Leah

Our little flower girl

Posted in Celebrations, Leah, Molly, Trip on June 4th, 2013 by jen – Be the first to comment

We headed to Atlanta this weekend to attend Mike and Mary's wedding, which featured Molly as the flower girl. We flew in on Friday and then headed to the church for the rehearsal. Molly was very excited.

Rehearsal

Not only did we get to join in the wedding festivities, we also got to see cousins. Molly and Leah were thrilled when Emmie showed up.

Cousin time

The rehearsal dinner was held in a great outdoor space, and included yummy barbeque from Jim 'N Nick's. After dinner, Brian (Mike's dad) made sure to embarrass Mike with a walk through his life so far.

Embarrassed

They also had some fun stuff for kids of all ages, including these foam swords.

Swordplay

There were also quilt squares that guests could sign or decorate, which Jan (Mike's mom) plans to put together for the bride and groom.

Quilt squares

A bunch of cousins. They cross generations and don't include others, but I believe the one thing they have in common is that they were all unmarried (at least for the next few hours).

Unmarried

Our little flower girl on the day of the wedding, just after putting on her dress and having her hair braided.

Ready to go

I made the majority of Molly's dress in March, but finally brought out the machine again last week (after packing it away while selling the house) to finish the dress for Saturday's wedding. Mary sent the sash to match the bridesmaid dresses.

The key skill required for being a flower girl is patience. Molly was outstanding in this regard. Here she is patiently waiting for pictures to begin before the wedding.

Waiting patiently

Molly posing with the bride and groom.

With the bride and groom

Each bridesmaid had a bouquet with a different color of daisy. Molly was very excited that her bouquet had flowers of all the colors of the bridesmaids.

Flowers

When Molly was in the picture, people would often try to get her to smile. So, when she was done being in pictures, she decided to help the photographer out in getting others to smile. She made an excellent assistant.

Smile!

The four of us, ready for the wedding to start.

Us

Final instructions before heading down the aisle.

Final instructions

Here comes our little flower girl.

Flower girl

She made it. Now we just need the bride.

Up front

Molly did a great job standing still and paying attention at the front for the entire ceremony. She even laughed at the pastor's jokes.

Funny

After the wedding picture with cousins and grandparents.

Cousins and grands

Lots of flower girls across the generations. Anne was Susan's, Michelle and I were Anne's, Maggie was Michelle's, Maddie was mine, and Molly now joins the group.

Generations of flower girls

In addition to the wedding cake at the reception, they also had blue velvet cupcakes (because red velvet just doesn't work with Auburn and Georgia Tech grads!). Molly, of course, mostly focused on the icing.

Cupcakes

Leah caught the ear of her Uncle J.

Deep conversation

And finally, a bubble send-off for Mr. and Mrs. Batson!

Bubble send-off

A berry fun time

Posted in Leah, Playdates on June 3rd, 2013 by jen – 1 Comment

Leah and I picked strawberries at Gorman Farm last week with some friends. She did a great job of inspecting her strawberries to make sure they were only red.

Inspecting her strawberry

On the hunt for the perfect strawberry…

Finding the perfect one

Strawberry picking is always more fun with a friend. Leah would have stayed longer, but the buckets were full!

Always fun with a friend

I froze one pound of the strawberries for Strawberry Sour Cream ice cream later this week, and the rest of them are gone! Guess we need to take a trip out to Larriland Farm to pick more!

A trip to the Zoo

Posted in Leah, Molly on June 2nd, 2013 by jen – Be the first to comment

We went to the National Zoo on Memorial Day (which was so crowded they had to close the parking lot within 30 minutes of opening). Our first stop was the Great Ape House to check out the gorillas and orangutans. When we left the house, we found that a couple of the orangutans were climbing high above our heads. It was very cool.

Orangutan crossing

Our next stop was the carousel. The girls always want to ride on the carousel when Chad's around, as I get motion sick and consequently won't ride them.

Carousel

One of the animals the girls were excited to see was the flamingo. So, Molly made a beeline to ride on one when they let her through the gate.

Flamingo ride

Of course, Leah couldn't just smile nicely at me while I was trying to take a picture.

Wacky Leah

Looking at lions and tigers is fun.

Having fun

Hi down there, Leah.

Hi down there

Turtles are fun too.

Turtles

Along the new American Trail, near the seals and sea lions, they had a splash pad with a small tidal wave. Molly loved it. Leah, not so much.

Splashing around

Molly got up close and personal with a couple of California sea lions.

Sea lions

Leah enjoyed being inches away from this meerkat while it was playing with its makeshift toy made from a toilet paper roll and a couple of Dixie cups.

Meerkat manor

The girls ended their day posing in the zoo sign with their new stuffed panda bears.

Zoo sign

Just a glimpse…

Posted in Leah, Molly, Sports on May 31st, 2013 by jen – 1 Comment

The girls had their ballet photos recently. Leah loves wearing her snowflake costume, but it leaves a trail of feathers wherever she goes!

Sneak peak of our snowflake

You can't help but smile at her.

Such a cutie

Molly's ballet class will be dancing to Be Our Guest, so there will be 10 smiling Belle's dancing on stage.

Be Our Guest

More to come in June…

Celebrating Mother’s Day

Posted in Celebrations, Family visits, Leah on May 30th, 2013 by jen – Be the first to comment

Grammy's Mother's Day present from us was a jar featuring artwork by Molly. She originally drew the artwork on a mug with Sharpies and we baked it, but that was a dismal failure, so this was the backup plan.

