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There are a bunch of things I’ve failed to post about here. I’ve meant to catch up on them for some time, but failed. Today I’ll try to start to catch up.

Back in August, the girls hit another karate milestone. Leah completed yet another unit at karate, so it was time for another stripe ceremony. Leah led the class in some jumping jacks during warm up exercises.

Here she is showing off some of her skills (punching, blocking, kicking).

The preschool class even got to try out using pads, though they still didn’t make contact.

Here she is getting her stripe.

She’s now got 3 stripes on her belt. And that’s all she’ll have for a while, as she’s decided to take a break from karate. With kindergarten starting, we’ve limited her to two activities. She chose gymnastics and tennis for now, so no karate for her this Fall.

Once Leah was done, it was time for Molly’s belt test, and she’s grinning with excitement.

A minute later, she’s serious and ready to go.

Here she is doing her Elbow Kata.

Sensei even hits them in the stomach to test their strength.

Molly’s getting better at sparring.

She earned her blue stripe (half way to a blue belt).

Here she is with her yellow belt with blue stripe. And she’s not stopping there. Her sister may be taking a break from karate, but Molly plans to continue with it for the foreseeable future.

In preparation for Halloween, Jen got the girls some giant pumpkins, that we tried to carve at a party. We had some difficulties with tools there, though. Leah elected to paint her pumpkin, but Molly brought hers home to try again.

The biggest preparation for Halloween is of course the costumes, though. Thanks to Jen, these are always awesome.

Since our trip to Callaway Gardens this summer, Molly has been in love with owls. So, she of course wanted to be one for Halloween. Jen planned to make these feathers and attach them to a hoodie, but she couldn’t find a girls brown hoodie. So, she just made the hoodie. She also made the mask, the skirt, and the leggings.

Also note the pumpkin Molly carved in the background. Yes, it’s an owl as well.

Leah had a lot of trouble picking a costume, but eventually decided to be Mittens Fluff ’n Stuff, one of the Lalaloopsy girls. Jen made the wig, shirt, leggings, socks, and vest. She was going to make a skirt until Leah reminded her she already owned a perfect skirt (though Jen did add the waistband to it). Jen and Leah together sewed the pet polar bear accessory.

The pumpkin in the back was painted by Leah as well.

These were all the costumes this year. The girls wanted to pick their own costumes rather than do a family costume. So, Jen and I went without costumes.

As usual, the elementary school has a costume parade. Leah enjoyed her first time dressing up and marching at school. She especially loved that her costume included a toy, which meant she could have that toy at school all day.

Molly of course marched as well. No surprise she was in line behind Jordan.

On Halloween day, trick-or-treating started early on Halloween with a trip to visit Grams.

Thanks Grams from some happy trick-or-treaters.

As we’ve done before, we gathered with some of the neighborhood kids to go trick-or-treating. This year we gathered a bit earlier to get a head start.

We stuck with Jordan, Haley, and Madison again as we visited house after house gathering candy.

To close it out, here’s Molly’s lit-up owl jack-o'-lantern after a long night of greeting our trick-or-treaters.

Leah finally lost her second tooth last night. It’s been wiggling for more than 3 months, and hanging on by a thread for the past few days. Yesterday evening, Jen looked at her and told her jokingly she just needed to pull it out. So, she grabbed it and did so.

As you can see, her permanent tooth had already come in almost entirely behind her baby tooth. Hopefully it migrates forward a bit on its own, though I’m guessing it’ll eventually need some orthodontic assistance.

For many months, Leah was requesting a space themed birthday party. So, last weekend we made it happen. It was a very creative venture that led to some fun decorations, including an inflatable solar system and some sewn stars hanging from the ceiling.

Chad did his best at arranging the solar system. Obviously not to scale as that wouldn’t work, but at least planetary distance should be in order of the planets. And yes, they included Pluto as well, which Leah banished to the corner.

As the guests arrived for the party, there was some space coloring.

Chad then read the kids a book - Fly Guy Presents: Space.

