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This year, Molly decided to have a different sort of party for her birthday. She chose to invite 4 of her closest friends to go to the movies to watch Zootopia. Here they are all lined up in the theater before the movie started.

After the movie, we walked over to the mall for some birthday frozen yogurt (instead of a cake) from Tutti Frutti.

Happy 9th birthday to Molly!

A delicious treat for a happy birthday girl.

And here’s a photobomb by Sarah’s fist. Molly has no idea (no punches were actually punched).

The party was lots of fun, and we’d definitely do a smaller affair like this again. Rather than having lots of people that subdivide into subgroups, you have just a single group of close friends with no need to split up. Most importantly, Molly and her guests had a great time.

Happy birthday Molly!

The day after our date night at ClimbZone, Leah got to attend a birthday party for one of her classmates there. Molly even got to tag along for the climbing fun.

Leah did an excellent job climbing.

Like most of the kids her age, she wasn’t interested in climbing all the way to the top, but she got pretty close.

Molly was zooming up to the top all over the place. Here she is on the Speed Wall just before she hit the button to stop the timer.

Happy birthday Liam! Thanks for inviting us!

With this much snow, and with me out of town, Jen was not looking forward to shoveling the driveway. Fortunately, she found a connection to someone to pay to do it. We weren’t sure how they’d get to our house, but she signed up. They made it, and this Bobcat cleared the driveway in 10 minutes flat (sadly, it was too big to do the sidewalk as well).

The truck carrying the Bobcat had a plow on the front, which is how they managed to get to us. That meant they partially plowed our street - right up to our house. For the next day, we’d occasionally have people try to drive down our street, only to find that they could not make it past our house.

Here’s our plowed driveway. The Bobcat even cleared space on the sides for car doors to open.

The next day, the girls were out to play in the snow again. They were excited to see that the Bobcat had left some giant chunks of snow to play with.

The piled up snow from the driveway made a great snow slide.

The girls decided bringing their sleds in all the time was wasted effort. So, they instead tied them up at our back porch sled dock.

Our street was plowed Monday night, after three and a half days since the start of the storm. That was much earlier than a lot of folks around here, so we’re not complaining.

A little over a week late, we celebrated Aunt EA’s birthday with her. Happy birthday Aunt EA!

While there, we all got to spend some quality time with Charlie. Charlie was happy to take a nap on his Grams, and I don’t think she minded either.

We decided it would be fun to go down to the National Zoo to go to ZooLights. This would have been especially fun given all the warm weather we’ve been having. Sadly, the day we chose to go ended up being really cold. But we bundled up and had fun anyway.

Rather than wait in lines and pay a lot for food at the zoo, we brought our own sandwiches. We found these picnic tables to eat dinner at while listening to these fun carolers sing.

After dinner in the cold, we went into the reptile house to warm up and check out all the lizards, snakes, and frogs. Then we headed back out into the cold.

They set up 150 foot snow tubing tracks (which thankfully work just as well without snow) to slide down. You may not be able to see their faces, but that’s Leah on the left track and Molly starting down the right track. It had quite a line, but the girls said it was lots of fun.

The girls weren’t the only ones to slide down the hill. Jen went down right after them.

We then waited in a long line to go on the carousel. While I may have thought that the wait was not worth riding a carousel, the girls thought it was great.

The last thing the girls wanted to do at the zoo was ride the National Zoo Choo-Choo. Unfortunately, the train was charging when we went to ride it. We ended up waiting over an hour in the cold to go for a ride. It was so cold I decided to put on my Beard Head to keep my face warm.

It was very cold waiting in line, but I thankfully had a way to warm us up. I brought a 64 ounce insulated water bottle full of hot chocolate as well as a bunch of paper cups. Standing around in line was the perfect time to break it out (along with some snacks).

After waiting more than an hour, we boarded the tiny train. It rode around the Kids’ Farm exhibit (which is possibly the most boring part of the zoo to look at) and took a little over 3 minutes in total. Next time we’ll remember that the train is definitely something to skip.

We had a great trip and would definitely go back. Next time we might go earlier in the day to do some of the zoo stuff before the lights part starts.

The train museum and old Ellicott City outing were not the only fun of New Year’s Eve. We also got to celebrate Grampa’s birthday with him on his actual birthday. That meant the fudge wasn’t the only sweet treat we ate that day.

Jen made this Frozen Peanut Butter Turtle Pie to celebrate. It was ridiculously delicious (though also ridiculously high in calories).

