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We held our Sellers family Christmas celebration a week and a half early. Aunt EA and her family flew in from Texas, Grammy flew in from South Carolina, and we all joined together at Grams’s house.

The celebration began Friday night with the traditional cookie baking with the aunts event.

It may have been early, but we still did things like Christmas day. That even included the kids’ attire. Jen made matching Christmas pajamas for Molly, Leah, Charlie, and Max.

There were so many cookies to decorate, that the cookie decorating continued into the next day.

It was great to have everyone healthy and together in one place.

For Halloween this year, Molly decided to be Cinder from The Lunar Chronicles series. So, she’s a sci-fi take on Cinderella, where Cinderella is a cyborg mechanic with a robotic hand and foot. Leah is a ghoul, and even got red bands on her braces this week to look bloody.

This weekend, we went to Alabama for the wedding of Jen’s cousin Sadie. We flew into Atlanta Friday, rented a car, and drove to Pursell Farms in Sylacauga, Alabama. We got in at 6:10, changed clothes, and were only a few minutes late to the “cowboy chic” rehearsal dinner.

We don’t really have anything close to “cowboy chic”, but the girls found some things at a second hand store that were close enough. And that’s as close to cowboy as I get.

On Saturday, we opted to just hang out at the farmhouse we were staying in. There were lots of activities going on, but they weren’t really our style (golf, skeet shooting). Plus, the Auburn football game was at 11:00, and we didn’t want to miss it. It was nice having a quiet morning and afternoon, and we had several visitors come hang out with us.

JJ was away with his dad, but the girls had a great time playing outside with Emmie. They threw a football, played hide-and-seek, and played this game where one closed their eyes while the others told them where to walk.

The person directing didn’t always have the best interests of the blind walker in mind, but they all had fun.

Before heading to the wedding, we had a bit of a photoshoot in our formalwear before the wedding. Here are some of those pictures.

The wedding was lovely. They had to move it under a tent due to some light rain, but it didn’t suffer for it. Congratulations, Sadie and Eric!

Uncle J was part of the wedding music.

Here’s our part of the family at the wedding.

The reception was very fancy. It included a sit-down meal complete with synchronized serving where servers all lined up behind the guests and then placed plates down in front of them simultaneously. Great band and dancing. And probably the highlight for the kids - cake. Molly was especially excited about the groom’s cake. I think Sadie was as well.

We were so glad to be able to see so much family and be a part of this celebration. Congratulations, Sadie and Eric!

Leah has wanted a sleepover birthday party for several years, but we’d told her she had to wait until she was 10. This year was finally the year! The party began with a little painting.

The girls picked their designs ahead of the party so that Jen could have the canvases prepped and ready for the party night.

While the paint projects dried, Leah opened her presents. She was very excited about a new fuzzy unicorn squishie.

The girls returned to the table to remove the vinyl and reveal their painted designs.

They all did a great job creating one-of-a-kind designs!

Leah decided she wanted her friends to decorate their own cupcakes at the party. So Jen made the cupcakes and frostings, then set them out with all the toppings.

Leah had fun showing her friends how to use a piping bag to frost the cupcakes.

There was some very original decorating on these cupcakes!

After making them, it was time to sing to Leah and eat them.

Then Molly left to sleep over with some of her friends, leaving just the 4th graders. But there was still more to do. Next up - a fun take on the classic game of Spin the Bottle. The girls ended up with rainbow painted finger nails.

The girls then watched a movie (the new Dumbo) and then finally went to bed. They chatted for a while and fought going to sleep, but the last of them was asleep by midnight.

Donuts for breakfast has become a tradition on our house for sleepovers, but not just any donuts - Krispy Kreme donuts!

Happy birthday, Leah!

As always in our family, birthday celebrations go on and on. This year was no different, as Leah’s birthday celebrations spanned two weekends. The first weekend (detailed here) included most of the family stuff, while the second weekend was her big friend party (next post).

As usual, we let Leah pick a restaurant for celebrating with family. She chose Uncle Julio’s, a Mexican restaurant at the mall. The reason Leah chose Uncle Julio’s was the chance to get a chocolate piñata for dessert. When we went there for Mother’s Day, the girls wanted to get this extravagant dessert, but we of course said no. “Maybe if we came for your birthday.” Leah remembered that months later, and finally got her wish.

Cracked open, there’s a lot of deliciousness spilling out, including lots of fruit and tiny churro bites.

We also opened presents. These rainbow unicorn Toms from Aunt Caroline were a big hit.

