A Birthday and Beachin' it.....

 Nora turned 7 years old in November.  She had been counting down the days to her birthday for a while.  She was very excited to turn 7.  Nora tends to act older than she is, plus she is very tall for her age, so we sometimes forget that she is still little (at least little to us).  

We love our birthday table tradition!

Ready to open presents bright and early.......no hair brushing required

She was very excited about her new Garmin watch.....

......happy dance

She got her own beach bag with her name on it.  This was something on her wish list.

Showing off just a little sass....

Pancakes with Nutella and whipped cream for breakfast.  

Why not?

Nora did a little birthday shopping with grandma and this is one of the shirts she picked out.  She wanted to take a picture, so we can send it to grandma.

This girl is full of sunshine.  Most of the time she is just happy and easy going.  She is always the first one to come up with a compromise if there is any conflict.  She loves to be the "mom" and take care of everybody......and tell everybody what to do.  She takes care of Evan and puts him in his place.  She told me a few weeks ago that she wants to be like me when she grows up.  I asked her for more specifics and she said "to clean and take care of everybody". Ha!

Nora is a great friend.  She chases away the boys on the playground and tries to make peace between everybody.  

We went on a little beach trip to the Moon Palace for Thanksgiving break. We did not take many pictures, we were too busy having fun:)

We had some clouds, but overall great weather.  The weather app kept showing high percentages of rain for every day, but that never materialized (except for a few short showers).  

We set up chairs every day where we could see the beach soccer field.  Evan took EVERY opportunity to play soccer.  he was watching the field like a hawk and as soon as somebody showed up he would jump in.  He played hours of soccer.  Nora jumped in most of the time too.  Her new Garmin watch showed 23,000 steps one day.  

A rare moment that we all actually sat down in the pool chairs.  Most of the time we were moving.....

It does feel strange to take a picture in front of a christmas tree in short sleeves!

The kids "snuck out" one evening to go to the Christmas Village at the resort to get a dessert.  They told us about it and that they will be taking Hannah's phone and what time they will be back, so it wasn't much of a sneak out, but it was the highlight of their trip.  

We all enjoyed the water slide a lot.  We always tried to go as fast as possible and then we started timing each other.  Everything is a competition for us.  We also gave each other "slide" nicknames.  I was the "Landshark" and then Scott said he is the "Eagle", because he was going so fast.  Nora's response was "maybe the bald eagle".  It was hilarious.  

We can't go to the beach without the jumping picture!

We made it back home the day before Thanksgiving and had less than 24 hours at home before driving to Scott's parents house for Thanksgiving.  It was a little bit of a whirlwind, but so worth it.