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Molly’s class took a field trip to Green Meadows Petting Farm. Non-chaperoning parents and siblings were invited to attend, so Leah and I drove out to meet Molly. The rubber duck races were a big hit with all the kids.

Molly and Grace had a great day at the farm together, especially on the extremely bumpy hay ride.

Those are some funny looking animals!

Grace was the first of the group to step up and milk the cow.

It took a bit of coaxing to get Molly to try milking the cow, but she finally was willing. Notice the stream of milk flowing in front of her.

The farm asked that only adults pick up the animals, but Grace was so excited to help hold a baby bunny.

I think the bunny decided that Molly needed a few bunny kisses. Note that Leah does not appear in any of these pictures with animals. She was perfectly willing to enjoy them from a distance.

Molly and Leah have ballet class back-to-back on Saturday. Leah loves to watch Molly’s class. She sits in the doorway for most of the class, mesmerized by the older girls dancing.

Occasionally, Molly’s ballet class goes into a larger room to practice what it will be like on stage for their recital. Leah gets to sit up front to act as the audience for them, which she loves.

Molly decided she wanted to get her ears pierced. So, we headed to Piercing Pagoda in the mall to get it done. Here Molly is preparing herself. Note the purple dot on her ear designating the spot.

Here's the piercing. She handled it extremely well. I expected tears, or at least a wince. But instead, she almost seemed to say "that was it?".

Here she is right after getting her ears pierced, with her fancy aquamarine flower earrings. She looks older to me, though the missing teeth help keep her looking her age.

And here she is with a second set of earrings (pink butterflies) to get her started. She was also happy to get a giant sticker announcing to the world that she just got her ears pierced.

The girls were very excited to find their Easter baskets filled on Easter morning. Thankfully, I’d told them the night before that they had to wait patiently in their room until a reasonable hour before getting us up to head downstairs.

Molly seems to think her new bubble wand is Excalibur. The crazy glasses complete the look.

Leah was quick to crack open this new pirate princess book.

After church, we gathered with family at Grams’s house. Molly decided to be the photographer for the day, and wandered the house taking pictures with my camera. She even got this mirror selfie to prove it.

Leah loves it when Uncle Scott lifts her up. Note that this picture was also taken by Molly.

After a fun day in Philadelphia, we spent the night in a nearby hotel along with four other families. We headed out the next morning to check out the Please Touch Museum. Leah was happy to see some familiar duck-billed faces there.

Molly learned how a lock works.

You can’t miss a chance to play a Big piano with your feet.

Molly’s cranking the lift to load bricks up to Leah.

They have a pretty large grocery store set up that the kids spent much of their time in. Keira spent much of her time playing the role of cashier.

Molly thought this baby (as well as all the others) needed an MRI in the hospital.

Eventually, Leah played the role of cashier while Keira was a customer.

In the space area, they had launch pads for launching foam rockets. Molly’s red rocket has just taken off, though she doesn’t know that since her eyes are shut.

Shooting rockets up toward the target rings is amazing.

Statue of Leahberty

Combining a couple of backhoes and a ball pit made for lots of fun.

No surprise that Leah quickly dressed as a princess when entering the fairytale corner.

Molly’s creating a book in the craft room. Note that the further out you stick your tongue, the harder you concentrate.

Leah takes a brief break from drawing to contemplate her artwork.

Keira’s excited to ride the museum’s carousel.

The girls love the carousel. Jen - not so much. But she took her dramamine so she was able to ride it one time (I had to take her place for the second time around).

It’s a very nice carousel.

We had to tear them away from their book making to ride the carousel with everyone else. To do so, we promised them we’d come back afterward. So, we headed back to the craft room to continue book making until it was time to go.

And thus our great Philadelphia adventure came to an end. We then hopped in the car and braved the traffic of I95 back to Maryland.

A couple of months ago, Jen got an email from her friend Kelly proposing something a bit crazy. Her daughters Keira (Molly's age) and Maya (Leah's age), who have been friends with our girls since they were infants, both have birthdays within a few weeks of one another. Kelly's brother works at the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts. Kelly wanted to see if people would come to a birthday party there.