G’Mom and Grampa flew up for the weekend. So, in addition to special events, there was time for hanging out. Leah and G’Mom had fun playing Speed. I think Leah’s especially happy here, since she has no cards left in her hands.

And there were more presents on her actual birthday.

Leah asked Jen to fix chocolate lava cake for her birthday. She remembered when Jen made them almost 3 years ago for Grampa, and wanted to have them again (yes, she remembers desserts well). They were delicious again.

Thanks to G’Mom and Grampa for joining us.

Molly’s black belt test ended late, so we did not go out to celebrate that night. Fortunately, the next day was Grams’s birthday, so we went out to BJ’s Brewhouse to celebrate both Molly’s black belt and Grams’s birthday. After some delicious dinner, we of course ordered pizookies (which were also delicious). While waiting for these desserts, we gave Molly a present.

Earning her black belt was a really big deal, and we wanted to give Molly a big gift to commemorate it. We joined together with G’Mom, Grampa, and Grams to give Molly a trip to New York to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway. She and I will go up and see it in August. Molly was shocked.

Molly was so excited. She’s talked about wanting to see this play so many times, but didn’t see this coming at all.

When our pizookies arrived, Grams got a special birthday one. We’ll celebrate her again in a couple days when we’re together with my siblings, but it was nice to get to celebrate on the day as well. Happy birthday, Grams!

Jen and I both had our birthdays in May. For me, this meant hitting the 40 mark. The good news is that means I’m now old enough to play in 40+ tennis leagues, which doubles my opportunities for tennis teams. That’s assuming my old body can handle the extra time on court.

Jen made a lemon cake for my 40th birthday. She deemed it a tad wonky and a bit bolder in color than she intended, but no one turned it down, that's for sure!

Since Jen and my birthdays are nine days apart, we often celebrate with family together. So, the 40th birthday cake was actually half 39th birthday cake too.

We had a busy Mother’s Day back in May. First, a morning full of church. Molly and Leah both sang with their choirs.

Sadly, Jen didn’t actually get to see them as she was teaching Sunday School. At least there was video for her to see later.

We then met up with Grams, Aunt Caroline, and Uncle Charles at Uncle Julio’s restaurant to celebrate. Sadly, they lost our reservation, but they did their best to get us a table as soon as they could. Sorry, no pictures from lunch.

After lunch, we headed home and opened presents with Jen, the all-star mom in our house (this necklace Leah made has #BestMomEver written on it).

Jen’s excited about this big gift from the girls…

It was a paper trimmer. No wonder she was so excited. Looks like she also like this bracelet.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Molly’s birthday celebration kept going and going. After her slumber party, the girls woke up and headed home. Molly and Grace headed to karate and Leah headed to a birthday party (and brought a Squishmallow as a present, more on that later). Then Leah went to the Solo and Ensemble Festival. Then we had the Sellers side of the family over to keep celebrating Molly’s birthday. We also celebrated Uncle Charles’s birthday, so they were both blowing out candles. And yes, that is the same cake from the night before. It looks perfect, as if still whole…

Here’s a look at the other side of the cake (the side we ate from at Molly’s slumber party).

There were also presents to be opened.

Gather round for the multiple musical cards.

In our house, we love Squishmallows. So, when Jen’s friend texted her from Costco saying they had them in stock (and selling out fast), we got the girls another one each (plus got an extra one to give to one of Leah’s friends for her birthday earlier in the day). Aunt Caroline brought her own Squishmallow to our celebration. Squishmallows are taking over the world.

Molly turned 12 on Saturday! We celebrated with a slumber party Friday night. The Spring weather had finally arrived, so starting out the evening with laser tag outside was perfect!

Jen knew this would be the perfect cake for Molly. Molly requested a chocolate cake, accompanied by malted milk ice cream and peanut butter chocolate fudge ripple ice cream.

Jen saw a contestant on Kids Baking Championship make marshmallow fondant, so she tried out this new technique to create the unicorn horn and ears.

Painting wood signs and canvases are all the rage right now, so Jen created personal designs for each of the 6 girls to paint. First, she had to review the technique for painting.

All the girls enjoyed choosing how to personalize their artwork.

Many of the girls decided to mix their own colors.

The girls (and Jen!) were all so happy with how their paintings turned out.

We then watched The House with a Clock in Its Walls and ate popcorn. Then it was finally time for bed. The girls were asleep by around midnight.

The next morning, I got up at 6:30 (not my usual pattern) to go to Krispy Kreme and pick up hot doughnuts for breakfast. I actually got back before everyone got up (though not by much). A little more playing (Mario Kart) and then it was time for everyone to head out. A good time was had by all.