Happy Mother's Day Grammy

Grammy looks right at home reading the card to Leah. As a retired school teacher, I'm sure she's done this quite a bit…

Reading to little ones

We gave Grams an invitation to tea at Tea on the Tiber in Ellicott City. This is the moment she realized that EA had put a phony event on her calendar to ensure she was available to go.

Wait a sec...

Happy Mother's Day Mommy

The next weekend, we all had a great time catching up at afternoon tea. It was fun to try many different teas, but Grams's choice of acai berry tea was the winner. Next time, I want to try afternoon tea at Moulin de Paris in Pasadena.

Afternoon tea

Her first “last day of school”

Posted in Leah, School on May 15th, 2013 by jen – Be the first to comment

Today was Leah's last day of school at My First School. Ms. Deb has been a wonderful teacher. Leah has a bit of a stubborn streak in her (ahem, not sure where that comes from!) and early in the year, Ms. Deb's spin on it was that Leah would make a great leader one day. Ha! Leah has loved school and would always insist on giving her teachers great, big hugs every day. She'd even run back in if she forgot.

We're so ready for preschool at ECP this Fall. Leah's super excited to go to "Molly's preschool" and I'm eager to get back into the classroom with Ms. Carol, enough that I even volunteered to be Leah's class coordinator!

MyFirstSchool

Spring is in the air

Posted in Leah, Molly on May 9th, 2013 by jen – 1 Comment

We've tried to take advantage of some nice, Spring days lately and play outside. Molly tried skating a bit.

Roller skating

She then moved on to biking for the first time this season. She had some trouble here, though we did eventually figure out that she needed the seat raised, the tires inflated, and one of the training wheels adjusted. Once that was done she had a much easier time.

A bit of biking

We had some fun throwing the disc around as well, though Leah didn't exactly throw this one very close to her target (Daddy).

Frisbee

At some point, Leah decided she didn't want to throw the Frisbee any more for no apparent reason.

A little pouting

It didn't take her long to cheer back up, though.

Cheered up

The most fun game of the afternoon was likely "pull the tree branch." This involves a child standing on a step stool and pulling a tree branch, pretending to be a monster.

Pull the tree branch

And if you really pull the tree branch down, you can…

Pull!

…let go of the branch and watch it spring up into the air.

Let go...

Celebrating JJ

Posted in Celebrations, Leah, News, Trip on April 11th, 2013 by jen – 1 Comment

We spent part of Spring Break in Birmingham visiting with my family. It was possibly the shortest time between visits with G'Mom and Grampa that the girls have ever had.

Family visit to AL

It's always fun to see what Grampa sees.

Grampa's glasses

JJ loved his first ride in the Cozy Coupe. Leah stopped to chat along his route.

Waving to his peeps

We went out to dinner at Joe's Crab Shack where the servers dance. Molly took that to mean that she should dance as well, and she spent much of the evening dancing and dancing and dancing.

Dinner and a show

The reason for our visit was to attend JJ's first birthday party.

Birthday cake

The birthday boy is a happy boy as he waits for the party to start.

Pre-party fun

So much fun

Got a balloon

Who needs cake? The icing is the good stuff.

Who needs cake?

Emmie loved sitting with Uncle Chad. And Leah's always wanting to share in Daddy's love.

Preschoolers and me

There's always time for reading with G'Mom.

Reading time

Leah loves "baby JJ."

Cousins

Grandma Dot came over for a post-party visit. Here she is with her four great-grandchildren.

Great grandkids

JJ loves playing with his trucks.

Truck

Molly was super sweet with JJ. Every time he was fussy, she was right there trying to cheer him up. She even sat with him a few times and played trucks with him.

Molly can play too

Celebrating Easter

Posted in Celebrations, Leah, Molly on April 6th, 2013 by jen – Be the first to comment

Molly's birthday weekend was also Easter weekend. The girls were excited to see what they got in their Easter basket. So excited that they made sure we were up a little early.

Easter morning

There were also some Easter presents from Aunt 'Chelle, Uncle J, Emmie, and JJ, including these fun eyes.

Presents from afar

We had a nice Easter service, a great lunch at Grams's, and some good family time. Happy Easter from The Sellers!

Happy Easter!

Now she’s really 6

Posted in Celebrations, Leah, Molly on April 5th, 2013 by jen – Be the first to comment

It's the morning of Molly's actual birthday. Molly's got on her birthday crown and it's time to open presents. Why is she hugging her sister so excitedly?

Sister hugs

A new umbrella! Leah picked it out herself, and Molly is thrilled with it.

A new umbrella

Molly requested to go to Red Robin (yum!) for her birthday dinner as they sing. Here she is eating her birthday dessert after the singing.

Birthday dinner

We then headed home with aunts, an almost uncle, Grams, and Grammy to have some more treats and open presents. Molly is really excited about this Hello Kitty karaoke machine from Aunt Caroline. Her mom and dad are slightly less excited…

Exciting present

Molly has not yet embarked on a sleepover, but she's now ready with this Hello Kitty sleeping bag from Aunt EA and (almost) Uncle Scott.

Sleeping bag

Birthday cake at her party, ice cream sundae at dinner, and now a cupcake as well. She's one happy 6 year old!

More treats