First of all, Happy Easter to those celebrating! And to those who are celebrating but had to report to work today – may you get twice as much Easter chocolate eggs to compensate.

Erm…that would be me.

I am at work today while all of my Christian friends have taken a special day off. Oh well. I’ve had a wonderful time yesterday at The Address Montgomerie Easter family picnic. See this sight? This was at the Montgomerie – acres of lush green fairways, landscaped gardens and lakes. It makes you feel like you’re not in desert land at all.

This is our 8th Easter in Dubai and it’s a shame to say that I’ve not taken the kids to any Easter related function because Sunday is always a work day here. And though there are a few hotels having Friday/Saturday “Easter Sunday” events, it felt weird going to a non-Sunday Easter Sunday, if you know what I mean?

But this year, we were invited to the Easter family picnic event at The Address Montgomerie and though it’s a Saturday and not Easter yet, we decided to check it out. See their excitement!

The setting was outdoors and then Dubai decided to make it a really hot summer day yesterday.

 Really, really hot that my husband was dead worried about the food getting spoiled as it was exposed under the heat of the sun like this.

 But the hotel was worrying about the same thing and put up umbrellas!

 The temperature was really crazy yesterday but we’re lucky we sat very near to these huge fans called “porta cool”. That black one that looks like the back of an old CRT TV…

The kids were very busy licking the ice lollies before the heat melts it all away? This was the first time Benjamin had an ice lollie all to himself and you can imagine the joy…and the number of tissues I spent cleaning him up!

 It was a hot, hot day – did I already mention it was really hot? Oh ok, sorry. But these sweets were just melting in the heat. So sad. And I was told they have to replace the sweets every 30 minutes so diners can enjoy the beautiful form and taste. It’s heartbreaking to think food wasted. 

There were plenty of activities for the kids – bouncy castle, clowns, face painting, balloon bending and of course, Easter egg painting.

I wish it wasn’t so hot or they could have held the event indoors. 

Nevertheless, it was a very fun, family friendly event. Picnic outside is something we haven’t done in a while – the place was fantastic (we would love to take the kids again), the food was great (I particularly LOVED the beef cheek pastille – very tender meat, oh my) and plenty of activities for the kids. Great family brunch location.

* We struggled to find the location as we don’t live or frequent this area. There were no sign boards leading up to the hotel so my tip would be to find the entrance to Emirates Hills and ask the guard where it is. We turned one right before the main entrance and got lost – literally drove round and round!

The Address Montgomerie is located in Emirates Hills, you can connect with them via Facebook, Twitter and follow The Address Hotels in Instagram.