Saudi Arabia - Cousins!

Jedu Ahmed with Baby Ahmed (Abdullah's youngest)

 Yara (8) and Rana

 Abdullah and Najeeb and their sister, Layal (12)

with the kids (Yara, Faisal, Azuz, Razel, & Ahmed) 

Layal and the crew, 

including Faisal and Yousef

The kids at Moyed's house one afternoon.

Rana had a great time with her cousins 

and was sad to leave at the end of our 2-week trip.

Saudi Arabia - Mecca

By day.

Big, beautiful buildings surrounding the mosque.

Construction as far as you can see, 

as the city is constantly being modernized.

By night.

Saudi Arabia - Jeddah

We spent the first part of our trip in Jeddah

with Najeeb's brother Waheeb and his family.

Mira and Firaz (3)

 Rana, Hamoodi (4), and his cousin Tala (5)

 Mira learning to smoke the water pipe,

which was pretty much in use 24/7.

Mira learning to walk!

Najeeb's brother Moyed's son, Yousef,

is 2 weeks younger than Mira.

Guess who got her ears pierced!?!

We took several outings to the coast of the Red Sea.

The kids had fun playing on the playground 

and in the sand and wading in the water.

Rana was thrilled to turn into a butterfly again for a day.

A fun night out at a near-by (indoor) fun park.

Mira is 9 Months Old!

Cruising and playing.

Laughing lots.

Making lemons into lemonade!

A Butterfly!

Rana went to her friend Nastja's birthday party today -

and came home as a butterfly!

Thanks for the fun afternoon, Nastja!

Rana is 5 Years & 9 Months Old!

Rana is quite a social butterfly and has been very much 

enjoying spending time with friends outside of Kindergarten.

With her weekly gym class, swim class, and German lesson

in addition to a bunch of play dates, she's been quite busy!

Baba took Rana to her first professional soccer game

last weekend: Frankfurt beat Stuttgart 2:1.

Here is some of Rana's recent artwork:

Our family and our house

Rana's self portrait

It's that time again: Carnival!

Our pirate and bee are all dressed up and ready to party!

 

Rana would like to thank Aunt Kata and Uncle Justin
for her cool costume and Mira is grateful to our friends
Mercan and Dilenay for her cute little bee outfit.

Helau!