Leah and her choir sang again this past Sunday.
After watching Leah sing, Molly headed off to Sunday School. We were surprised to see her a few minutes later serving as the acolyte. Apparently the girl who was supposed to do it didn’t show, so Molly was recruited on her way to Sunday School.
G’Mom and Grampa came in town for a visit, and their visit once again coincided with our elementary school’s Bingo night. We of course made it to Bingo, and Jen of course got Bingo again. Sadly, a kid did as well and the kid won the call-off (which also seems to always happen to Jen).
As a consolation prize for losing the call off, Jen got a Target gift card. Molly was still excited.
Madison just needs one more! (She sadly did not get it).
A fun night as always.
Our church youth group took a trip to Liberty (about an hour and 15 minutes away) to do some snow tubing. It was a youth trip, but adults that came along could bring their younger kids as well. So, our whole family went, as well as the girls’ friends who live behind us. Leah was happy to be included.
We had a great time. Hard to believe we live so close to snowy mountains and we’ve never done anything like this until now. Thanks to the Glen Mar youth group for setting this up.
We’ve had a lot of snow days this year. No big blizzard, but several days with enough to play in (and enough to need to shovel). Usually Jen and I do most of the shoveling, with perhaps a bit of kid help until they get distracted and start playing. This snow in late February was the first time they shoveled all the way until the end. That may have had to do with the offer of cash payment for their work…
Yesterday was Youth Sunday at Glen Mar. This was Molly’s first year classified as a youth (since she’s now in middle school), and she jumped in with both feet. She joined the planning committee putting together the services for the weekend, and also participated in all 3 services on Sunday morning. I’ll start with the 11:00 contemporary service (which is what we’re normally involved in), and then jump back to the traditional ones.
At 11:00, Molly joined the band. She’s sung with the band before, but this was her first time being the lead singer for a song. She was fantastic!
She also showed off her personality welcoming everyone at the beginning of the service, and of course helped out singing all the other songs as well. Nice job Molly!
But the 11:00 service was not the only service she participated in. At both our traditional services (8:00 and 9:30), she sang in Joyful Noise, our youth choir, and played in the youth orchestra.
So, she planned the services, sang in the choir twice, played in the orchestra twice, welcomed the congregation, and sang in the band including her first ever lead. I was a bit worried she was biting off more than she could chew (I mean, she’s just a 6th grader - barely in the youth group), but she did a great job at everything.
Molly sang with her choir in January.
In addition to her Concert Orchestra, Molly joined the Symphony Orchestra at school. This group includes 6th-8th graders, and combines strings with winds, brass, and percussion. They meet at 6:50am before school every Tuesday and Thursday, so these are some dedicated kids. And it was a joint concert with Leah's elementary school orchestra.
Here are our two orchestral musicians after their concert together.
After a late night, the girls didn’t wake us up too early in the morning. Once they got up, the first thing they found by their stockings was a smaller Squishmallow to join their larger one.
Unicorns and fleece onesies are all the rage, so these pajamas were a big hit.
Since Grams was in the hospital, we changed things up a bit. We all met up at our house to celebrate together. Our house was also conveniently the closest to Johns Hopkins hospital, making it easy for us to go see her for Christmas Day hospital visits. Sorry, no pictures from the hospital, though I do have pictures from our house.
Molly brought down her R2-D2 droid to entertain Max, and it certainly did capture his attention.
Even more surprising than moving the celebration to our house, our tradition-keeping family decided to go non-traditional. Tacos for Christmas were delicious (though there was still pumpkin pie for dessert).
After lunch, we opened presents. Charlie got a Squishmallow too.
Molly’s been saving her money to buy a Nintendo Switch for some time. She was much of the way before Christmas, and hoping Christmas would put her over the top to buy one. I knew she would get enough, so I secretly bought one on a Black Friday sale and hid it away. So, after getting enough money, she started asking when we could go somewhere to buy one. I promptly became the store of Chad and let her buy it right then. She was very excited.
That’s one happy girl ready for some fun.
Glen Mar decided last year's superhero-themed Christmas Eve service was so awesome, they had to do a sequel this year. Our family was heavily involved. I played guitar and led singing. Leah was one of the worship leaders and also sang in the choir. And Molly reprised her role as Wonder Woman. This video isn't the whole service - just the stuff the girls were involved in, which is admittedly almost the whole service.
Molly has her brown belt in karate, and is working toward her black belt. Part of that is passing tests to get three stripes removed from it. She had the first stripe removed back in June, and tested to have the second stripe removed in December.
Part of this test involves breaking boards. Molly’s been breaking boards for years in karate. However, after earning her brown belt, she moved up to trying to break 2 boards stacked on top of each other instead of just 1 board. Her first attempt to do this was back when she got her first stripe removed from her brown belt, but she wasn't able to do it. So, she’s worked hard between then and now to get ready for her second attempt. As you can see here, she does it perfectly. We’re so proud of you, Molly!
And she passed her test, removing another stripe from her brown belt and paving the way for her black belt test in June.
