Vienna

Once we landed in Prague, we immediately rented a car and drove to Vienna to start off our 10 day trip.  Mike had a week off for the Muslim holiday, Eid, marking the end of Ramadan.  After not sleeping at all on our flights, the girls and I were exhausted and slept almost the entire 5 hour drive.  This made jet lag even harder to get over and poor Mike had to do that long drive virtually by himself.

Vienna is stunning!!!  It is an absolutely beautiful city with lots of things for two little girls to enjoy.

Giant hotdogs!

After enduring Ramadan by himself in Abu Dhabi (no eating or drinking in public for the month), Mike enjoying a beer and pork just out in the streets!

My little ladies in front of the Belvedere Palace...love that Mike is in the background reading the guide book :)

Beautiful gardens

We found a little pond along the way and fed the ducks

E grabbing a little nap on the way to The Prater, a fun little public park/amusement park area.  The Riesenrad, the giant ferris wheel behind us, is what we did first.

Up in the Riesenrad (constructed in 1897!)

 The girls loved the view!

Very cool!

 Really neat little park-maybe the highlight of the entire trip for the girls!

 Bumper cars!  Soon after this was taken, the guy said that Eliza couldn't ride in Mike's lap.  So I went with her; she insisted on driving.  The first time we got bumped, Eliza hit her lip on the steering wheel and it started bleeding.  She cried, I pulled over to get her out, but she refused.  She kept on going with the bleeding lip!  She is one tough cookie!

 Fun swings!

Later that night at this beautiful dinner spot.  It was right around the corner from our apartment.   We ended up eating there two or three times,  best schnitzel we had the entire trip!

 The next day we visited the beautiful Schönbrunn Palace.  

 Sweet Daddy's girl

We hiked all the way up to the beautiful Gloriette.

 The Palace in the background.  This was right before the sky opened and we got soaked!  We left our rain coats and everything back at the apartment.

 The fam

The palace gardens had the coolest little kids play area.  Olivia was hard at work moving some dirt.

 The girls did not want to leave this cool water wheel

 Teamwork!

Very cool garden maze that Olivia insisted on being the leader

 After the palace, we stopped at this amazing little restaurant that Mike found in the guide book.  The girls were done with sitting quietly at the table.  They went over to the strollers to relax and play a few games...panties showing and all :-)

Yummy yummy stop

Surprise, its Daddy!

What six year old wouldn't love to fly to Europe for her birthday?!!  We told the girls that we were going on a stop-over trip to Europe on our way back to Abu Dhabi for Olivia's birthday.  Olivia asked if Daddy was going to come too.  I thought it was funny that she asked, so I told her that Mike was probably not going to be able to make it because he had to work--yeah, like I would take two little bitty girls on a 10 day European trip by myself, ha!!
We had a direct flight to Frankfurt where we would meet Mike and then all fly together to Prague.  When we got off the plane in Frankfurt, SURPRISE--Daddy was there waiting for us.  The girls were SO excited to see him (so was Mama!).  It had been almost three weeks since we had seen him last.  What a fun surprise!

Her REAL Birthday

The birthday girl, the night before her birthday.  She got Caroline's matching nightgown...she was so excited. 

Unfortunately, on her real birthday, I had to wake her up and run her to the pediatrician before we left town that day.  She has had a runny nose for weeks and I decided it was best to take her in, even on our last day and her birthday.  I am glad we did.  We finally discovered she has allergies and now have a game plan that works to get rid of that runny nose that comes and never leaves!

 Tired birthday girl (still in her nightgown!) asked to eat Nonna's chocolate cake for breakfast on the way to the pedi...why not, it's your birthday!  Funny for a girl who doesn't even really like sweets.

We finished in time to get a quick mani/pedi (her fav) with Ducky before getting on our flight to see Daddy!

Happy Happy Birthday to my sweet sweet Olivia.  We truly could not be more proud of you.   What an amazing girl you have become.  You are the kindest, most compassionate little soul I know.  You are just darling and so very bright.  You are so responsible, yet fun loving.  You are wonderful and have the biggest heart.  You are an amazing big sister and your little sister thinks the world of you.  We adore you and love you to the moon and back!  Our big SIX year old!

American Girl Birthday Lunch

We took Olivia and a couple close friends and the grandmothers to The American Girl Store for a fun birthday lunch.  We started by taking Caroline to the beauty salon.  Poor thing's curly hair was a HOT mess!  Olivia loved picking out her hair style and then watching it all happen.

 Sadly, she also broke her leg on our trip home to Texas ;-)

 Sweet Caroline!

 MUCH better!

 I love seeing the excitement on all of the girls' faces.  Amazed at seeing their doll getting all fancied up!

 Cute girls

 Caroline, Olivia and Katherine

 Big girls ordering lunch

 Olivia and her sweet sweet BFF, Katherine

 O and Ducky

 Happy Birthday to the sweetest girl in the world!  She deserves it all.

The girls!

CAROLYN!!!!!!!!!

So thrilled that my BFF came to see me in Texas this summer!  My poor Canadian friend braved the Texas summer heat to come and for a visit.  She flew into Dallas and drove back to Houston with us.  I am beyond thrilled she came.  It was soooo good to see her again.  There are those few people that you meet in your life and she is definitely one of them for me.  I am honored to call her my friend!

 Dinner at Club No Minors, El Patio with my parents

Mighty George!!

Our sweet friends, The Grings, BEAT CANCER!!!!!!!!  Hooray for Mighty George!!  George was lucky enough to have been chosen by Make-A-Wish to go to training camp with the Carolina Panthers.  ESPN ran a spot about the Grings and his time with Cam Newton and the team.  They then hosted an awesome viewing party at Dave and Buster's.  We drove directly from Dallas to the party to celebrate.

 Clayton making a sweet speech about Mighty George!

 O excited about it all!

 O and her BFF Katherine

 George and Cam Newton!

All of the sweet kids that came out to support George!

Dallas Luau Birthday Party

Olivia is one lucky little birthday girl.  She had so many birthday celebrations while we were home and this was just the first one.  Aunt Jenny, Delia and Emery (Uncle Tim was out of town) hosted the sweetest little birthday celebration for Olivia.  It was a purple (her favorite) Luau party, in which they invited all of the little neighborhood kids to.  What a fun time!  Aunt Jenny really outdid herself on this one!

 Her special purple birthday lei

 Emery and Delia spent all morning decorating for the party

 Sweet big cousins

 Cousin Emery

 All decked out!

 Awesome Aunt Jenny made this super fun water blob.  Duct tape a thick painter's drop cloth and fill it with water.  FUN for hours!

 The other drop cloth was used as a slip and slide.  The kids had  BLAST and got all sudsy

 The cousins and new friends having cupcakes

My babes

 The next day, they decided they wanted to wash the car :-)

 Sweet Uncle Timmy, back in town

 Silly girl!

 All of the other Stobaughs came over 

 Another awesome Aunt Jennyism--take a glow stick bath

 All of the cousins and Rocky!

Ray Girls with cousins Haylie and Aiden

She even let them paint her face with face paint!  She is way more brave and a whole lot less afraid of mess than I am!  What an amazing time in Dallas!!