Molly is in Chamber Orchestra at school this year, which is mostly 8th graders with a handful of 7th graders (like Molly). They had their Fall concert yesterday and did a wonderful job. If you’re looking for Molly, she is on the 2nd row in the viola section, but is mostly hidden by her music stand for much of the performance.
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.
Molly’s been asking to dye the ends of her hair pink for a while. Aunt Caroline has experience with this sort of thing, and told Molly she’d be happy to do it for her if it was OK with her parents. We agreed, and Aunt Caroline came up to treat Molly.
Here’s how it came out. Molly loves it.
The orchestra/band director at Leah’s school held a practice night for parents to come and learn how to help their students practice. He asked a few students to come demonstrate their instrument for the parents to show proper technique. Leah was selected to be the example cello, and was very happy to help out.
This week is Kindness Week at Leah’s school. Leah was asked to be part of a small ensemble to play as folks arrived at school to kick off the week.
One of the songs they played was a rock medley, including part of We Will Rock You. For part, the violins stopped playing to stomp, stomp, clap while the cellos took the lead. Then later the cellos stopped playing to stomp, stomp, clap while the violins took the lead.
You can also see here that the cellos and basses struggled with the morning sun in their eyes, some resorting to trying to hide behind their stands to block it.
They had quite a large crowd gather to listen before school. The crowd only dispersed when the Assistant Principal came to tell them they all needed to get to class as the bell was about to ring. Nice job, Leah!
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!
Last week, Molly had a very busy Sunday morning at church. She played with the youth orchestra at both the 8:00 and 9:30 services, but that was just the start. She also gave part of the sermon at the 9:30 and 11:00 services. It was Missions weekend, and we had a few testimonies from folks who had been on mission trips in the place of the sermon. Most of these were adults, but they did include a couple of youth. Molly was the only middle schooler to speak.
You can see her testimony here:
And if you’re interested in seeing all the testimonies from all 4 services, you can watch them here (Molly’s is at the 48:55 mark):
And here she is playing with the youth orchestra:
We’re so proud of you, Molly!
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.
A month ago, Molly and Leah started school! 7th grade and 4th grade. And of course they had to wear their new jackets.