This sounded crazy to drive to Philly for a kid's birthday party, but the circus school sounded like a lot of fun. Also, there was talk of staying the night and going to the Please Touch Museum the next day, which has been on our to-do list for some time. So, we said we'd love to join in the fun.

When we arrived at the circus school, they split the participants up into adults and kids. Jen participated, but I stuck to the role of photographer. Then it was time for the warm-up. Here the kids warm up the spring in their legs.

Molly and Leah are getting stretched out.

Balance is an important skill for tight-rope walking and other circus arts. The 4 and 5 year olds started off working on balancing on things much more narrow than a normal balance beam (such as this 2x6 on end).

Molly’s group started out on the silks. I think she’s having fun already.

Jen’s group of adults started on the trapeze. Getting your legs onto the bar in order to hang upside down is tough.

Sitting up onto the bar isn’t easy either.

Pretty soon after getting started, Molly was hanging around upside down.

Look, Ma… no hands.

After the groups switched locations, it was Jen’s turn to try her hand at the silks. The adults did fewer upside-down hanging from your arms tricks, and instead kept their feet under them.

Nice pose, Jen.

Leah’s group moved to the trapeze. She had an easier time getting her legs onto the bar than the adults. Must be all that gymnastics she does.

Looks like she’s on the swingset at the playground.

This picture needs no explanation. Jen and Kelly’s faces say it all.

I don’t think this pose is actually relaxing, but it looks like it is.

Climbing is another important skill. They showed the kids proper technique, but Molly mostly just pulled herself up with her arms alone.

I never quite understood this activity the little ones did, but they seemed to enjoy it.

Jen paid more attention to proper climbing technique than Molly.

I’m beginning to think Molly prefers being upside down to right-side up.

Here’s the gym we were in, complete with lots of things hanging from the ceiling.

After the fun, it was time for a little lunch, or dinner. What do you call it when you eat at 3:00? Let’s go with linner. Molly was happy to get to sit next to one of the birthday girls.

These birthday girls are having a good time.

After eating, a couple of our instructors put on a show for us. I got video of the first, Christine, having some fun up on the silks.

The second performance was performed by Jackie flying through the air on the hoop. She used Disney princess music (The Glow), which the girls loved.

All the kids and a couple of the instructors after a fun party.

After the party and some dinner out at the Trolley Car Diner, we stopped at Miles Park in Whitemarsh to have some playground fun before heading back to the hotel. For some reason, the kids loved this seesaw. They would have stayed on it the entire time if we had let them.

I don't think we'll make a habit of road trips for birthday parties, but this was a lot of fun.

I participated in Kids Clothes Week Challenge this week. The goal is to spend at least one hour per day for seven days working on kids clothes. I spent many more hours than that which resulted in a dress for both girls.

After seeing me make several Maggie Mae dresses as gifts, Leah requested one for herself. Leah still will not wear sleeveless dresses, so she loves the cap sleeves and, of course, the pockets!

All Chad's photography is finally paying off as Leah is becoming a natural model, giving him lots of fun poses to photograph.

Molly's ready for warm weather in her Seashore dress. She is our little string bean so the slender style of this dress is a perfect fit.

Both girls love having dresses with pockets. They never put items in them, but love to stick their hands in to flare their dresses out.

Molly was given some money for her birthday. After watching Mary Poppins, she decided to buy her and her sister kites. She got herself a Hello Kitty one, and her sister a Cinderella one. Our yard has almost no trees, so it’s a great place to fly a kite.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t very windy on the first kite outing. That didn’t stop Leah, though. She had no trouble keeping her kite up while running as fast as she could around the yard.

Molly did lots of math at the toy store to figure out what she could afford with her birthday money. After picking out the kites, she still had a little money left. She wandered around for a long time trying to find something to use the last few dollars on. In the end, she chose to buy this extra-large lollipop which came with a stuffed giraffe wrapped around it. She was very excited to eat it after dinner.

Of course, a lollipop this big causes lots of silliness, including pretending it’s a musical instrument.

Yes, she ate the entire thing (minus a lick or two for her sister). Now it’s time for a bath.

