drinking! The cakes were chocolate banana with chocolate fingers around them and topped with chocolate icing and smarties. There has been a lot of baking lately. As much as I love it I'm very pleased to have a couple of weeks off before the next round of cake making. The photos are a bit rubbish, I was slightly preoccupied with not going in to labour to concentrate on photo taking.

Bx

Daisy turns 7!

All set up for the secret agent party.

007's abound.

Chalk outlines.

Birthday dinner.

The cake! Banana choc chip, Daisy Ellis Seven in crossword style.

Happy birthday Dais!

Before school presents in the morning on the actual day, two days after her party.

Sebastian just woke up in time and heads in for a morning cuddle.

Easy peasy birthday dinner

Another cake! Not as scary as it looks from the photo below!

Daisy is 7! She's getting so big. It was a school day this year so it was chocolate waffles and apple in the car for breakfast, apple and cake for snack and honey sandwiches with apple and a treat (mini smarties) for lunch. Dinner was omelet and baked beans on toast followed by cake. I love that Daisy's favourite dinner is so quick and easy!

Daisy had her party the weekend before her birthday. She invited the girls in her class and choose a 'Secret Agent' theme. It had me slightly flummoxed at first but after a bit of googling turned out to be a great fun theme and we had a lot of fun organising a playing the party games. The girls each had Secret Agent in training folders with their names in code on the front which they had to decipher. We photo copied each of their hands and they played guess the hand. They also played 'pin the false mustache' on a big photo of Daisy and drew chalk outlines of each other. The fun culminated in a treasure hunt with cryptic clues and party bags containing secret agent badges, hats and sunglasses as the prize. Dinner was homemade fish and chips with a crossword puzzle chocolate cake.

Daisy is still loving school and is doing really well. She has a lovely group of girls in her class and they are all great friends. She has turned in to a complete bookworm which is fantastic but not without problems! We battle with her constantly over reading too late at night then being exhausted in the morning. She can also be very hard to convince to put her book down and get other things (like homework) done. It is wonderful how much she likes reading though. Daisy is an excellent swimmer and is now brilliant at all strokes (including butterfly). She really enjoys hip hop and has done animal scrapbook and multisports as her extra activities at school so far, she has really enjoyed both.

Daisy is 124cm tall and weighs 20.4 kgs . Her favourite colour is turquiose. Her favorite band is One Direction and her favourite song is Lady Gaga's Bad Romance (tune!). At the weekend what she likes to do best is see friends. Her favourite food is beans on toast and omelet and her favourite drink is fizzy drinks - a very very big treat! She has lots of favourite books, two of them are The Adventures of the Wishing Chair and Hayley Twitch and the Wedding Glitch. The thing that makes her happier than anything is Kidzania (a mini children's city at Dubai Mall).

Daisy has grown up a lot in the past year. She took the plunge and decided to move in to her own room about half way through they year. Her workload at school is pretty intense so we recently got her a desk for her room so she can do her homework away from her pesky little brothers trying to distract her. She is still doing brilliantly at school and loves going. She is pretty patient with Zach and Sebastian who love trying to torment her. She enjoys wrestling with them and loves that she still has the upper hand strength wise although it's getting harder when it's two against one! She took the news of another little brother very well and can't wait to have a baby in the house. She got a Barbie car for her birthday which she loves playing with and she loves doing quizzes. Most of her time is spent reading though, she flies through books - it's a good thing that she is happy to read them over and over again! She especially enjoys Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl and Shakespeare for children.

I love Daisy's inquisitiveness and her kindness. She often write me notes and draws me pictures telling me she loves me. She's beautiful and funny and lovely to have in our lives.

Bx

Zach turns 5!

Zach's birthday this year was a school day. It's pretty rough getting dragged out of bed at 6.30am on your birthday.

He soon rallied at the sight of presents though. What a trooper.

Still dark out and it's present time!

Zach's not a fan of the phone. This call lasted about 3 seconds. Ninja duties called.

Zach choose to decorate his cake himself this year. A top ploy for maximum sweet guzzling.

He kindly allowed Daisy and Bastie to help.

Five!

The finished masterpiece.

Post candle blowing.

Hey, where have all the sweets gone?!

Zach is finally five! He's been desperate to turn five as I've told him that is the minimum age for sleep overs with friends. It's rolled around pretty quickly.....

His birthday fell on a Sunday this year which is a school day. He was very excited to take cupcakes in to his class and felt very special when they all sung him happy birthday. He chose custard and strawberries for breakfast, apple and a treat (a kit kat!) for snack and pasta, custard and apple for lunch. Dinner was mince and rice, spag bol and orange capsicum followed by custard and cake. Custard is a bit of a favourite at the moment.

Zach has continued to be a challenge this year in much the same way as last year. He definitely has a good dose of middle child syndrome going on which I'm hoping will improve once he's not the only middle child. He can however still be very loving and sweet which helps us get through the times he is not! He has continued to do fantastic at school and is writing beautifully and starting to read.

Zach is 108cm tall and weighs 18.2 kgs. His favourite colour is orange. His favourite singer is Justin Bieber (still!) and his favourite song is Will.I.Am and Britney's Scream and Shout. At the weekend what he likes to do best is going to play areas. His favourite food is spag bol and his favourite drink is 7up - which I must add that he is allowed 1/3 of a can of once a year at the Sevens Rugby! His favourite book is I Want to be a Soldier and the thing that makes him happier than anything else is Magic Planet (a play area).

Zach and Sebastian have increasingly gotten in to mischief this year. They love being loud together and causing carnage. Zach has been the sweetest of all the kids about the impending arrival of Pookie 4. He often makes me up a bed on the couch and tells me to have a rest and he has started carrying my bag for me at school pick ups. He's been very sympathetic to me being a bit useless and brought home a family picture from school one day where he had drawn us all - complete with me lying in bed! He kisses my tummy a lot and is very excited.

Testosterone has kicked in fully this year and Zach has turned in to a bit of a warlord. He loves anything to do with guns, soldiers and fighting. He has continued to do very well at swimming, is great at his hip hop dance classes and is very good at rugby. He's not the best in his team on a physical level but is very tactical, clever boy. We are very proud of Zach and love the fun he brings to our family.

Bx