Next, all the kids donned disposable art smocks (made from trash bags) in order to paint the night sky. They were given canvases that I had pre-painted with glow-in-the-dark paint. Their first step was to stick stars onto their canvas in whatever constellation design they liked.

After sticking on stars, the girls painted the entire canvas black. Once dried, they removed the star stickers, giving them a black night sky with glow-in-the-dark stars.

Next up was Pin the Rocket on Saturn.

We moved on to Outer Space Bingo, created with clip art from LemonadePixel.

Our snack included star-shaped cheese & crackers, rocket fruit kabobs, and Cheddar Rocket Crackers. (Sadly, no pictures of these. The cameraman must have had his hands full helping one of the 16 girls!) The outer space cupcakes with a lemon candy sun, Skittles planets, and sprinkle stars in the night sky were a hit!

And no party is complete without singing to the birthday girl.

Then it was on to the piñata. Leah is quick to tell you that her favorite planet is Saturn, so I made her a Saturn piñata.

Some of the girls had a big swing.

Leah put all her effort into breaking this piñata. It almost broke apart here, but managed to barely stay together for one more hit from Molly.

Then there was of course the scramble for all the toys and candy.

Last, we shot Stomp Rockets into the air. These were a big hit on a beautiful day. If you look closely, you can see both rockets in mid-air.

We were way too busy to open presents at the party, but Leah was ready to do so as soon as it was over. She received lots of very fun presents. This year’s featured gift - DigiBirds.

And if you didn't catch it in the pictures above, Leah was very excited that she was finally allowed to wear her solar system skirt (pattern by Little Lizard King), with a coordinating tank top in her favorite color! She and I collaborated on the birthday outfit (Mom was planning on a dress, but daughter insisted on separates, so we made it work!).

Thanks to all who came to celebrate with Leah! We all had a blast!

Believe it or not, Leah is now 6 years old (as of last week, sorry for the delay in writing this). Happy birthday Leah!

Leah’s birthday came on a school day, so we saved the big party for the weekend. That didn’t stop these girls from having a happy birthday, though.

Leah got to pick dinner and dessert. For dinner, she again picked Chick-Fil-A. For dessert, she decided to forego traditional cake or cupcakes and instead picked some delicious gelato (don’t worry, the traditional dessert was coming a few days later). Her flavor of choice was of course birthday cake.

Her birthday was only the beginning of the celebrating. The big fun was still to come.

Whoo loves sewing? These two cuties do!

Our final sewing project for the summer was making an owl stuffed animal. The girls enjoyed customizing their owls with their fabric choices and eye shapes.

Mommy Sewing lessons were a great experience for all three of us. My hope is that it has inspired the girls and their creativity!

In this lesson, the girls created sleeping bags for their dolls. They were not satisfied with just the sleeping bag though, so requested to make pillows to match. I think all four girls were excited about this one!

We had a mostly free Saturday, and the girls wanted to go out and do something with me. We ended up deciding to go ice skating. Yes, our ice rink is open in August. So, we escaped the heat for some frozen fun.

Note that while it was cold, it wasn’t that cold. I took off my jacket and skated in jeans and a t-shirt. Leah eventually took off her jacket (though not her gloves or scarf), but Molly refused to remove her winter-wear.

The girls and I had a great time. Molly skated on her own the entire time, while Leah switched between using the walker and holding my hand. Leah may have needed some support, but that didn’t slow her down. She went around so fast I could hardly keep up.

Our time on the ice was grand, but it was not enough frozen fun for us. So, we made a quick stop at Yogi Castle for a chilly treat. Between the ice rink and the fro-yo, we certainly beat the heat.

Molly and Leah spent a week in August learning about 3-D crafts at the Howard County Arts Council. The week’s projects included creating a plaster bird, and designing and sewing a plush monster. Both girls love arts & crafts, so they had a fantastic week in camp together!

The girls made their own Fat Quarter skirts. They decided it was best to model along with their tote bags from the previous week.

Making these skirts with the girls required a lot more assistance with ironing and inserting elastic, so no additional action shots from this lesson.