Austrian Vacation

Pictures from Austria ...

It was dark by the time we arrived at our hotel in Austria, but we woke up to a wonderful surprise - it was snowing!!!  Not a lot, but flurries with a dusting of snow on everything...

The view from our hotel room ... everything look magical with a fresh layer of snow...

Mini snow man on our balcony

Nicholas woke up with a fever and all congested, so we decided to postpone ski school by one day and enjoy a lazy first day in Austria.

View of the slope from outside our hotel ... walking distance to the lift!

Hotel Lisa

Snowball fight is ON! 

Look out!

Snow was pretty dry but we managed to build a small snowman

Nicholas still wasn't feeling well the following day, so Jaden went to ski school and Ken hit the slopes.  There wasn't a lot of snow, so not the greatest skiing for Ken.  Nicholas and I watched Jaden at ski school and hung out in the lodge drinking hot chocolate, playing Uno, and making up lyrics to the songs the live band was singing in Dutch.  I was shocked that Nicholas didn't seem to care about missing out on skiing ... clearly he wasn't feeling well!!

Ready for ski school

First time on skis in 2 years so Jaden started with the beginner ski school (barely even a slope!)

Jaden's ski school class

Alpine roller coaster right next door to ski school location

Nicholas rides the alpine roller coaster while Jaden is in ski school

Crossing the finish line

"My checks are cold"

 



feeling better

 

time for some sledding!  (there wasn't much snow, so it got pretty bumpy in a few places)

 A beautiful day!

Mini snow men were melting on the balcony ... where is the snow this year??

We were shocked by the lack of snow this year!!!

Passed this castle on our way to Salzburg



Our last day in Austria was spent in Salzburg ... shopping in a Christmas market and visiting a castle.  When you live in a Muslim country, visiting a Christmas market is a really big deal!!!  Of course it's hot where we live in December so it's already hard to get in the Christmas spirit, but add in the fact that you don't see Christmas decorations around town or hear Christmas music on the radio and it's REALLY hard to get in the Christmas spirit in Doha!!! I could smell the fresh cut pine trees a block away and immediately I started to smile and float toward the Christmas market in the old town square!!! 

Salzburg Christmas market

View of the cathedral from the Christmas market

Another view of the Christmas market ... starting to get crowded!

View of the castle from the Christmas market ... this is the castle we toured.

 When the boys got cold, we went inside the cathedral to warm up...

Beautiful dome and ceilings inside the cathedral

 

Close up of the dome

Pointing out different pictures and stories on the ceiling

Beautiful Christmas tree at the front of the cathedral

Boys were tired of shopping by the time we left the Christmas market and were acting silly ... or maybe it was all the sugar and sweets they ate at the market?  Nothing like a lunch of cotton candy, hot chocolate, and soft pretzels!

Trying to get a picture of these two is nearly impossible anymore!!!

but we keep trying

and trying

and trying

and trying

until we finally give up!

View of Salzburg from the castle

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas from the Doans!!

Happy New Year from the Doans!

Happy 2015!!!  I can't believe my last post was Halloween!!  It's been an especially busy time for our family -- both good and sad.  I'll do my best to catch up on posting pictures in the weeks ahead.  I never did get Christmas cards done this year, so you can all stop checking your mailboxes.  :-) 

A quick summary of the last 10 weeks...

Shortly after Halloween we got a most dreaded phone call in the middle of the night ... one you never want to get.  Ken's only sister, Mai, was found dead in her Dallas apartment on Nov 14th.  It was quite unexpected and tragic.  Ken immediately started making arrangements to get home ... the hardest part of expat life is not being there for your family during times like these.  The kids and I stayed in Doha until Ken was able to join his family in Dallas and make the arrangements for a burial in Houston.  Then we flew out to join them for the memorial service.  Ken's family is pretty private and the service was a rather small gathering of close friends and family at the cemetery.  The pastor from our home church said a few words (in English) and Ken's dad spoke (in Vietnamese).  Ken's brother Antoine read a poem that Ken had written and all were moved.  It had been gray and rainy all week, but it was a beautiful blue sky for the service.  It was a lovely tribute to a wonderful sister, daughter, and friend.  We miss Mai everyday and the holidays were not the same without her.  We stayed in Houston until Thanksgiving and flew home that afternoon. 

