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Last year, after driving 12 hours to Savannah and back for a one day stay, I came up with the idea of combining multiple southern visits into a single trip. That way we’d only have to make the long drive once for several trips. Amazingly, this plan was actually enacted. So, we made the drive down to Savannah to begin the fun.

We brought a bunch of pictures for Grandaddy, and Leah was happy to tell him about them.

“This is me graduating from preschool”

While in Savannah, we took advantage of the flat terrain to go for our first ever family bike ride. Most kids take their first long bike ride down a picturesque bluff on the river, right?

Half way through, we took a break for a drink and a picture. Note the dock far in the background between the girls - that’s Grandaddy’s dock.

The bluff is usually pretty empty, but today it was packed. Adam Sandler and David Spade were filming a movie there, so there was crew all over the place. Thankfully they didn’t mind us riding through their set as long as they weren’t filming at that moment.

We spent most of our visit relaxing and visiting. As always, rocking on the dock was delightful.

The girls attended G-Force Vacation Bible School this week and had a blast learning how to put “God’s love in action!” Jen again taught Leah’s class, but this might be Jen’s last year teaching preschool as next year both girls will be with the elementary kids.

After a fun week, they joined some of their fellow attendees on Sunday to show the congregation a couple of their songs.

Leah, something appears to be missing from your smile. Oh, is that your first lost tooth?

Leah's tooth has been loose for months and she finally pulled it out Friday. She was wiggling it before we left for the pool, and I could tell it was so close, so I encouraged her just to pull it out. I had to look away though. I couldn't watch the twisting. She is very proud of her accomplishment!

The permanent tooth replacing her lost tooth is already well on its way (as is the one next to it).

For Week 3 of Mommy Sewing Lessons, I worked with the girls to sew pillowcases. I pre-cut the fabric, so first was the introduction to pinning.

Leah was very diligent in her pinning.

Molly was quick to sew the top contrasting band of her pillowcase.

Leah was very focused on her sewing, even taking time to practice removing the pins. I needed to help guide her sewing a bit more than big sister though.

We used the “hot dog” method of sewing a pillowcase, which involves rolling the main fabric inside the contrasting band. The fabrics are then pulled right side out.

This method is a fun trick to enclose raw edges of the fabric. Leah had fun pulling her main fabric through the "hot dog bun."

Molly was so excited to make her pillowcase that even pinning more fabric was fun!

The floor was the perfect workspace for Leah to pin her pillowcase sides together.

After I serged the inside edges to prevent fraying, the last step was to top stitch the contrasting band. Both girls have slightly wonky lines, but they did great!

Molly and Leah were so proud of their first project. After proudly showing Chad, Molly ran to her room to switch the pillowcase on her pillow!

After hanging out with my family for the afternoon, we headed to a field at UMBC to watch the Catonsville fireworks, as we have done in years past. We got there an hour early, so the kids (and one dad) had some fun while we waited for dark.

As you can see, the girls were amazed by the fireworks. This red one was particularly astounding.

We look a bit clearer when the fireworks illuminating us are white.

Here are some obligatory shots of the fireworks. That dark shape on the bottom left is Molly’s head.

The girls’ favorite fireworks were the flowers, as seen at the top here. They didn’t last long when they went off, but they were very cool.

And a few more for good measure.

We gathered together with my family on the 4th of July to celebrate Independence Day, and some birthdays. First up - Aunt Caroline. She seems pleased with her new shirt. Yes, that’s the Magic School Bus full of kids headed to Hogwarts. And, yes, I got one for myself as well.

We also celebrated Grams’s birthday. Aunt EA and Uncle Scott delighted all when their musical card led to an impromptu dance party.

After opening presents and eating way too much, we played cards (Texas Rummy) with my family. Molly got to play her own hand (with some help from Uncle Scott). And she won. She was so excited.

Last week, the girls attended a Frozen-themed Lego camp at Snapology. When I went to pick them up on the last day, they wanted to show me what they had built that day. They were celebrating Anna’s birthday and had built lots of birthday stuff for it. Oh, and please don’t try to infer Batgirl’s secret identity from this picture. She might get mad at me if I gave it away.

In Week 2 of Mommy Sewing Lessons, we reviewed cutting techniques and I introduced sewing on fabric. I gave them each two pieces of scrap fabric and let them cut and be creative. (Note also that a smaller, pink sewing machine arrived for the girls!)

Now that there are two sewing machine, Molly and Leah can work simultaneously.

Leah was proud of her sewn rectangles.

Molly made hats for herself, Molly doll, and Coconut. She even created “Made by Molly Sellers” tags, just like Mommy.

Chad's youngest sister is getting married in August. So, the girls and I celebrated with Aunt Caroline at her bridal shower last weekend. Here's a lovely photo of the bride and her flower girls.

Like aunt, like nieces. Beautiful girls, just beautiful.

The girls expressed interest learning to sew this summer. So, I have started “Mommy Sewing Lessons” with them. I created a seven week lesson plan, gathering ideas and printables from several blogs. Since the girls' new machine was still on the way, our first lesson was with my Bernina.

To introduce the basics of the sewing machine, we started with sewing straight lines on paper.

Molly is doing a great job of keeping her eyes on her project.

After the girls mastered the straight lines, they moved on to practicing turning corners and angles.

The finale of their first lesson was completing a Connect the Dots, sewing version!

They then requested more Connect the Dots to practice with. Looks like they've caught the sewing bug!