thesellers.net

Saturday, the girls broke out Twister and insisted that G’Mom and Grampa join in the fun. Moments after this picture, Molly took a tumble.

That afternoon, we decided to head to the rink for a little roller skating. Molly’s an old pro at this point.

Leah’s doing pretty well skating as well. She especially loves skating holding both of our hands. She had such a good time, she lasted much longer than Molly.

Not sure how long it’s been since Grampa was on skates, but he was happy to get out there and roll around.

G’Mom was doing great skating as well. Well, at least until she decided to go around one more time before we left…

On G’Mom’s final lap, a young girl darted in front of her, causing her to fall on her wrist. This led to an ER visit, revealing a very bad break. In order to line up the bones before putting on a cast, they hung her hand from this odd contraption.

They put her arm in a cast and a sling, as you can see here. This was just a temporary measure, though, as she had to head to the orthopedic surgeon when she got back home for surgery to insert a plate and screws to hold everything together.

She’s home recovering from surgery now. We hope you feel better soon!

Molly’s school held a Bingo night last week, and we took the whole family. Leah really wanted to win a round (spoiler - she did not, nor did anyone else in our family).

Our table included our family plus G’Mom and Grampa in town, as well as our neighbors/friends.

Molly abandoned us to sit with Jordan at the other end of the table.

Leah’s preschool held a Family Fun Night in one of the elementary schools, and we all attended. This was a pajama party, so we all donned our jammies and joined in the fun. The girls quickly found the cookie decorating table, which combined crafts and eating treats - two of their favorite activities.

Molly and Leah wore their Stompeez Slippers, and were excited to find that Nora and her little sister Emmie wore the exact same pairs (well, Emmie’s might be somewhat smaller than Molly’s). I like that all four girls posed differently. Nora was shocked that I wanted her picture. Leah struck a model pose. Molly went for the simple head tilt and slight smile. And Emmie showed off her classic poker face.

There were even some fun performers who sang songs accompanied by their guitar and fiddle, told stories with puppets, and got the kids dancing and shaking shakers. It was hard to get a picture of Molly and Leah through the crowd since they were in the thick of it.

Thanks to all who made this night possible!

This morning, I didn’t have anything planned so I was happy to sleep in a bit. Leah, however, had other plans. She wanted to go sledding (Molly and Jen were headed to ballet). So, about 8:30, Leah attacked me in bed, including ripping off the covers, opening the windows, repeatedly jumping on me, and several wet willies. So, I got up, ate some breakfast, and headed out with her into the snow.

We sledded a bunch, but Leah also found she loved sledding on her belly without the sled, the same way a penguin slides on ice. Here’s an example of what I mean.

I’m impressed how well this works in deep snow. I guess it helps to have such steep hills. And she would sometimes use the tracks left by our sled runs, which meant she could get even more speed.

Thursday it snowed all day. In the end, we got 8-10 more inches, which left us with about 14 inches on the yard. After a lot of shoveling, the mounds of snow lining the driveway were almost as tall as the mailbox. The girls thought they were lots of fun. They called this one their palace, and enjoyed playing at the top. Molly of course feasted on the snow. And I have no idea what Leah is doing here. Perhaps singing Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes through her teeth?

The snow was great for building a snowman. So we built a big one - about the size of Leah. The snowball on the bottom was so heavy I could barely lift it. Of course, you have to name your snowman. After some thought, the girls picked the perfect name - Abraham Lincoln.

Looks just like him.

Thanks to this snow, there was no school Thursday or Friday. Thanks to a bit of snow and a lot of ice, there was no school Monday either. So, this was a 2 day school week. We’re not making any early summer plans.

Leah's class has been learning about the rainforest, so to reinforce their lessons we headed to the National Aquarium on Wednesday. Leah was super excited that I was coming along and riding on the bus to get there was an exciting start to the day!

As the kids arrived, they examined a turtle shell up close. They were then tasked with the mission of counting how many turtles they could find at the aquarium.

After seeing lots of little fish, this big guy was quite a surprise.

