Spirit Week

At the end of January, Noah participated in a fishing derby with the Cub Scouts.

Fishing on Medicine Lake with the Cub Scouts

He won the contest with the largest fish of the day: an 11" perch!

Noah with his winning fish

It was a fun day. Noah enjoyed fishing, and Dad enjoyed being able to help teach others to ice fish.

The next week at school was spirit week at school. Spirit week is our favorite week at school! We get to dress up in all sorts of fun out-of-uniform stuff for the week while we raise money and have penny wars with other classes to raise money for cancer patients.

The week before Spirit Week, Hannah and her friend set up a time to go shopping for matching tops so they can be twins on Twin Day for Spirit Week. She had so much fun shopping and playing with her friend! Hannah and her friend thought it was really funny when the salesperson asked if they were twins when they were shopping for matching tops. Hannah's friend's mother explained that they were NOT twins, but Hannah DID have a twin brother at home.

Unfortunately, she didn't get to see Daddy's friend Eric, who came to visit from Maryland, but she loved playing with her best friend!

Monday was Spirit Day, We got to wear clothes to support our favorite team or cause or whatever we wanted! Noah wore his Twins t-shirt and his Minnesota Wild sweatshirt. Hannah wore her Alexandria Beetles shirt with her Gophers Sweatshirt. Noah said there were a few Wild supporters in his class, and Hannah said there were a couple of other Gopher fans in her class.

Tuesday was Twin Day. Hannah had been looking forward to this for weeks.
She and her best friend had gone to Old Navy to get matching shirts & scarves, planned to wear skinny jeans and matching ribbons in their hair, and even matching boots.

With her Best Friend on Twin Day

Noah took the opportunity on TWIN day to wear his Tori Hunter baseball jersey. He was pretty excited to find that the baseball jersey mom bought for him at a thrift store suddenly became cool when the Twins acquired Tori Hunter 2 weeks after he got his jersey!

The Twins on Twin Day

Hannah loves her puppy

Wednesday was Mismatched & Wacky Hair day. Noah decided his uniform was wacky enough - he almost wore a tie with it, but decided to wear his uniform since a few of his friends were also wearing theirs that week. Hannah, of course, decided go all out! She found as many colors & prints as she could find in her drawer to look like a crazy dresser!

Mismatched & Wacky Day...Hannah chose to be Wacky & mismatched, Noah chose not to be wacky at all.

Thursday was Throwback Thursday! Noah decided to dress like a 1980's rock band groupie in his jeans and rock band t-shirt. Hannah took the 80's seriously in her oversized neon t-shirt, leggings, big hair bow and leg warmers.

Rocking throwback Thursday

Friday was pajama day. Pajama day is always our favorite dress up day! We earned reading time with a blanket & stuffed animal, too so it was a really fun day.

Ready for pajama day with blankets & stuffed animals

It was a fun week. Unfortunately, our classes did not win the penny wars, but we enjoyed dressing up.

Noah & Hannah

January

January flew by!

Our first weekend of January was our last weekend of winter break.We had taken down the Christmas decorations on New Year Day, so there was not much Christmas left in our house.

Noah & Dad went to start working on Noah's pinewood derby car on Saturday morning (Jan. 3). They got his car planned and cut at a woodshop in Apple Valley, then spent the afternoon at Dad's friend's house (of course, Dad is good friends with the Cub Scout Den Master) sanding and working on the car a little bit more.

Marking out the shape of his Pinewood Derby Car before cutting

While Noah was away, Hannah took an opportunity to use some of her new Christmas gifts. She sewed a few things on her new sewing machine. She also started working on a new chandelier decoration for her room.

The next day was all about Mom. It was her birthday. We checked out a church service close to our house, then we went to Cub so we could make Mom's choice: Wild Rice Soup.

Making wild rice soup with Dad

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

We got Cheyenne back the day after we got home from Arkansas. She is happy to be home - and we're happy to have her! She didn't take much time to get comfortable at home.

Comfy, cozy Cheyenne

And, Hannah spent some time working on one of her Christmas gifts: a chandelier for her room. She decorated it herself.

Putting together her Chandelier

We were ready to go back to school on Monday. We missed our friends!

Unfortunately, our week was cut short because it was cold enough on Wednesday to cancel school. Mom & Dad both had meetings at work that they couldn't miss, so we got to go stay with mom's friend Renee. It was fun to hang out with her, but her kids got to go to school so it was just her and us. Since it was Renee's kids' birthday (she has twins, too), we got to visit one of her daughters at school for lunch. It was fun to visit her school. (It was a really nice school.) Hannah even helped to make a birthday cake for the girls.

The weather cleared up enough for Dad & Noah to enjoy polar camp on the 10th. They had so much fun! Even though they played games outside all day, they had a great time!

Ready for Polar Camp!

Tubing at Polar Camp

Hannah got to hang out with Mom at her volleyball tournament while Noah & Dad were at camp. One of Mom's teammates got injured really bad, so Mom's team didn't have their best day. (And there were no kids at the tournament, so it wasn't the best day for Hannah to be at a tournament.) Hannah did get to bump and play some volleyball with mom, though. And, it was a whole day to play Kindle and read while Mom played ball.

After we got home, we all went to Lars & Juanita's house for dinner. We got to play video games with their son, and fell asleep there after a long day. It was fun night!

The next week, we got to help Daddy do some pushups.
Do you think we looked helpful?

Work it, Dad!

Hannah also got to start volleyball with the Park & Rec Department on Saturday. She loved it in the fall. She was put on the waiting list when Mom signed her up late this winter, but luckily got in! She was so excited to get to play volleyball.

We also helped Daddy by helping him with meals. The weekend of the 18th, Noah helped plan the entire weekend of meals. (It also helped him earn a belt loop for Scouts)

Making Tater Tot Hotdish for the family

Hannah made the most of the warm weather and the snow in our backyard.

Do you wanna build a snowman? It was too nice to stay inside!

It's been a fun January of warm & cold, but it's gone fast!