Happy 11th Birthday Abby

Happy 11th Birthday Abby. You have always been sweet and pretty laid back. You have had to go with the flow since day one so you have gotten used to it. You are creative, unorganized, artsy, a terrific friend, patient with your little sis, dog lover and cute as can be. We hope you have a great 11th Birthday! Love ya Abby!

 

Abby's 11th Birthday Party

Abby had big plans for her 11th birthday. We went ice skating at Mahoney. Addison and Abby were about the only ones that had ice skated before, so we had a big chain of people all holding hands so they could stay up. I was trying to keep Emmy up which is a chore in itself. Every year that I ice skate with her I feel it for days after! The girls were flirting a little with one of the ice patrol teen boys. Claire and Scarlett figured out that if you fell, he came to help you up. After that it was hard to judge if they were bad a skating or good at flirting. And it starts........

Mahoney also has a new climbing wall area that we tried for the first time a couple weeks ago. We had a great time and Abby decided she wanted this to be part of her party too. Addison was a little monkey climber and had no fear. Clarie also did pretty well. Abby fell somewhere in the middle with she liked it but she didn't want to get too high up. Kaylee and Emmy were more feet on the ground kind of kids and the whole idea made them pretty nervous.

We came back for cake and ice cream. 

I'm not sure a lot of sleeping happened that night! There was a dance party in the playroom, volleyball going on at all hours of the night and lots of giggling. I think they all had a good time. 

 

Chicago Bound

Abby went to Chicago last year with Addison and she got asked to go again this year. Brett plays hockey there and it is around Addison's birthday, so they make a trip out of it, and it is more fun with a friend. I had a lot of reservations about her going this year. She recently had been diagnosed with Celiac and it was still new for us to manage let alone asking someone else to manage it with eating out especially. Robb and I discussed it and about the only way it could work was if she took her own food. We were still at the point of healing her gut and we really couldn't afford any big mess ups with gluten. I had talked with Andrea at length about it and she treats Abby like a daughter and was willing to make it work.

I made meals, packed them in single serving tupperwares and froze them so they would last. I had breakfast, lunches and suppers. We also packed a lot of snacks. Abby was on board with this. She was just desperate to go. We also bought a little car hot plate so she could warm her food up anywhere.

Abby was so excited to go. I was so nervous for how this was going to go! She was still getting pretty severe stomach aches anytime she may have been cross contaminated with gluten.

They did a lot of fun things. One day they went to the Pier and rode some rides. It was terribly cold here while they were gone, and I think it was even colder there.

The girls by the Chicago Skyline.

Abby and Addison have been such good friends for so long. They love to dress alike and I'm not sure they could ever get tired of each other.

Abby did a good job eating her meals and on the last day they found a pasta place that had a gluten free pasta. Abby was excited to be able to eat out but when they got home, she was sick. Not sure if she was just really overly tired or if she got glutened but I'm glad that she stayed healthy for most of the trip.

 

iPad at School ?

Emmy got a new iPad for Christmas, and she asked if she could take it on the bus. I wasn't sure that wasn't sure that was a good idea, but I gave in. I told her just the bus and then it needed to stay in her bag the entire time at school. I had talked to Victoria's mom the other day and she asked me if Emmy had a phone, to which I responded, No. I then asked Emmy why Victoria's mom thought she had a phone. Turns out that she had been taking her iPad out at school and taking selfies with everyone. Oh, Emmy you are such a 4th child with siblings that are much older than you. Not sure the other kids in your class even knew much about selfies until you brought it up. I was going to put a ban on the IPad at school and then I started looking at the pictures and 1. They are adorable 2. The teacher is in the selfies with them, so I guess she doesn't care.

 

Emmy’s first lost tooth

 Emmy has been excited to loose a tooth for a very long time. She has been telling us she has a wiggly tooth for about the last 6 months. She has been wiggling her bottom tooth ad telling us that she was going to lose it for a very long time. Emmy is a drama queen so this also came with the issue of her not being able to eat certain things because it hurt her tooth. It finally was hanging on by just a thread and she asked Abby to help her with it because the parents were tired of hearing about it. Both girls were in Emmy’s room and we hear a blood curdling scream from Emmy and then we hear Abby crying. We we finally sorted it all it we discovered that Emmy had asked Abby to help her pull her tooth. Abby had taken a tissue and pulled the tooth out. This hurt a little so Emmy screamed. It then bled a lot which made Abby think she had hurt Emmy. Such drama. Anyway the tooth was out and the toothfairy left $5 and a bag full of glitter. 

Mahoney State Park

 We really try to fill Christmas break with some fun activities. School is so long and the breaks that they get are so short. We miss just having down time to spend as a family with no sports or activity committmetns. Robb was able to take the day off and we went to Mahoney for the day. We love the ice skating and this year we signed up to do the climbing wall too. We has a great time. Caleb was quickly reminded that ice skating isn’t his thing and instead he rented a sled to go down the sledding hills that they have. Emmy was easier to manage on the ice this year, last year she was trying to ice dance and her feet rarely touched the ground as I about broke my back to hold her up. This year she made it around with me holding 2 hands and eventually just one hand. It always takes Abby and Bryce a little bit to get the  hang of it again but they did just fine once they figured it out. 

This year Mahoney had their climbing wall area open. This was pretty impressive! You had to go through a mini lesson on how to use the harness and then they let you loose to climb. All the ropes were automatic brûlée so it would just catch you if you happened to fall. This wasn’t really an activity for Emmy so her and I just watched after we convinced her to do one climb. The other kids didn’t have any fear and would climb all the way up to the top. 

Nice Day in the Middle of Winter

 It’s not very often that you get a “nice” day in January so when you do you have to take advantage of it. We went to Pioneer Park to get some fresh air and to get Lucy and ourselves some exercise. Caleb decided that hiking wasn’t for hims so he stayed home. We all felt better after a walk in the brisk air. We found a dead red fox on our walk, this made Emmy sad the rest of the walk. 

Ringing in the New Year with some Bowling

 It was cold and we were all tired of being home so we decided we would have a family outing to go bowling. This is about a 1 time a year thing for us so it is always interesting. We found out that Robb is a way better bowler than all of us put together. Not sure how he got so lucky! It was fun to spend time together.

Happy New Year 2020

 This year it was Bryce, Caleb and Emmy that were home to celebrate. Abby had went to spend the night with Addison. We had invited Matt and Sarah Boden over to celebrate with us. Unfortunately, Sarah had an emergency at work and wasn’t able to make it. Matt and Grady still came over. We had a delicious steak supper, played a couple fun board games and the boys all played a card game to finish out the night while Emmy and I hung out. We actually stayed up until midnight which is something that hasn’t happened in a while. Emmy even made it until midnight. It is always interesting to think what the year will bring. 2020 here we come! Let’s hope its a great year!