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Last week brought with it the start of school. Here Molly and Leah are, ready for their first day.

Leah’s very excited about her first day of first grade.

Hard to believe Molly’s a fourth grader now. After school, she made sure to tell us she only had two years before she was in middle school.

Jen asked the girls what they wanted her to make them for the first day of school, and they immediately said they wanted hi-low skirts. They each picked out the fabric for their skirt.

And here’s Molly’s hi-low skirt that Jen made. Molly’s ready to do some modeling with her fancy pose here (no coaching added, this was just how she chose to stand).

Our usual neighborhood kids picture on the walk to school.

The Wildcat was waiting at school to greet the kids.

Both girls had a great first day (and first week). We’re looking forward to a great year.

Last week was the first week of school, and the Friday before that was again time for meeting teachers at sneak-a-peek. Here’s Leah with her new first grade teacher.

And here’s Molly with her 4th grade teacher. And yes, she and her best friend Jordan are in the same class for the fourth year in a row.

This year’s Vacation Bible School theme was Cave Quest. As always, Molly and Leah had a great time. Leah was upstairs with the big kids for the first time this year. Jen taught a preschool class downstairs again, marking the first time in years that she hasn’t had one of her own kids in class with her.

On Sunday, Molly, Leah, and Jen sang a couple of their VBS songs in church. Molly and Leah were easy to see, and you can occasionally see Jen’s head appear on the left side as other heads move out of the way. I love how much the girls got into it.

Summer has now begun, but here's a little taste of the last day of school from a week and a bit ago.

First, time to go to school. The girls are ready, including wearing their spirit wear.

After school, the neighborhood kids are happy summer vacation has arrived. Before heading to an ice cream party at a neighbor’s house, we took our usual picture at the circle.

If you looked carefully at Leah in the pictures before school and after, you may have noticed she looks slightly different. Leah’s had a loose tooth for a while, and I told her she should lose it on her last day of school. She was not a fan of that idea, but it happened anyway. Jen gave Leah an Airhead for a treat with her picnic lunch. While eating it, she said she noticed something hard in her mouth. Thankfully, she didn’t swallow it!

The kindergartners put on an end-of-the-year show for all the parents. This walked us through the entire year of kindergarten. Here’s Leah up on stage ready to go.

I recorded the whole thing, but it's 45 minutes long which might be a bit much for all of you. So, here are some highlights. Leah was very happy with the roles she was assigned, especially since she got one of the highly coveted reading roles.

I was amazed at the level of effort that went into this. Teaching all the songs and movements, creating all the props - it’s very impressive. Props to the teachers and the students for putting this together.

You may have noticed Leah wearing a new outfit in the performance. Leah requested for Jen to make her a high-low tunic to wear for the show. Leah’s favorite part were the butterfly buttons!

Leah sang with her choir at church one last time for this school year. I was sadly unable to see it as I was getting ready to lead worship music at the next service, but Jen was nice enough to record it for me (and all of you as well).

The girls had their Field Day at school, and it was great. Jen helped out in the morning with Leah and the rest of the younger kids, and I helped out in the afternoon with Molly and the older kids.

Since we all participated in either the morning or the afternoon, we even got to hang out together at lunch in between.

Then Molly and I headed out to the fun for the older kids. I was assigned to the egg/spoon race, right next to the sack race I managed last year. Can you tell Molly’s having fun there?

Sorry for the lack of posts of late. Over the next few days, I’ll be catching up from early May, beginning with this post.

Like last year, the girls’ school held a Legos with Dad night, in which kids could bring their dads up to school for an evening of Lego building. They had 3 rounds with prizes handed out and lots of fun. Each kid got a bag of random Legos and then had to create something with them. Here’s what the girls made for the air and space round.

And here’s what they made for the monster round.

It was a fun night, and great to have both kids along for the fun for the first time.

Leah has been asking about getting a tennis dress, not skirts like she currently owns. So, Jen decided to upcycle one of her t-shirts and make a new tennis dress for Leah.

Tennis is fun when you have on a new tennis dress.

She loves tennis (just like me)!

Last night Leah lost her third tooth. I was not home, but Jen was. Here’s the story as Leah tells it (Jen may not tell it exactly the same way).

The tooth has been wiggly for weeks. Last night, Leah was trying to pull it out and got it most of the way detached. It hurt a lot and she cried, but she kept pulling anyway. It was still hanging on tight in one place, though, and was bleeding a lot. Jen then tried to finish pulling it out, but was too freaked out to do it. So, Leah grabbed it and pulled, and eventually got it out. After she stopped crying and got the bleeding under control, she was all smiles.