What We Gave Ani for Her 11th Birthday
Last week, Ani turned eleven!
It’s been very fun to see her really come into her own this year.
After transferring to a new school last year, she’s really settled in with new friends and she’s joined a swim team and LOVES swimming (so much so that on the few days of the week that she DOESN’T have practice, she often asks Bart or me to take her to swim laps so she can get in some more practice).
While she’s been a solid reader for several years now, this is the year where it’s really felt like she’s discovered an intense love of reading and she has blown the whole Keeper of the Lost Cities series, the Land of Stories, re-read the whole Penderwick series, and many more.
We celebrated her special day with breakfast in bed, a little birthday party with friends, a sushi lunch date with us and dessert with grandparents.
She is THRILLED to be 11 and we’re thrilled to have her as part of our family.
Here’s what she got this year as gifts:
GRAY SWEATSHIRT
I just looked back at last year’s list of what we gave Ani for her birthday and I’d forgotten we got her a sweatshirt last year too! Apparently, she likes what she likes. Most of her gifts we opened on the evening of her birthday but this one she opened before school so she could wear it that day and she’s worn it virtually every day since!
FIVE KINGDOMS BOOK SERIES
Like I mentioned above, Ani is very into reading this year, especially fantasy series, so Bart picked this one out for her – its one of his favorites and he can’t wait for her to dive in!
INITIAL NECKLACE
This year, Ani has loved jewelry and this dainty necklace set seemed like just the right personal item. In fact, when I asked her on the night of her birthday what her favorite gift was, she said this one right off the bat!
STICKER NOTEBOOK
This was a fun idea of Ella’s – Ani has been very into collecting water bottle stickers this year and somehow Ella knew about these notebooks with special pages where you can easily take water bottle stickers on and off, so you can store them and use them as you want. Ani was delighted and immediately started transferring her collection from a little box into this notebook.
CAKE POP BAKE SET
This year, Ani has really started loving to cook more and when Tally spotted this gift, she knew it was exactly the right thing. If you come over to our house during Christmas break,
odds are good you’ll be presented with a homemade cake pop!
WISH LEGO SET
We went to see Wish on Thanksgiving Day and the girls have been singing the songs nonstop since then, so this LEGO set was a no- brainer choice by Star! All my girls love LEGOs but Ani probably the most of all.
SHAPE SHIFTING MAGNETIC BOX
This was one of my parents’ gifts to Ani and I think it might be the most popular gift she got this year – she has played with it non-stop and it’s like a grown-up fidget toy!
ORIGAMI PUZZLES
Ani had mentioned she wanted something crafty and this was a fun idea from my parents – each of these 100 origami papers has a design on it that you fold until only that design is showing. They start easy and get more complex – she’s loved them so far!
THE VAN GOGH DECEPTION
Bart’s parents always give the grandkids a book for their birthdays and this one was a hit! I’d actually read the second book in the series (they basically can stand alone) to the girls last year and we’d all enjoyed it, so this was a delight to Ani, PLUS we’d just seen a lot of Van Gogh paintings when we were in Paris, which made it extra fun. She immediately started reading it!
Happy birthday to Ani! I’ve been reading since she was born!
Yay! Thank you for sticking around all this time!