surely you can renew whilst here ? they do it in London in one day by fast track but its pricey.
My pal has twin boys and their passports ran out after 5 years, in Dubai where they live, they refused to let her travel to Oz with the boys,with expired passports they could only travel to their country of origin, I met her at Heathrow + twins with the appropriate renewal forms, we went to Petty France the following day they renewed same day and she flew back the following day. Why not get them renewed at the consulate in Dubai ? she tried and they said they no longer renewed there but sent the passports to Germany and it would take 10 days and she had a wedding to get to in Oz.
The twins were born here and when we went to get their first passports they were rejected because the babies were asleep and they had their eyes closed, we had to poke the poor little devils till they bawled and then take a picture with their eyes open !