Happy birthday, Grampa!

A few days after Christmas, G’Mom and Grampa came in town to visit. Of course, this meant we got to keep celebrating Christmas. One of the first items of business - exchanging gifts.

What will it be?

Leah is always excited to get some new Legos.

Grampa had asked for this grill-top cast-iron griddle. He also suggested to have it shipped to his house, but Jen didn’t notice that suggestion. Fortunately, he managed to get it into his luggage for the flight home.

And G’Mom got a calendar with all her favorite grandchildren in it (I won’t tell you which grandchildren didn’t make the calendar ;)

After opening presents, it was time for more fun (and lots of pictures of everyone there). Molly immediately broke out her new karaoke stand to rock out. And yes, that’s some wrapping elastic in her hair.

Hello again, Grammy. Merry Christmas to you.

Charlie often keeps his hands in the air like he just does not care.

And here’s Charlie sleeping on his paternal grandfather. He sleeps a lot. Like a baby.

Jen was a busy bee at her sewing machine this Fall. She bought fabric to make Aunt EA, Grams, Aunt Caroline, and Aunt ‘Chelle (in Birmingham) matching infinity scarves.

The scarves around their necks seem to have had an interesting effect on the expressions on their faces.

Four generations

And now the whole family. I believe this the first picture of this whole group. Kids, parents, uncles, aunts, grandmother, and great grandmother.

I even got to hold Charlie a bit.

That evening, we played a little Uno Attack (a new game Leah received from her cousins). It’s lots of fun when the cards start shooting out (assuming they’re not shooting at you).

Merry Christmas to all!

Unlike last year, both girls got a good night sleep. They did get up early (around 6:00, they say), but not ridiculously early. They waited patiently till 7:00 (the time we told them they could wake us). Then we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus (as we always do) and headed downstairs. There we found that Santa had not missed our house. I think Molly’s excited at what he brought her.

The girls are really into Star Wars, so we got them some Star Wars themed gifts. These pajamas were the first they opened.

These shirts continued the theme, and were the perfect thing to wear to see The Force Awakens in the theater two days later (tickets were already purchased).

Molly was excited to model her new hoodie with her karate dojo’s logo.

After opening presents at our house, we hopped in the car and headed over to Grams’s house to continue the present party. We always go in age order, which means Leah has always been first. Not this year, though - Charlie is the new first. But Leah didn’t have to wait long before it was her turn. This vest will keep her warm if this winter ever gets cold.

One of the hot toys for the girls now are Shopkins, so Leah was very excited to get this set. All the Shopkins are now set up in their room.

Uncle Scott is a Star Wars fan as well, so Jen made him a R2D2 apron, which will go perfectly with his R2D2 measuring cups from Aunt Caroline (next to his elbow).

After opening pajamas for baby Charlie and being impressed that Jen made them, Aunt EA and Uncle Scott were stunned at the knight hoodie that Jen made for Charlie to wear when he’s a little bigger. Uncle Scott and Aunt Caroline have already placed orders for adult versions!

Leah got a plush Fear toy though her expression appears to be one of Joy.

We had a few mix-ups on our gift list this year, so Jen was amused at a duplicate set of bowls that Grams gave her.

After some intense present opening, Charlie was in need of some reset. Aunt Caroline was happy to provide a place for him to lay his head.

Here they are from a bit further back so you can see Aunt Caroline as well.

That wasn’t all the Christmas fun, but that seems like enough for today. Tune in tomorrow as the fun continues.

After church, we headed over to Grams’s house for dinner. Grammy was excited to hold her first great grandson.

Charlie is wide-eyed looking at his great grandmother.

You may not have noticed that under Molly’s ugly sweater was a cute top. After realizing that she did not have a festive outfit for Christmas Eve, Jen made Molly a new winter tunic. Molly has been loving high-low skirts and dresses lately, so this new tunic was a bit hit.

Molly decided to bring her viola along to Grams’s house for a Christmas concert. She's only been learning for 2 months, but she's already doing great.

Per tradition, we opened one present on Christmas Eve. Leah was excited about her DigiPenguin.

As was Molly.

Jen and I received a new Apple TV. Thanks Grammy!

The tradition continues…Jen made the girls new nightgowns to wear on Christmas Eve.

Also per tradition, the girls put out cookies and milk for Santa, and carrots for the reindeer.

Then it was time to read ’Twas the Night Before Christmas (also a tradition) and then have the children nestle all snug in their beds.