thesellers.net

This year, I was asked to lead music at the Easter sunrise service at church. I hear sunrises are beautiful, but they happen really early in the morning. Early mornings are not my thing, but I decided to give it a go. The service was at 6:30, and I needed to be there at 5:50 to set up and sound check. Yeah - early (and outside in the cold).

I asked the members of my family if they’d like to come with me. Jen was a clear no. Molly and Leah entertained the idea until I told them they’d have to ignore their Easter baskets until after we got home. That sounded too difficult, so they opted to pass. I was on my own (except for a friend or two).

The service was very nice. It was very cold, but I dressed the part and brought hand warmers for when I wasn’t playing (gloves don’t work so well for playing guitar). Sadly, it was cloudy and hazy, so we didn’t really get to see a sunrise.

When I got home, the girls were eagerly awaiting the opportunity to go downstairs and see what the Easter Bunny had brought. They woke Jen up and headed down. I think they were excited at what they found.

Easter baskets included candy (braces-safe varieties), books, Perler beads, and most exciting - Shopkins!

Then the ladies got dressed and we headed to church (again for me, a little over 5 hours after the first time).

6 days after Molly began celebrating her birthday, she got to celebrate with my side of the family. We went to Ledo Pizza, and then came back to our house for presents and cupcakes. Uncle Scott and Aunt EA lived up to their reputation of always delivering fun cards with sound.

If there was one theme to Molly’s presents, it was Shopkins. Our girls love them, and Molly was happy to receive them.

Molly requested Jen make red velvet cupcakes, and Jen of course delivered. It was her first time making them, and they were delicious.

Happy birthday, Molly! Again.

As in previous years, our church held an Easter Egg-stravaganza. It was scheduled for the same day as Molly’s party, so we were going to miss it. Fortunately for us, they postponed the fun due to weather to the day before Easter, which meant we could go.

We arrived and walked in with Leah’s twin friend, then the girls headed straight for the face painting station.

Molly got a butterfly on her cheek, and Leah opted for a bunny.

Leah’s friend’s parents also introduced us to a friend of theirs from Slidell (just like Jen and me). Turns out she lived one cul-de-sac away from me when I was in junior high and high school. Small world.

After face painting, we headed to the cupcake decorating station. Molly’s decoration style is quick and messy, while Leah takes a careful approach.

I managed to get a picture of their cupcakes before they ate them. Note that Leah carefully placed sprinkles around the edge, while Molly just dumped them on top.

As always, the egg hunt was a highlight. I went with Molly up on the hill with the big kids while Jen stayed with Leah and the kindergartners. When they blew the whistle, all the big kids rushed to the same area. Molly quickly realized there was an empty area off to the left, which earned her a few seconds searching by herself until they all noticed her treasure trove and joined her.

Me, Molly, and a basket full of eggs ready to be opened.

Both Molly and Leah ended up with full baskets of fun-filled eggs.

Lots of fun. We were glad we got to attend after all.

We opted not to open presents from her friends at the mall (that was just asking for getting stuff lost). But once we got home, Molly was quick to open them up. Leah was excited to see what was in this outstanding gift bag.

And a little while later, she opened presents from G'Mom and Grampa.

Among other things, they gave her some new Stompeez slippers, perfectly themed for Easter on the next weekend.

This year, Molly decided to have a different sort of party for her birthday. She chose to invite 4 of her closest friends to go to the movies to watch Zootopia. Here they are all lined up in the theater before the movie started.

After the movie, we walked over to the mall for some birthday frozen yogurt (instead of a cake) from Tutti Frutti.

Happy 9th birthday to Molly!

A delicious treat for a happy birthday girl.

And here’s a photobomb by Sarah’s fist. Molly has no idea (no punches were actually punched).

The party was lots of fun, and we’d definitely do a smaller affair like this again. Rather than having lots of people that subdivide into subgroups, you have just a single group of close friends with no need to split up. Most importantly, Molly and her guests had a great time.

Happy birthday Molly!

The girls have sung a lot in church recently, and I’ve neglected to post them. So, here’s a catch-up post of lots and lots of singing.

First, way back on Valentine’s Day, Molly’s choir sang in big church (at the traditional service).

Then, at the beginning of March, Leah and her choir sang (and rang) in big church (this time in the contemporary service we usually attend).

A few weeks later, Molly's choir sang His Grace and Every Move I Make in church a few weeks ago. Sadly, you can't see much of Molly from this angle, but you get a glimpse of her every once in a while.

The girls choirs combined together, along with the youth and adult choirs, for Palm Sunday.

Bedtime is always fun when G’Mom and Grampa are in town. But first, the girls need to get upstairs to get ready. The girls ask me to give them a piggyback ride at bed time most nights. Sometimes it’ll be one of them, sometimes the other, and sometimes both in a double piggyback ride.

G’Mom and Grampa were happy to do some bedtime reading while they were in town.

The day after our date night at ClimbZone, Leah got to attend a birthday party for one of her classmates there. Molly even got to tag along for the climbing fun.

Leah did an excellent job climbing.

Like most of the kids her age, she wasn’t interested in climbing all the way to the top, but she got pretty close.

Molly was zooming up to the top all over the place. Here she is on the Speed Wall just before she hit the button to stop the timer.

Happy birthday Liam! Thanks for inviting us!

Molly performed a viola solo at the county Solo and Ensemble Festival. She did a fantastic job, and received high marks from the judge.

I wanted to record video of it, but didn’t want to distract her. So, I just set my camera on my lap pointed at her without calling attention to it. Molly was so focused, though, she probably wouldn’t have noticed if I was doing jumping jacks.

Great job, Molly!

Last night, Molly looked like this.

Now, she looks like this.

Molly has braces! It’s just four braces on top, plus a band around her back teeth that will eventually connect to the wire as well. She’ll also be getting a bottom bar, which they took impressions for today.

In case you were wondering, this is to correct an extreme overjet (her top front teeth stick out way too far). It may seem crazy to many of you to put braces on a third grader, but it’s become quite common these days. They can more easily address structural issues like this when the kids are younger. Of course, that means she may have braces for a year now, then get them again in middle school to straighten her teeth.