Looking forward to this birthday, I was excited for Kate and loved watching her enthusiasm, but also knew it would not be an easy one given it was the last birthday Nora had. What I did not expect was how heavy Nora’s absence would feel for Kate & myself. Kate started feeling it leading up to her birthday, expressing to me one night how much she missed Nora. For me, it hit like a ton of bricks during the birthday weekend.
For her party, Kate requested to have Audrey & Frances up to the cottage for a birthday sleepover because “there’s more room up there”. This felt right — they could enjoy the winter wonderland, and also Nora had Tristyn up to the cottage as an early 9th birthday sleepover in August 2017 and Kate likes to replicate Nora’s birthdays (and we would not have been able to have a 100 people party likef Nora’s actual 9th birthday!).
But (no surprise) a winter sleepover is A LOT more work! I headed up a day before everyone to set up — bringing water (the plumbing was shut off), stocking wood (to warm the frozen cottage), clearing ice and snow (e.g., the garage doors were frozen shut, so I needed to free one before accessing the snow blower for clearing the driveway; and the fire pit was solid ice so I built a fire and slowly cleared it out), and carving out a winter playground outside and activities/decorations inside.
I think the kids had a great time, but I was so physically exhausted I had a hard time recognizing it! And the pain of Nora not being there — helping, playing, coordinating — was emotionally exhausting. Thankfully Lisa (Frances’ mom) had come along and helped keep things moving.
The fun things the girls did were:
Saturday — breakfast smorgasbord; scavenger hunt (set up by Kate) with a prize of hand-made fanny packs containing a waterproof flashlight and notebook; playing in the snow and hot dogs at the fire; lots of playing inside, including a collage; tacos & cupcakes; more playing outside in the snow in the dark with the flashlights; and a game of Apples to Apples.
Scavenger Hunt 
Birthday girl & cupcakes
Lisa, Kate, Audrey & Frances with glowing snowballs
Sunday (Kate’s birthday) — waffles, presents, a nature hike up the hill (that turned into snowman building rather than hiking since the girls were so excited to play in snow as there has not been any in the city), more sledding, lunch and then departure. On the way home, Kate had requested to go by Nora’s grave so we stopped there with her friends, and then stopped for dinner at little diner in Whitby.
Presents! 
Nature “hike”