thesellers.net

May 13th was National Apple Pie Day. So, what better way to celebrate than to have a playdate to honor the day. We began with a reading of Dr. Seuss's Ten Apples Up on Top.

We then made adorable yarn apples.

And topped off our celebrating by eating mini apple pies.

Leah was actually awake to play with the other younger siblings. This picture had to be captured very quickly since they didn't stay put very long!

Chad took Molly with him to buy a Mother's Day gift for me. I was shocked at how well she did at not spoiling the surprise. Chad had to keep reminding her, "Sssh, it's a surprise," when she said things like, "Daddy hided your present in his car." I eventually learned that he took her to the "computer store" and she played a Dora game on the kid computers, which made me even more impressed that she didn't spoil the surprise of where they went!

Molly painted cards for her grandmothers. She was so excited to give one to Grams and was again reminded, "Sssh, it's a surprise."

I made mint chocolate soufflés for our Mother's Day lunch. I was surprised at how well they turn out for my first attempt, and they were even on the healthier side since it was a Cooking Light recipe!

Molly celebrated one of her best friend's 3rd birthday at Olenka School of Music. Here is the playgroup drum line.

The kids marched around the room in thier own music parade,

drummed some more,

and played with a parachute.

Happy 3rd birthday, Keira!

Molly clearly enjoyed the cake. This was after eating the top half of a cupcake too!

This was our first Easter with 2 kids. Molly, experienced with Easter mornings, jumped right into her Easter basket and the candy within (I believe she's eating jellybeans here). Leah joined in too, enjoying her own Easter egg (no candy included).

We, of course, had to count the eggs.

Leah got a new book in her Easter basket, and was obviously very excited.

Leah's eggs were filled with different things and sealed, so they became shakers. When she became bored with chewing on them, Leah decided she'd try to get in shape for when she can crawl. Here she is doing push-ups. :)

After church, we headed over to Grams and Pop's house, where more Easter baskets and good food awaited. Leah enjoyed hanging out with her Aunt Caroline.

Molly knew fun was in store when hanging out with her aunts. Aunt EA obliged with some high-flying jumping.

We had strawberry shortcake for dessert, which Molly liked a lot. Of course, the stawberries were completely unnecessary to her, as she was fine eating straight Cool Whip.

Here's the family, plus our cousin Jacob who joined us for Easter lunch.

Today our little girl is 3! We've had a fun year. She's still the little dancer and now really gets her hips and arms into it! She also loves to sing and enjoys making up her own songs. It makes me happy to hear her singing the songs that I learned as a child. The best part of the year though has been watching her become the best big sister to Leah!

This weekend we had her Dora the Explorer birthday party with family and her friends.

Come on! Vámonos!
Everybody let's go!
Where are we going?
Molly's party!

All the food followed the theme with fruit salsa, monkey bread, apple and cream cheese quesadillas, and monkey mix.

The kids created their own personal piñatas to take home as party favors.

One of the hits of the party was this Dora guitar. Molly spent much of the time she was supposed to be opening presents distracted by her new toy.

Molly was really excited have "Happy Birthday" sung to her. In fact, she got to hear it twice, as a couple of the kids missed the first time while they were in the bathroom.

We of course also celebrated today on Molly's actual birthday. Chad and I tried to sing Happy Birthday to her first thing this morning and she started crying saying, "No, you can't sing without my cake!" Molly was very excited to do the cake thing again.

There are a lot more pictures of her party here.

This past weekend we celebrated our niece's 1st birthday! We flew down to Birmingham for the occasion. Leah did really well on her first flights (as seen in this video). She slept on both flights and was generally happy when awake.

Emmie's birthday party was Saturday (though she didn't actully turn 1 until Sunday). Molly, of course, helped Emmie open her presents.

Despite all the excitement, Leah was unphased. She slept for the first hour or so of the party.

Opening presents took a long time, so Emmie took a break to hang out with me for a bit.

Then it was time for cake! It took Emmie a couple minutes to warm up to it, but once she got going she realized how great it was.

Leah did eventually wake up and join the party. Here she is spending some time with her Great Grandmother Dot.

After the party, Molly got some late Christmas presents from her Great Aunt Roxanne, including this rocking horse that she really had fun with. I have a feeling it will be a big hit with our playgroup!

On Sunday, we were finally able to get a picture of all three girls wearing their dresses that G'Mom made them.

There was a lot of music going on during our stay (as seen in this video), including piano, guitar, and these lovely percussionists.

We had a great time visiting with lots of family. The girls did great the entire weekend, even sleeping in the same room! There are a lot more pictures from our trip here.

We had a great Christmas. My parents were here to celebrate with us and Chad's family. Molly was so excited about Santa and all the presents. She liked passing out gifts, helping to open them, and then immediately wanting to play with her toys. Leah slept through most of it, but had a wonderful 1st Christmas.

My mom smocked the girls' Christmas dresses this year (including a matching one for my niece too!).

My mother-in-law hosted a Christmas Eve Soup and Sandwich dinner. Here is a family photo. There was also 4 family friends there too!

Grammy (the girls' great-grandmother) gave Molly a Baby Huggums for her Christmas Eve gift. Molly has hardly put it down since getting it, and it has been added to Lambie and Bunny in the group of things she needs to go to sleep.

Leah has started to play with small stuffed animals a lot lately. So, Santa brought Leah her own baby Elmo, which she likes a lot. It's soft and furry and light enough for her to handle.

Molly and Leah got a wagon from Grams and Pop. Molly hopped in immediately, put on her seatbelt, and got comfortable.

Chad caught this picture of Molly after naptime. It's one of my favorites from the day.

Another great picture. Leah is having fun with her Grams.

The homemade sugar cookies were a huge hit with Molly. Here she is looking at herself in the mirror while eating cookie number three. Perhaps the one with the green sprinkles was a poor choice. No big deal though, it only took about 24 hours for it to come off.

There are a lot more pictures of our Christmas. And Chad captured a lot of our day on video too.

We had a very merry Christmas here and wanted to share a bit of it with all of you. Molly was especially excited about everything this year and had a blast. As a warning, this is not in the typical style of short and fun, but is rather more like a typical home movie. It's almost 16 minutes long, so it may take a while to load if you don't have a very fast Internet connection.

Many people who have sent gifts for Leah have also sent gifts for Molly. Chad's Aunt and Uncle recently gave Molly a gingerbread house kit. Due to our major snowstorm, Sunday afternoon was a great time for an indoor activity, so Molly and I got to work.

Molly loved decorating the house and placing the candies in just the right spot.

As we finished she said, "It's fun to decorate with Mommy!" She also enjoyed a celebratory gingerbread cookie.

Last weekend we got our Christmas tree (which was early for us since the last few years we've gone just days before Christmas!). Molly picked it out, so she was very excited to decorate it. She started out by helping Daddy make sure all our lights were working.

After the lights were on, Molly put the first ornament on the tree.

She kept asking Chad to put the ornaments up high, but would occasionally put one on by herself.

Leah may not have been quite as into it as Molly, but I made sure she was involved as well.

Chad also captured some of our decorating on video.