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In December, both the girls sang with their choirs in church.

Great singing, girls.

The day after getting the tree, it was time to decorate the tree.

The ladder got a lot of use, which was good as it meant we didn’t have a concentrated ring of ornaments around the bottom of the tree.

There was also an alternate ladder the girls could use to reach up high.

Leah was happy to use the Daddy ladder as well.

This year, Molly decided she was big enough to put the angel on top. It was a bit of a reach, so I gave her a little support.

Our new ornament from Disney World was a highlight of the tree.

Here’s the decorated tree.

So, sorry for not posting anything for the past couple of months. But never fear, I’ve been taking pictures along the way and will now catch you up over the next few days. So, think back to December, and pretend the holiday season is just getting started.

This year, we returned to our favorite place to find and cut down a Christmas tree, Greenway Farms. Sadly, they no longer have any White Pines (our go-to tree), so we had to choose something else. We browsed around for a lot longer than the girls wanted to, checking out the Douglas Fir, Norway Spruce, Blue Spruce, White Spruce, and Canaan Fir. We ultimately found a Canaan Fir we liked (as you can see here) and I cut it down.

Cutting down a tree is enough work to warm you up, so I ended up taking off my jacket. The girls were complaining about being cold, and each wanted to wear my discarded jacket. They found a fun solution.

Molly loved HowGirlsCode last year, and signed up to participate in their WeDo Lego robotics after-school activity this year. On the last day, they showed off their robots to us.

Molly called her robot The Dog Beak. She did a great job designing and building it and programming it to chow down. Over the weeks, it went through several different designs and forms, and I think it ended up awesome.

On the last day, parents and siblings were invited to tour their workshop. Molly demoed The Dog Beak for us.

Here are all the robots built by Molly and her fellow coders.

This year, the girls’ school had a Crazy Hair Day. They decided to go all out, thanks to a little help from their mom and Pinterest.

After becoming an expert in sock buns for Molly’s Leia costume, Jen quickly whipped up Molly’s donut hair. With the addition of real sprinkles, a few of Molly’s classmates were confused as to whether the donut was real!

Leah’s classmates kept asking her if those were real M&Ms in her hair. She had to explain that yes, it was real, but it was Skittles. Didn’t they read the box?

Molly made up this song about her hair for Crazy Hair Day at school.

Leah knew the right catch phrase for her Crazy Hair Day hair.

The girls’ choirs sang in worship back-to-back weeks in October. Molly was up first.

The next week, it was Leah’s turn.

Great singing, girls!

The day after Leah’s birthday, we continued celebrating with a day trip to Lancaster, Pennsylvania for some fun. In looking for things to do, the girls were the most excited about visiting Aimee and Daria’s Doll Outlet. The place is impressive, in the number of doll accessories offered as well as the prices when compared to those of the American Girl brand.

While the downstairs of the Doll Outlet is full of doll accessories to buy, the upstairs contains a “nursery” with lots of baby dolls and other stuff. The girls got to sit in the princess chairs up there for a picture.

The girls (and their dolls) and their loot.

We then wanted to learn a bit about the Amish. The folks at the Doll outlet recommended we head to The Amish Farm and House. We did, and took the house tour, then headed out to explore the farm. We even got to take a buggy ride around the farm.

They had Amish scooters that we could ride around a track.

For dinner, we went to the Strasburg Shoppes. They have a great deli for dinner, then followed up with some delicious ice cream from the creamery there.

Yummy rainbow sherbet. And the waffle cones were made there fresh daily (we saw the rows of waffle makers and had to get some).

We then drove home for a late bedtime. It was a fun day and we’d love to do it again.

I’m way behind posting things, but I’m going to do my best to catch up now. So, think back to the beginning of school, and I’ll walk you through to the present over the next week or so.

The girls have started school, and are doing great. They both love their teachers, and are busy with almost everything they possibly could be busy with at school.

We had a great time at the Back to School picnic again this year. I left early for a tennis match, so I don’t have many pictures. But before I left, I did get a picture of these birthday twins at the photo booth. It was a hit with all the kids just as it had been in previous years.

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.

Molly’s now been doing karate for two full years, moving steadily up the belt ranks. For her green belt test, she had to do her first bo staff kata. As you can tell, she’s so good she doesn’t need to open her eyes (kidding).

She broke a board for the second time at her green belt test as well. Apparently that doesn’t require her to open her eyes either.

She did it!

Here she is with her new green belt on, with her old blue belt in one hand and her bo staff in the other.