Norah's 11th birthday

We had fun celebrating Norah's 11th birthday with family and friends!  Doing an escape room was on Norah's birthday wish list, so we had fun doing one with my dad and sister, plus Dave's sister.  We had tacos and cake afterward with everyone.

Norah was very excited to get a pair of rollerskates for her birthday!  Another wish list item that was inspired by the rollerskating unit they do in Phy. Ed. at our school.

For Norah's friend party, she wanted to do Feed My Starving Children and eat pizza at Davanni's, like she did with her friends last year.  The girls had a blast!

Norah's 11-year interview

Favorite color:  pink

Least favorite color:  black

Favorite book:  Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Favorite fruit:  apple

Favorite vegetable:  carrot

Favorite tv show:  Girl Meets World

Favorite movie:  Alice in Wonderland
Favorite animal:  dog

Favorite food:  tacos

Favorite school lunch:  french toast

Favorite thing to wear:  comfy clothes

Favorite snack:  Goldfish

Favorite zoo animal:  zebra

Best friends:  Graecyn and Zoey

Favorite cereal:  Cinnamon Toast Crunch

Favorite drink:  Fresca

Favorite thing to do with Mommy:  read

Favorite thing to do with Daddy:  wrestle

Favorite thing to do with Abby:  play

Favorite thing to do with Sadie:  snuggle

Favorite store:  Target

Favorite toy:  books

Favorite game:  A Little Wordy

Favorite song:  "Flowers"

Favorite thing to do outside:  play

Favorite holiday:  Christmas

What I want to be when I grow up:  therapist

What makes me happy:  Sadie

What makes me sad:  when I don't get to do something

What I like about Daddy:  he's funny

What I like about Mommy:  she's nice

What I like about Abby:  she's fun

What I like about Sadie:  she lets me cuddle with her

Now that I'm 11:  middle school

Snoball

Abby attended her first high school dance in February!  She went with a sweet group of girls, and her friend Lilly hosted them all for a meal beforehand and a sleepover with Abby afterward.  She had a blast!

Winter break/Christmas

We always look forward to winter break and Christmas, and the weather this year meant that we had an extra-long break.  We had crazy snowstorms, so ended up getting out of school early on Wednesday and finding out at the same time that Thursday would be a blended learning day.  We hunkered down on Christmas Eve and celebrated our family Christmas during the day.

That evening, we did make it to church in some sketchy weather conditions.  I played piano for a beautiful piece that our new worship leader sang.

After church, we watched National Lampoon's Christmas vacation and slept downstairs by the tree (our tradition the last few years).  

We woke up Christmas morning to Santa having visited and cinnamon/caramel rolls.  This year, Norah had asked for a snow cone machine and Abby asked for a pair of Nike shoes.  Sadie got a big bone!

Thankfully, the weather improved enough for us to make a quick trip to Iowa.  We visited my grandma Carlson at her nursing home.  Norah made special gifts for the grandmas and great-grandmas this year--she wrote out the lyrics to their favorite Christmas carols around a picture she drew.  It was a special idea that she came up with.

We stopped by my aunt Lori's, where the girls loved holding baby Emilia!

We celebrated Christmas with the Nass side of the family at Miriam and Scott's.  The time went too quickly!

We enjoyed more of our winter break during the week before heading to Rochester to celebrate Christmas with my family.

Scooter's Coffee (smoothies)!

We did so many puzzles!  This new type was a favorite.

In Rochester, we had a nice celebration with my parents, brother, and sister.  Norah and my dad even created an escape room for us that was a good challenge!

We ended up back at home for New Year's.  For lunch, we had hibachi at Shogun.  In the evening, we had our traditional snacky supper and hung out as a family.  Norah had gotten a balloon pop countdown, which was fun to do each hour.

Our winter break was extended even more when we had more snow and two extra blended learning days at the end of break.  I don't know that we will ever have as long of a break as we had this year, but the extra time at home was sure nice!