thesellers.net

It’s been almost 10 months since Molly headed off for her first day of second grade, and the end has finally come. School ran until June 19th this year, which seemed late though it was actually one day earlier than last year. Molly loved the school year, but she was definitely ready for summer vacation.

Here’s Molly ready to head off for her last day of school (in the new dress Mommy made her, of course).

For good measure, here’s a flashback to the first day of school this year.

As usual, we took a picture of a bunch of the neighborhood kids on the walk home from school.

Hooray for summer vacation!

Leah recently requested a watermelon dress. So, in true Mommy form, I delivered. A Blue Ribbon dress for the win!

Once Leah’s request was made, Molly echoed it too. I had just enough fabric to oblige and make her a Too Cute Tank dress.

There is a lot of sisterly love for watermelons because who doesn’t love watermelon, right?! Oh yeah, Daddy, that’s who. (The girls love to show him anything watermelon to get a reaction!)

You may have also noticed that the girls' hair is shorter. The house rule was that we'd go get hair cuts after Molly's ballet recital (her hair had to be long enough for a bun!), so Thursday was the day. :)

These dresses are perfect for the start of our summer!

Molly had her ballet recital last week. She has moved up to the Ballet II/III class this year, where she is one of the smallest of the group. That didn’t stop her from being a star.

Here’s the video of her fantastic dance.

And here are a few pictures of her throughout the performance.

Molly loves getting flowers. She starts anticipating getting them well in advance of the recital, wondering what she’ll get.

Leah dropped ballet this year so she could try other things (soccer, tennis), but she was very excited to come see Molly. She usually doesn’t get to see her live since she is backstage preparing for her own dance.

Here’s the whole crew that attended the performance, including us, Grams, Aunt Caroline, and Almost Uncle Charles.

And one final pose.

To celebrate the end of preschool, Jen organized a party at Leah’s friend Norah’s house. They have a creek in their backyard, so all the kids spent most of their time there.

Squirt guns brought smiles.

Both Molly and Leah have this little boy in their crosshairs.

Playing in water can be such fun.

Towards the end, after many people had already left, the kids finally got out of the creek to play in a dry place.

Thanks so much to our hosts for such a great time!

Last week, Leah attended a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese’s. As Jen is not a fan of the establishment, I went along as her parental supervisor. Leah loved playing all the games. She was especially good at this basketball game.

Not long ago, Leah would have been scared to death of Chuck E (as the birthday girl here was, which is why she’s not pictured). Now, Leah’s giving him a high five with a smile on her face. She’s come a long way.

The week after graduation, Leah attended camp at her preschool. It was a Jungle Book theme, and she had a great time. Here she is with her shirt, hat, and binoculars after the last day.

The camp was lots of fun, educational, and served as a good way to delay the pain of goodbye.

Leah’s got a loose tooth! Not only that, but the permanent tooth under it is already coming in.

It won’t be long before Leah has some cute holes in her smile.

For some time, I’ve wanted to get the girls some Snap Circuits. So, when we saw a deal on this set, I snapped it up. Snap Circuits are educational toys where kids can build circuits by snapping together resistors, capacitors, diodes, transistors, etc. The girls immediately started building some of the examples in the book. This one includes a speaker and a spinning fan, which you can see spinning right here.

Oh, and the fan spinner can also launch it into the air. Up it flies.

The girls have built lots of different circuits. They love being able to build lots of different stuff, and I enjoy getting to explain a bit of the basics of electronics to them. Fun and learning for the win!

We had another big birthday in our family. Grammy turned 85, and we all gathered together at Grams’s house to celebrate her birthday.

Uncle Scott always has something interesting on his phone to show the girls.

Dinner was fabulous. It’s great to get us all around Grams’s big dining room table.

For some reason, Grams decided not to put 85 candles on Grammy’s cake.

Uncle Scott had even more to show on his phone.

I call this photo Gramsy ;)

Then it was time to open some presents. This present to her was quite a surprise.

Ooooh

Uncle Scott and Aunt EA are known for musical cards, and they did not disappoint. Leah’s showing Grammy how to make it sing.

It was indeed a fun card.

Musical cards can cause spontaneous dance parties.

Happy birthday, Grammy!

Molly’s school had an outdoor movie night a few days ago where they showed Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. In preparation for this night, we checked out the original Night at the Museum from the library for the girls to prep. They loved it, so we looked forward to seeing the sequel outside.

We arrived early to set up our seats and play a bit. As is commonly the case, the school mascot was there to join in the fun. Leah has long been scared of costumed characters with giant heads, but no more. She walked up to me and asked if I’d take her picture with the wildcat. She’s clearly not scared any more.

We all enjoyed the movie, and the girls did great staying up super late to watch it.