The birthday party was so action-packed, there was no time for opening presents. So, after everyone left, Molly tore into them. She got lots of great presents, but the biggest one of all stood almost as tall as her. What could be in this giant present from Grams?

The number 1 item on Molly’s wish list - a telescope. One of her friends gave her a space book as well, so she’s ready to explore the universe.

Of course, what birthday would be complete without a photo-op with the maternal grands?

For her seventh birthday, Molly decided she wanted an American Girl tea party. Something fancy and fun and all the guests could bring their dolls with them. Of course, girls were welcome to bring any doll - not just American Girl ones.

Party prep

We created a banquet table for all 14 girls. Jen added the fancy decorations and place settings. She fixed fruit, muffins, turkey croissants, scones, and strawberry wafer cookies and stacked them on three-tier serving plates.

Molly requested chocolate cupcakes with pink icing. Jen obliged (but next time, no fancy pink wrappers that stained her baking pans and proved more difficult to unwrap!).

While brainstorming about the party, I thought the girls would have fun having a doll fashion show. They could dress up their dolls, walk them down the runway, and have their picture taken along the way by the photographer (me). So, I built this doll runway out of some plywood and 2x4’s, then Jen made a skirt and covering for it.

Tutus

The party began with a craft that the girls could work on as they arrived. Jen showed them how to make rainbow tutus for their dolls.

Haley was very focused on making her tutu.

Tea time

After making doll tutus, it was time for tea. Well, they didn’t actually drink tea. They had the option of hot apple cider or pink lemonade. Many actually chose the apple cider, though quite a few changed their minds after tasting the warm drink.

While the girls had tea, their dolls waited patiently on the couch with their bags in front of them.

Grace and Molly toast to a new year of life. May 7 be even more fun than 6.

The girls loved the goodies Jen had made. Abigail even asked Jen for the recipe for the scones.

As the girls had tea, the weather outside took an unexpected turn. We were expecting to have a rainy but relatively warm day. So, we were very surprised to look out the window during the party to find this. It ended up snowing most of the rest of the day, though it had been so warm that it all turned to slush quickly.

After tea, it was time for cupcakes and candles.

Bracelet making

After tea and cupcakes, we moved on to another craft - making bracelets. The girls each made two - one sized for them and another sized for their doll.

They picked beads out and strung them on clear plastic strands.

You have to be very careful to ensure the beads are close together but don’t bump out of place.

No goofing off here. Everyone is head down, hard at work.

Some of the beads had letters on them, which meant we all spent a lot of time searching for certain letters to spell names.

I don’t know how Haley pulls off this tongue trick.

Yes, it’s time for girls to make silly faces at the camera.

Nice face Molly. And nice job trying to steal the shot, Grace.

Fashion show

Next, all the girls got their dolls dressed for the fashion show. We have lots of doll clothes, so there was plenty for everyone to wear.

Cora is looking exceptionally sweet with her fashionable doll ready to go down the runway.

Time for the runway show. Of course, the birthday girl was up first.

Notice that Jen made Molly and her doll (also named Molly) matching dresses.

You may have also noticed my laptop in the above picture. To make the runway show more exciting, I gave the girls live photography. My camera uploaded pictures as I took them to my laptop. I wrote a small app for my laptop to notice the new pictures and display them on the TV on the wall. So, the girls not only got to walk the runway, they also got to see themselves on the big screen as they did so.

Leah was of course second in line. Jen also made Leah and her doll, Rose, matching dresses.

Camryn’s doll skated down the runway.

Abigail’s doll is ready for a masquerade ball.

Flowing colors surround Grace’s doll.

Maria’s doll was ready to head straight from the runway to the soccer field.

Cora’s doll has it all - hat, dress, necklace, and boots.

Elsa cooled the show down as Keira escorted her down the runway.

Riley’s doll Miranda is looking very elegant.

Alyssa lights up the room.

Haley found an outfit for her doll to match her own. Also, you can get a bit of a glimpse of the live fashion photography on the wall above.

Ariana’s doll is ready to take on the snow that’s falling outside.

14 girls, 14 dolls. Fun for all.

I think everyone had a great time. I don't know that I'll build platforms and write custom apps for every one of the girls parties, but it was definitely fun this time.