Leah and Norah loved eating lunch together while being entertained by the dolphins and trainers.

Who knew dolphins love Jell-O? The trainers played a little Jell-O baseball to give the dolphins a treat.

I was chaperone to three of the girls, so I paired up with the chaperone of the other three girls and we all explored the Aquarium together. Looks like these girls had a great day!

While we’ve had a lot of cold in January and February, we haven’t had much snow. Monday night gave us our first significant snowfall (about 5 inches). So, after having President’s Day off on Monday, Molly had a snow day on Tuesday.

The snow was a very fine powder, the kind I imagine skiers love. This is great for sledding (though not as great for snowmen who need wetter, stickier snow). The girls and I headed out for some fun on the hills in our side yard and our neighbor's yard. Here are a couple of the early runs.

The powder meant Leah could kick up a real cloud of snow while sliding down the hill without a sled (as she is wont to do).

The powdery snow wasn’t sticky enough for snowmen and snowballs, but the girls made snowballs anyway. They wouldn’t stick together very long, so they could only be thrown from close range.

After some fun, everyone helped out with the shoveling. The girls were even kind enough to shovel off my car.

Looking out the window as I write this, it looks like I’m in the middle of a snow globe. We may have waited a while for our first decent snow, but it seems to have only taken 4 days to get another one.

For the past year, Molly and Leah have been asking to visit the American Girl store. So, I surprised them and we followed our inner stars into the northern Virginia DC suburbs, along with Matilda and Ellie.

The store is two levels of dolls, doll cloths, girl clothes, and lots of accessories. Molly found a cute hat to model.

I never thought I'd be taking my child’s picture in a bathroom, but I had to show how well thought out the store is. The bathrooms all included doll holders, in the stalls and by the sinks.

There are doll displays all over the store. Leah found a perfect place for Rose to have a chat with a new friend, Grace.

Apparently Grace is a friendly girl because Molly McIntire needed to meet the new Girl of the Year too.

While there, we also had lunch at the Bistro, complete with seats for the dolls at the table.

Each doll was presented with a tea cup and saucer, because dolls get thirsty at lunchtime too.

Molly did a nice job of documenting that Stacie, Julie, and I enjoyed the day as well.

After lunch, Molly McIntire and Rose were treated to an afternoon at the doll salon. I was happy that someone else was brushing the dolls’ hair.

The dolls also had a nice spa treatment, including a cleaning, massage, and nice smelling powder.

Leah chose a fishtail braid for Rose, who sat very patiently to have her hair braided.

New hairstyles, a spa cleaning, and new clothes. I’d say Rose and Molly McIntire had a great day. Oh, Molly and Leah loved the day too!

On Saturday night, we had a bit of snow and a lot of wind. Sunday morning, the snow was still on the street. While it wasn’t much, we’d had 3 vehicles lose control on the very steep hill we live on during the last snowfall, so we decided not to chance driving to church. Instead, we held church at home. I led some songs (both some "big church" songs and some children’s church songs).

Molly led the scripture reading.

Leah led the prayer. Apparently, she thought she needed to sound different when praying for the service instead of her usual prayers, so she threw in lots of amusing parts. These included praying “for all the people’s issues” which is a phrase I’ve never heard her say before.

King cake, beads, and New Orleans jazz…all the goodies that Mardi Gras has!

I hosted our annual Mardi Gras party last Thursday. While I was in Louisiana last month, I picked up a new Mardi Gras book, so I read to our guests about the traditions of Mardi Gras and then the kids enjoyed making their own festive masks.

Who's behind that mask?

We also had a King Cake bake-off. I made two king cakes from two different recipes. The smaller cake is a recipe I've been using for many years. The larger cake is a new McKenzie’s King cake copycat recipe that a high school friend recently shared. The only difference was the dough; the cream cheese filling, icing and sugars were all the same. Many of the adults at the party tried both and voted. The larger cake was deemed the winner; the dough was more pastry-like and as Chad commented, "It's closer to what I think of when you say King Cake."

Leah loved having her preschool friends over to celebrate. Happy Mardi Gras!