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Molly and Leah went to a pool party on Saturday. I have been encouraging Leah to swim on her own ever since she did it with G'Mom. We're not sure what motivated her, but she finally did it! She was such a happy little swimmer.

She was so excited to show Daddy!

Leah and Matilda had a great time swimming together.

Leah is still working on kicking her legs to get her moving. Several times she got stuck because her little legs just weren't moving fast enough to combat the waves from other swimmers.

Even Keira, who's not a big swimmer, couldn't resist the fun of playing with Molly in the pool.

When it was time for cake, Molly was quick to take the seat next to one of the birthday girls. She did not hesitate to dig in to the cake either!

Nice smile, Leah, but your teeth look like you don't brush them.

Leah took the seat next to the other birthday girl. I guess our two girls think alike.

Appropriate for a pool party, I made the birthday girls swim cover-ups.

After the party, we actually joined the birthday girls for dinner as well, followed by the opening of presents. Rachel had to put her cover-up on right away, despite not having on her swimsuit anymore. I think she liked it!

The girls had a fun week with friends at Vacation Bible School. At the end of a fun and exhausting week they know that no matter what, trust God!

I taught Molly's class again, and we had a fun time learning, singing and dancing together. The singing and dancing extended into Molly's quiet time, which during VBS week was not so quiet! She sang this song over and over for almost 30 minutes one afternoon.

Leah got to experience part of VBS even while in the nursery. Several days she left the church declaring "That was a great day!" Leah had her own favorite song too. I recorded this one night sitting outside her door.

Did you know that July was National Blueberry month? In honor of that, the girls, some friends and I headed up to Larriland Farm to pick blueberries on Thursday. The hot weather didn't stop the kids from having a great time!

Leah was great at picking the blueberries, though not one actually made it into her bag.

The next stop was the red and purple raspberries. Clearly, Leah preferred the blueberries since there are actually raspberries left in her box! (Or it could have been that she had to share this box with Mommy!)

Looking for the perfect one!

I could have stayed all day picking fruit, but the kids had had enough. We now have blueberry ice cream to show for our efforts!

We decided to take the girls to see fireworks on the 4th of July for the first time. It meant staying up way past bedtime (which is normally not something we do in our house), but we threw caution to the wind and headed out. We joined Simon, Matilda, Keira, and Maya (as well as their parents) at UMBC to see the Catonsville fireworks.

We brought blankets, chairs, and snacks for pre-show fun on the UMBC field. This picture was taken before the sprinklers on the field came on and sent people running for cover. Thankfully, we were near the edge of the sprinkler range, so only got a little wet and only had to scoot a few yards to reach dry land.

Before the fireworks started, many of the others around us set off their own small fireworks. The kids thought this was great. They cheered and screamed for each one, and then immediately chanted for another when it was done.

Once it got dark enough, Stacie broke out glow wands and bracelets which were a huge hit, of course.

Here's Molly with a glow necklace, a glow bracelet, and a glow wand in her hair.

The fireworks were perfect. Close enough to see well without being so close as to scare the kids.

We'll definitely make this a tradition. The girls had a great time, and did remarkably well considering the very late evening.

As Chad mentioned, the girls had their first ballet recital this weekend. Here's Leah and her class of little ducks looking incredibly cute at rehearsal.

Leah's definitely got the moves.

Here's Molly's class rehearsing their dance to "If You Believe" from "The Whiz."

On recital night, the stage looked the same, but the audience was a lot bigger. Leah's on the lookout to find all of her fans in the sea of faces. In fact, she wandered off toward the front of the stage at one point during the performance looking through the audience to find her family. You never know what will happen when you put a 2 year old on stage, but Leah did great.

Molly, with her dance partner. It's important to curtsy and bow before beginning the dance.

So graceful.

Molly loved every minute of dancing.

Did I mention that the girls had some fans?

Molly and Leah both had their first ballet recital this weekend. I wasn't allowed to take video of the actual performance, but I did get to record the dress rehearsal, which was very similar except for the size of the audience.

The girls both did great. Leah loved the stage and the audience. She even wandered off a bit toward the front of the stage looking for all of her fans in the actual performance. Molly was the star of her show, as she knew what was supposed to be done and made sure others around her knew as well, both in the real performance and the rehearsal you see here.

What were the girls up to, you ask? My parents graciously offered to come stay with them while we were in the Bahamas. They had as much fun as we did!

They went to several different playgrounds…

Checked out the new Mr. Potato Head exhibit at Port Discovery…

Then spent an hour in the Wonders of Water exhibit.

Playing at the pool was another "must do" activity. They went twice over the weekend.

G'Mom worked her pool magic and Leah was finally willing to swim a bit all by herself!

And they popped in for a quick visit with Grams and Pop.

The girls did great without us for 5 days, with no tears or sadness about being apart for longer than ever before. That said, they were very excited to see us when we walked in the door. And we were just as excited to see them.

You can see more pictures from their days of fun here on Flickr. Thanks again G'Mom and Grampa for watching the girls. They loved every minute of it!

Our church had a Field Day on Sunday afternoon. So, naturally the first thing to do is excavate fossils, right?.

The sugar rush began with cotton candy. Yum!

Then they moved on to snow cones. Aunt Caroline came to hang out for a bit. She was great at holding Leah's hair out of her face to make snow cone eating easier.

Leah didn't want to be left out of the jumping rope fun.

Chasing friends with bubbles is fun too!

These may be for spinning, but Leah found them to be relaxing seats.

Or you can have your friends spin you around.

Leah enjoyed the slides and tunnels on the playground too.

Thanks Glen Mar for a fun field day! Let's make this an annual event, ok?!

The girls' ballet recital is coming up soon, but here's a sneak peek at our little duck from picture day.

And our pretty ballerina.

More to come soon…

Molly's last day at East Columbia Preschool was on Wednesday. Sniff, sniff. I can't believe she's heading off to Kindergarten in the Fall!

Sisterly love before heading off to school.

Molly had a fantastic year with Miss Kelly.

She's a preschool graduate!

We were all there to celebrate with her. If you want to feel like you were there too, watch the video of graduation here.

Molly and Jake have known each other since they were less than a year old, and here they stand together as preschool graduates.

Molly and her teachers for the year - Miss Jodi, Miss Kelly, and Miss Kathy.

A graduation isn't complete with a little advice from a great teacher.

So long for now ECP, but we'll be back in 2013!