It's raining, it's pouring.

Splish, splosh, splash.

Ta da!

Run!

It has finally rained, hurrah! The first rain of winter is always exciting and never fails to cause chaos and flooding galore. We've had a few nights of rain and one day when it was heavy so the dust has well and truly been washed out of the air. The kids were very excited, photography is not my strong point so the action shots are all a bit rubbish...

Bx

Santa at Wafi

Merry Christmas Santa!

Santa's Grotto

The Chocolate Factory

The candy covered tree

Wafi Mall is great at Christmas. Santa took a break from there last year thanks to the recession but this year he's back, yay! The theme is Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory and there are Oompa Loompas a'plenty. Daisy and Zach were thrilled to meet Santa and sit on his knee.

Bx

Eid, National Day and the Rugby 7's.

Daisy heads off for National Day celebrations at school in national dress.

And arrives home fully decked out!

Zach uses me as drum at the Rugby 7's...

Cuddles up to Daddy...

Then Mummy...

And finishes off with a quick drum on Daisy.

Lucy also gets a cuddle.

But he's not so keen on being in a cheerleader sandwich.

Andy's new car, keeping a watchful eye on the stadium.

We've celebrated Eid Al-Adha and National Day this week. It's meant a week off school for Daisy and 4 days off work for Andy and we've had a really nice time. Andy's parents and brother Steve were over for the first few days. There's also been a couple of parties for the kids, catching up with friends, lots of lounging in the garden and the Rugby 7's.

Bx

We've moved!

Four weeks after planting, we have our first success, Radishes!

Happy little gardeners.

Vegetable garden, two weeks after planting seeds.

Daisy is a keen biker. Zach is a keen chaser.

Play area.

Grass, gazebo, Daisy and 'no clothes for me thanks' Zach.

Daisy gives the new paving a workout.

Picasso in the nude.

Finally! We are loving our new house, it's still in the Ranches but more central so an easy walk to the shopping centre and golf club. It was a very busy time getting everything ready and the move was the usual fun but it's great to finally be in.

I'll stick to pictures from the garden for this post. It was just a big sand pit so was quite exciting to plan. Once the planning was all done it took three weeks and a LOT of workman to complete. Pretty good going considering the amount of work that had to be done on irrigation, paving and building the gazebo from scratch. . It's elevated which gives a nice open feel and there is a gate which leads to a path to the communal swimming pool/playground/tennis court/basketball court. We've put in lots of flowering shrubs and trees plus lemon, lime, mandarin, pomegranate and almond trees. The kids and I planted a vegetable garden with herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, beans, carrots, courgettes, squashes, watermelons and sunflowers. it took three days for the first seeds to come up and it's growing at a great rate.

Bx

It's a bit mean....

...but I thought I'd post this photo anyway. Daisy is 'being married' and Zach is being a princess. Andy was coping well with the cross dressing until he put the ipod on and Zach very sweetly asked for Britney.

Bx

Busy days

Zach, trikestar.

Daisy gives an action demo of her school PE kit.

Zach muscles in.

Daisy is nearly up to her full timetable at school, it seems like quite a busy schedule for a 3 year old but she's really enjoying it. She's exhausted by the end of the week and looks like she's been on a huge bender! She has Arabic on Sunday, PE and music on Monday (a very tiring day) , library on Tuesday, swimming will start on Wednesdays after Christmas and Thursdays are so far free.

Zach is also busy which he needs as he really misses Daisy when she is at school. We have Boogie Babies at the Golf Club on Sundays, playgroup on Mondays and Wednesdays, Tuesday is a free day so we do something fun (most of the time....) and a playdate with his friend Miles on Thursdays. He's loves all his activities and talks about his little friends a lot.

As for me and Andy, we're busy too! Andy is, as usual, flat out at work and I've got my hands full organising getting the new house ready around kids and still feeling yuck. Our social life has taken a bit of a dive thanks to me being ill/tired but we are still managing to have the odd night out. Normally dinner or movies but we went to the relaunch of one of AMG's radio stations at Barasti beach bar last Friday night. Barasti is a great place to have a few too many drinks. I enjoyed my ginger ale though.

Bx

Eid-Al-Fitr

The excitement builds.

Check it out, it's....

Barney!

Intermission and time to stuff in some popcorn.

Daisy suits up.

Then hits the chairlift with Matilda.

We had a really nice Eid, it was two days off work for Andy and three days off school with Daisy, both which followed the weekend so it felt like a really good break. I love here how public/bank holidays can come in twos, or even threes! Andy took the kids to Barney one day and another day he took Daisy the Ski Dubai while Zach was at playgroup. Apart from that, we just had a lovely relaxing time.

Ramadan was good this year, the negatives of no eating or drinking in public are far outweighed by the positive of Andy being home early from work every night. He often even made it back in time for dinner with the kids so it was great to be able to have so many family dinners. Not to mention Andy doing the kid's bath time afterwards...

Summer is finally over and we're spending lots of time outside. It's still in the late 30's but early evening is great outside. We go for an after dinner walk round the lake most nights, it's lots of fun seeing the bunnies, ducks and feeding the fish. The kids run round the lake at top speed and have a great time.

Bx