Someone's having a birthday party

This week we are in full preparation for Piper's 3rd birthday party on Friday. Her birthday is still two weeks away but the mass summer exodus from Dubai's heat and before the beginning of Ramadam has started, so we are holding her party early while her friends are still here.

I will update post party but for now here are a few photo's.  A princess themed party (who knew a 3 year old had so many opinions on a party) and as with the past two years I will attempt to make her birthday cake myself, this year she has chosen a princess castle! Actually she wanted Shaun the Sheep again until she got her little hands-on my cake books and found this one!

Helping bake cupcakes

Handmade party decorations..... I have a lot to finish

Chocolate crackles of course.... copha not available over here but after 4 different supermarkets I finally found an alternative product

The princess castle I am attempting tomorrow night

Our little mummy

The Ballet Concert

Unfortunately we have not yet received our official concert video or photographs (cameras were banned during the concert) but below I have attached a sneaky couple we took of Piper the Mermaid during the concert and some post concert photos.

All my worries about Piper (the youngest in her class) getting stage fright on the day were a waste of my energy..... she loved it! So much so she refused to leave the stage at the end of her performance and had to be dragged off by her teacher.

Then 3 songs later she popped back out on the side of the stage during the older children's performance for a little solo dance which was highly entertaining before once again her teacher had to drag her from the stage. Hopefully this was caught on the official video which we will post soon.

Stay tuned for more Ballet tales. Although official ballet class has ended for the summer Piper has enrolled in summer school and for the next 6 weeks is taking Hip Hop classes..... this could be interesting!!

ABC Practice (video)

 Piper has discovered how to work the video function on our iPhone. She loves making videos and playing them back again and again. This is her practising her ABC's on the weekend (this was very early in the morning - you will see from my voice).

Watch through to the end...... the attitude is hilarious. Our almost 3 year old going on 13!

Visitor fun!

This weekend we had the beautiful Lexi and BJ come stay with us on their way through to Europe.
It was an absolute blast to see some familiar faces and hang out together.
While it made us a little homesick, seeing it through the eyes of newbies also made us appreciate where we live and how lucky we are to be here in this amazing place.
FYI - I stole these photo's from Lexi's camera (thank you).

A drive out to the end of the Palm Islands to see the amazing Atlantis Hotel

Morning beach fun

Drinks at the Address Hotel, overlooking the dancing fountain, Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa - how gorgeous is Lexi!

Fab photo from the Address Hotel overlooking Old Town (Attareen Island) and the tower behind is our home!

Looking out from the Burj Khalifa (world's tallest building)

Lexi couldn't resist this shot from our car park. There is actually another Ferrari and Porsche usually parked next to these two. I am in such fear of wiping this row of cars out every time I drive in and out of our car park... ouch!



Love this photo! Taken at Burj Al Arab after attempting to Stand-up Paddle Board.... it was too windy and choppy apparently (Piper and I stayed home for afternoon nap).



On the last night Lexi and I snuck away and enjoyed Sangria's at the Palace Hotel pool bar. It is amazing, with fan cooled cabana's and day beds to lounge on and drink cocktails!

Some midweek laughs

Yesterday a friend sent me this hilarious tumbler that accurately portrays our crazy expat life here in Dubai..... right down to the same bank and the same issues!

I hope this makes you smile too!  Click here

Piper Tales #1

So I haven't blogged for over a week. In the first instance I have broken something on this blog and it breaks every single time I try to upload new photo's. In the second instance it has been one hell of a busy  two weeks at work.

To all of my friends and family I am sorry for all the emails unreturned, skype dates missed and just generally ignoring you all for 2 weeks.
Piper is growing up before our eyes at the moment. Can you believe in just over 6 weeks she will be 3 years old (she has requested a princess and pirate party).

I wish I had remembered to write down more Piper quotes and her little stories recently but here a few to entertain you as much as she does us.

Her judgement for when she is grown-up is not "when I am a big girl" or "when I am x age". No out of the mouth of Piper on numerous occasions lately has been "when I am taller than mummy" hmmmm does that mean 10?

To the waiter who informed her they don't have banana pancakes only blueberry "well actually you just take the blueberries out and chop up a banana and put it in see" - she got her banana pancakes after all

On arriving home from work last week Piper informed me "Auntie Leanne broke her foot". As I had only just spoken to my sister that day I was a little shocked. I asked Piper if she had spoken to Auntie Leanne and she told me her and Daddy had been on skype. "She broked it bad mummy" at which point I thought I should probably call my sister and check how she was. I then asked Piper how Auntie Leanne broke her foot and got this response "she picked her toe nails too much". There was no broken foot or even a conversation that day, it was just her imagination.

Her response when running out to the lounge room when she should of been in bed asleep made me cry "I did a really stinky pardy in my bed and can't go in there" Note: Pardy is code for fart in our house.

She reconfirmed this current development stage of fascination with her pardy abilities on the weekend. A male colleague and good friend of ours was at our house when Piper who was sitting at the other end of the couch yelled "Kieran, Kieran, come here" and when the poor guy came over "smell this". Yup, she really did tit, she wasn't joking or repeating anything she had seen before - she really was a little proud of herself and wanted to share.

Someone is a mermaid in her upcoming ballet concert