thesellers.net

We had soccer practice again (twice in one week, actually), and Molly did great. This week she started making it through the whole hour participating the entire time. If you missed it, Chad posted a video sampling of the practice.

One of the favorite games - knocking down cones with the soccer ball.

Because Molly did so well, she and Daddy got an after practice treat. A blue snowball was a perfect choice on this hot day.

Our N week began during our weekend roadtrip to North Carolina. We went to visit Grammy for her 80th birthday.

Again, our week was short due to our trip, but we did make our N for nest,

watched Finding Nemo,

and worked on learning family names. I created flashcards of all our names. Molly then used milkcap letters to spell them out.

You can check out what other moms are doing with their tots at 1+1+1=1.

Here's a sampling of one of Molly's soccer practices. 5 kids were there, but Molly and Elijah were the only two who played the whole time, which is why there are fewer kids in most of the shots.

We went to Highlands, NC to visit Grammy (Chad's paternal grandmother) for her 80th birthday. Molly was very excited to get to see Grammy's house, though she was confused when we arrived and she discovered we actually weren't staying in her house but rather in a rented house nearby (there are a lot of us, now).

Leah was enamored with Will (and Stephen Colbert) throughout the trip. I'm not sure which one she's interested in here.

We had a bunch of family over to the house Saturday to celebrate. At times, Leah was of course the center of attention.

There were so many people there, Caroline and I decided to make more room by squishing Molly.

Molly was responsible for the card on our gift to Grammy.

And Grammy thought the bag I made for her was a great surprise.

The house was pretty cool much of the time, which meant blankets were in frequent use. Unfortunately, though, we had a blanket thief occasionally stealing them.

It was so nice out we decided to have dinner on the back porch one night. Yes, that's the dining room table and chairs.

Monday, we went out to lunch at Wild Thyme to celebrate Grammy's birthday again on her actual birthday. They brought Grammy a big piece of caramel cake for her birthday, but she didn't want dessert. So, Molly ate almost the entire piece for her.

Leah didn't get any cake, so she seemed a bit bored.

Though she perked up when we pulled out a toy phone for her.

The drive down and back both went really well. We only had to stop 5 times each way and managed to make the trip in 11.5 hours both times. To maximize efficiency, we packed a lunch and ate at a rest area in both directions. Here's Leah hanging out at the rest area.

Molly preferred to run around during her brief break from the car.

Our X week was very short due to a long weekend trip. I tried to get Molly to show her X like Vanna White, and this is what we got!

Finding things to do during X week proved to be a challenge. (I chose not to use xylophone since it does not phonetically sound like x.) Here Molly is water coloring over a crayon tracing to create a wax resistant painting.

You can check out what other moms are doing with their tots at 1+1+1=1.

Our normal Saturday soccer practice was cancelled due to a tournament going on. This was supposed to be Simon's first Saturday joining us, so we improvised and met them at the field nearby to have a bit of a soccer practice of our own. Zach had to keep moving the goal away from them, for reasons that will become apparent in the next picture.

Once Zach set down the goal, the kids decided it was more fun to play in it than to play soccer. They did this over and over when the goal was out.

It wasn't just 3 year olds and dads out there. Moms and little sisters joined the fun as well.

Molly's continued to enjoy playing with bubbles. Here she is with Caroline and Will blowing, popping, clapping, stomping, and ducking bubbles.

Molly pulled out her Crazy 8 cards and asked, "Can we play patterns?" It was the perfect impromptu game to start off our P week.

We made a pink pig for our P craft.

After 2 attempts to get the dough right, we were finally able to make whole wheat soft pretzels. Molly helped me roll them, "paint" them with egg whites and sprinkled them with salt.

We made some bubble wrap prints,

and finally played with the pattern blocks she got for her birthday.

Molly had so much fun painting with our homemade puff paint. You can see a video of her painting here.

For our stART project, we made blueberry pancakes just like Curious George in Curious George Makes Pancakes.

You can check out what other moms are doing with their tots at 1+1+1=1.

Molly has really gotten into playing with my iPad. A few of her favorites are The Cat in the Hat, Word Magic, Draw, iWriteWords, Virtuoso Piano, and Pages. I'm amazed at how well a 3 year old can pick up a touch interface (as compared to, say, a keyboard/mouse interface). This video is of her typing away in Pages. The first time I showed it to her, she wanted to change the colors of the letters. So, I went through the menus and changed the colors. The next time, she did it all by herself (as you can see here).

Just a little dancing from Molly before bedtime. In case you were wondering, the song is on The Backyardigans: Robot Repairman, which Molly has really enjoyed.