For Christmas this year, we took the kids skiing in Austria again.  It was a VERY different trip than our first Austrian ski trip 2 years ago!  There was hardly any snow on the mountain and Nicholas had a fever and stuffy nose, so he couldn't ski.  He was surprisingly okay about just hanging out with me in the lodge (I guess he really wasn't feeling well).  We played board and card games and listened to a fabulous live band play (we made up lyrics since we didn't understand what they were saying).  :-)  Jaden did great in ski school and I think he's ready to ski with me and Ken on our next trip ... no more ski school!  :-)  I'll have to post pictures another time.

We flew back to Doha on Christmas Day (after spending both Thanksgiving and Christmas in airports this year, Ken is determined never to travel on a holiday ever again!).  We tricked the kids into thinking we traveled on Christmas Eve and opened presents on Dec 26.  They had no idea.  It was a fairly short trip to Austria because we had to get back to Doha for my mom and nephew Dakota's visit.  We had a blast showing Dakota around Doha and enjoyed fabulous weather the entire time he was here!  I'll have lots of pictures to post another day.

Finally, we celebrated Jaden's 8th birthday this week.  Where has the time gone?  I can't believe he is already 8!!!  He wanted something small for his birthday this year.  He wanted to go to a "fancy" restaurant with his closest friends followed by ice cream cake at our house and a play date.  It was a lovely day!!  We adore his friends and their parents, so it was just as nice for us and it was for him.  A fabulous birthday for a fabulous 8 year old!!! 

Pictures to follow soon ...
A belated "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" to all our friends and family.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween seemed to go on forever this year!!!  Halloween was on a Friday (a weekend here in Qatar) and the boys didn't have school on Thursday for parent teacher conferences, so they had the Halloween parties on Tuesday!  The boys wore their costumes to school and I was at school all day for their parties.  Jaden's party was in the morning and we played some minute to win it games, decorated cookies, made lollipop ghosts and monster faces, played a would you rather game, and ended with snacks.  It was loads of fun!!!  Wish I had pictures, but I was too busy with the activities to take any.

After cleaning up, I headed over to Nicholas' class to help set up his party.  His teacher had 7 stations around the room for the kids to play ... so fun!  Ghost bowling, pin the tail on the black cat, monster hands, pumpkin faces, cookie decorating, lollipop ghosts, and bat blood punch.  I couldn't believe how much stuff she had for Halloween!!  Made my job as room parent crazy easy!!!  But again, I was too busy with the party to take any pictures.  :-(

After the class parties, I had to take Jaden back to the hospital to get his cast taken off.  A better prepared mom would have brought a change of clothes, but I forgot.  So I took them in costume!!  And boy did we get a lot of attention!!  Halloween is not a holiday in Qatar, so we had a lot of people staring at us wondering why on earth my children were dressed as a black spider and black panther.  Oh well!! 

Did I mention their costumes??  Nicholas wanted to be a spider this year and we were both excited to find out that a friend had a spider costume we could borrow!  It was a bit big on Nicholas, but he loved that the spider arms moved up and down with his arms.  It was perfect!!

And as always, Jaden had a terrible time deciding what to be this year.  That poor kid has the hardest time making decisions!!!  To help him with inspiration, I found a party store with quite a few costumes ... he circled the store 4 times and still nothing!!!  I was starting to lose my patience when I saw a mask of a zebra and a black cat.  Jaden has been into cheetahs and big cats lately, so I snatched up the black cat mask and convinced him to be a black panther!  He was sold!  Thank God!!!

They wore their costumes to school on Tuesday and again on Thursday night for the Halloween festival hosted by their school.  They do a really good job with this event ... there's a trick or treating lane, haunted houses, loads of carnival games, bouncy castles, and pizza and snow cones for snacks.   Jaden & Nicholas especially loved the haunted house this year!  So fun!!!

