Bathtime Burj Khalifa

Daisy and Zach love making Burj Khalifa's with their hair in the bath. Bastie...not so much.

Bx

Mamzar Park

The view from the tower.

Up the tower.

Daisy and Zach scoot off into the distance.


Bastie doesn't seem to realise he's only 10 1/2 months old and not really old enough to scoot.

Downhill scoot while I try not to have conniptions.

After nearly 4 years in Dubai we finally made it to Mamzar, the last main park we hadn't been to. It was fantastic! It's on a corniche so had palm tree flanked beach all around it with picnic and play areas in the middle. Oddly enough, it reminded me a bit of Sentosa Island in Singapore.

Bx

New Years Eve

I have no idea what we are singing here. Probably ABBA. I should have put the champagne down.

This was probably Ronald beating me again.

Ooo, the last post of 2010! I feel like I should say something profound but I'll stick to saying that 2010 was a great year, cheers!

On the topic of cheers, Andy and I ditched the kids and headed to our friends Theresa and Ronald's to see in the new year. We had a great dinner then sang the night away on Singstar. We actually had a little too much of a good time and didn't make it home in time for Bastie's 4.30am feed. Oops. We finally made it back to a very hungry baby at about 5.45am. My phone and memory got lost along the way. Double oops.

Bx

Washing up and standing up

Bastie gets his 'tongue of fun' out.

Scrub a dub dub

Zach's a bit of a blouse when it comes to getting wet.

Check out my walking!

Carnage in waiting.

Daisy and Zach love doing the dishes. Not a trait they get from me. Bastie is VERY keen to start walking. He's still a way off but loves practising with his walker.

Bx

Boxing Day

Tickles!

Bastie is an extremely keen scooter.

Daisy with her Christmas present tea set.

Zach presides over the pouring.

Rockstar!

Ballad mode.

We had brunch at the Golf Club then spent the afternoon in the garden on Boxing Day. It was lovely and a really nice way to top off a gluttonous three days of Christmas.

Bx

Christmas Day

A frog with wings.....erm, nice one Santa.

Daisy and Zach finally wake up at 7.30am (of all the days to sleep in!) and join the action.

Bastie's favourite stocking gift was raisins. He loves them.

Did santa give me a hairbrush? Daisy works bedhead.

Lollipop!

Cheese!

Bastie's wooden parking building has been a big hit with all the kids.

Spiderzach.

We had a lovely Christmas Day. We spent the whole day at home which was very nice. In the morning there were many presents to open and play with then in the afternoon our friends Katie, Mike, Lucy, Phoebe and George came over for Christmas dinner. It was a very relaxed way to spend Christmas and we all had a great day. I love cooking Christmas dinner and spent lots of happy time cooking. We had roast turkey and lamb with all the trimmings. I gorged myself on Christmas mince pies. Nom nom nom. We forgot to get the camera out in the afternoon, boo!

Bx

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2010

Here is a copy of my Christmas email:

Dear all

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2010

Wow, another busy year! Feels like they are just flying past at record speed. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that I was drafting my Christmas update last year, but when I look back at the year just gone, I realise that so much has happened.

I am very pleased to state that times are pretty good in the Ellis household, if only we weren't so knackered all the time to enjoy it properly!

The big event in 2010 for us was the arrival of Sebastian Fox Ellis on 17 February, along with three baby boy cousins shortly after (Harry, Benjamin and Sid). Bastie is such a happy little man and everyone loves him so much. He gets plenty of attention from Daisy and Zach, and he misses them enormously when they are at school and playgroup.

Daisy and Zach are growing up fast. Most of the time they are great fun, and they love school, meeting friends, going to the pool (Daisy is a fab little swimmer), scooting to the golf club, Singstar at the weekend, plus singing and dancing and playing games all the time. Daisy is getting brilliant school reports, and Zach is a real character who keeps us in stitches most of the time.

The Ellis family still love life in Dubai, and things are slowly picking up in the City. The roads are getting busy again (not a good thing) and some of the stalled projects are restarting (good thing). Work has settled down, and we have recently moved in to a great new office overlooking the Arabian Gulf. Still working long hours, but feeling more confident now that we've hit bottom and things are looking up.

We've had some highs during the year, such as winning a trip to Vienna in the Wafi Christmas Raffle last year. We stayed at the Sacher Hotel in May, and it was simply the most wonderful hotel experience we've ever had. They gave us two huge suites with interconnecting doors and it was fantastic.

We've had some lows as well, with probably our closest and dearest friends, Tara & Dajon plus Sanna & Elleke, leaving Dubai to return to Australia. We met Tara & Dajon in the first few weeks of arriving in Dubai and we were very, very sad to see them leave. It is making me feel weepy just writing this, which I know is a bit pathetic and not very manly, but I think you get very attached to your friends in an expat environment such as Dubai.

I also turned 40 this year, but I'm not sure if that is a high or a low.

Our big trip this year was a summer escape to the winter in New Zealand (via Singapore). We love Singapore, and really would like to spend more time there, but it was great to catch up with family and friends in New Zealand. Man it was cold in Christchurch though. Zach didn't know what had hit him but the cooler weather did him a world of good. Bec did an absolutely fantastic job keeping the kids active, and Zach has turned from a lazy slug into a fit and energetic little boy. However, Daisy thought that New Zealand was old and full of old people, old cars, and old houses. Dubai however is shiny and new and beautiful. Hmmmm.........expat brat maybe!

Anyway, I think that's it for this year. It is nearly 9pm on Christmas Eve, and there are still presents to be wrapped and beers to be drunk!

We hope all of you have a fantastic Christmas and a fabulous 2011. It would be lovely to see more of you, hence please bear us in mind if you are passing through this part of the world.

As always, you can see what we've been up to via http://blog.becandy.com/

Lots of love from

Andy, Bec, Daisy, Zach & Sebastian x