And the final event was Friday with trick or treating around the compound with a little pre-party at the clubhouse. 

All in all, they got to wear their costumes 3 times!  Unfortunately it was still super warm the week of Halloween and their costumes were warm, so they were a hot sweaty mess all week.  After trick or treating at our compound on Friday, we were cutting through the clubhouse to enjoy a bit of AC on our way back home.  I opened the door and Nicholas immediately fell to the floor, spread out on the cool tiles, and says, "AAAAHHHH!"  He's too funny!  But it was hot that night! 

Jaden wanted me to decorate his classroom door to look like a haunted house.  Here's the finished project.

Being silly on the way to the bus stop

Black panther

Black widow with vampire teeth!  :-)

Happy Halloween!!

Nicholas' Minecraft Birthday Party

Nicholas wanted a Minecraft theme for his 6th birthday party and thanks to Pinterest, there were no shortage of ideas for decorations, games, food, and prizes.  We all had a blast!!!  Might have been my favorite birthday party for my boys ever!!  It sure beat his 5th birthday party when the karate coach forgot to show up and he spent half the party crying on the stairs!!!  But that was last year ... this year was crazy Minecraft fun!!!

Nicholas chose the design for his invitation.  The front was simple, but the 3D creeper that pops out when you open the card took some careful measurements, cutting, and folding!  I thought they turned out cute!

We moved back all the furniture and filled the open space with lots of green and black balloons.  Kids played with the balloons while waiting for everyone to arrive.

I covered the picture in our living room with green paper to make a creeper face for the party

Ken put masking tape all over the windows to look like the windows in the game

It's funny how kids always want what they don't have.  I always make their birthday cakes, but all Nicholas has ever wanted was a "store bought cake with toys on top."  This was our compromise.  I made the cake and made the "toys" to put on top.  Nicholas was happy and that's all that matters! 

Snacks were minecraft inspired as well ... all things from the game:  Apples, carrots, "red stones" (strawberries), "sticks" (pretzels), "potatoes" (chips), "fish" (goldfish crackers), "gold" (Hershey kisses wrapped in gold foil), and cookies.

Game time ... we planned for a game of "creeper tag" and a crafting game.

 

Prize table for the crafting game.  We sprinkled bits of paper all around the house and the kids had to find the right "recipe" to earn the prizes.  They could win diamonds, gold, obsidian, emeralds, iron, bookmark, bouncy ball, notebook, glow stick, and a variety of stickers...all Minecraft themed.

Take home bags ready for the kids to fill with their prizes.

All set up and ready for their friends to arrive.

First game - creeper tag. Ken explains the rules. Whoever has the creeper plate is "it." 

Everyone wants to be it!

The creepers are released!

Our back yard opens up to the skinny strip of green ... perfect place for our game of tag

Everyone loved the game, but it got hot after a while and we came in for a water break before starting the crafting game

Lucas & Arthur bring their papers to the crafting table to earn their prize.

Colin is excited to get some gold!

Jaden helped hand out the prizes ... it got a bit crazy and he was a HUGE help!!

Lining up for prizes.  These kids would have played forever! But after ~30 minutes we closed down the prize table and served pizza. 

After the pizza, we went back outside for a TNT explosion.  Kids were ready to watch Ken set it off.

Ken add Mentos candy to a 2 liter bottle of diet coke ... look out!

Best I could do for a picture!  You can see the soda shooting out.  Ken did it twice and the second time, the bottle fell over and soda flew out toward the kids.  Hilarious!!!  It was a blast!!

Back inside for cake...

Lighting the candles



Singing happy birthday!



Silly Nicholas trying to think of a wish before he blew out the candles

Getting a bit of brotherly advice before making his final wish

He FINALLY blows out the candles!

 

Kids enjoying their cake and playing foos ball before heading home.

 All in all, a most successful birthday party!!  Happy 6th Birthday Sweet Nicholas!