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It’s been a while, so we decided to have a photoshoot of the girls out on our porch.

For the photo geeks out there, most of these pictures were taken with my brand new Speed Booster. The head shots were taken with it combined with my Canon FDn 100mm f/2 (making a 71mm f/1.4) and many of the later shots used it combined with my Canon FDn 50mm f/1.4 (making a 35mm f/1.0). That said, I stopped down a good bit on all these to ensure I had enough depth of field for the whole shot.

On to the pictures. First, a head and shoulders shot of Molly.

Leah is still the queen of silly faces. This can be loads of fun when taking pictures, but sometimes challenging if you just want a simple smile.

Try again for a smile, get a different silly face.

We did eventually get a smile.

Even better. A happy little girl.

Leah’s ready to head out to her last day of preschool this year.

She looks much more grown up than she did at the beginning of this year.

For fun, here she is on the first day of preschool the year before. Wow, they grow up fast.

Some folks from our street and the street behind it gathered for some Memorial Day weekend fun at our neighbors two houses down from us. We had food and fun on a beautiful day.

The kids had fun with water. Molly really liked these water sprayers.

When I tried to photograph Leah with the water sprayer, she decided she should spray me. I thought I was out of range. I was wrong.

Nine days after my birthday, it was Jen’s turn. She seems a bit surprised by Molly’s gift of some Bluetooth headphones.

Jen appreciated Leah’s gift so much, she needed a squish kiss.

The evening of Jen’s birthday we went to Grams’s house to celebrate both Jen and my birthdays with my family.

Aunt Caroline brought back a bunch of gifts from Costa Rica, including birthday gifts for Jen and me, this book she's reading to the girls, and the wooden frog instruments the girls are holding.

Our church is now 60 years old, and we had a big celebration. We had a cookout, a DJ, an Irish band, and a bunch of other fun stuff. There was even a silly photo booth complete with props.

The celebration also included fun activities from Club Scientific like this rocket. It's similar to a stomp rocket, but uses a bike pump and flies a lot higher (up to 1,000 feet).

These screaming rocket balloons were a big hit with Leah and Molly. They just kept inflating them and then letting them fly over and over.

The balloons didn't fly too quickly, but they could go pretty high.

Leah also took a turn on the rocket.

I'm not sure what was so funny.

Ready to launch.

They also had a fossil dig set up for some junior archaeology, which Molly and Simon really enjoyed.

Leah and Matilda took a break from playing on the playground to watch a Chinese lion dance going on next to the playground.

The lion dance (and accompanying Kung Fu demonstration) captured the attention of the girls and adults alike.

The celebration was a lot of fun, and jam-packed with stuff to do. There was a lot more that we didn't have a chance to participate in (corn hole toss, dizzy bat tricycle race, kickball, and more). Perhaps we should celebrate like this every year.

The Cherub Choir sang in church for the last time this school year. Molly will graduate to an older choir in the fall, so this was her last time singing with the Cherubs.

I accompanied them, meaning that Molly, Leah, and I were all together. Hopefully we'll get to do it again in a little over 3 years, when Leah is in second grade and old enough to be in the same choir as Molly.

We headed to Molly’s school again this weekend to take advantage of the blacktop and playground. They started by riding their bikes on the nice, flat blacktop, but then switched to playing hopscotch.

I told Leah to see how high she could jump in hopscotch.

Molly soared on the hopscotch course as well.

On to the playground, so Molly can flip things upside down.

The girls wanted to pose in the playground windows. And, yes, Leah was determined to keep her bike helmet on the entire time. I guess she wanted to be ready to hop back on her bike at a moment’s notice.

Leah’s waiting expectantly at the bottom of the slide.

It’s so great to be able to play outside like this again.

The girls have gotten back into Lego Friends, and they used some Toys R Us gift cards to get some new ones. Here's Leah with her newly constructed rehearsal stage and jet ski.

Molly still keeps her tongue out while working on detailed tasks. So, it was out pretty much the whole time she built this sports car.

Molly like her new Legos. Ignore the wimpy thumbs up.

It’s official. I’m old. Old enough to be the President of the United States. For the big day we went to a fancy dinner at Mediterranean fast food restaurant Garbanzo for a preschool fundraiser, then headed home for presents and cake. The girls gave me a gift certificate for some new glasses to replace the ones that shattered when hit by a basketball a couple weeks ago.

Naturally, when G'Mom and Grampa sent a package with presents, the girls are not left out. These new shirts and a new book were part of the fun.

It's a good thing we don't have another kid to blow from the 4th direction. Otherwise, all our breaths might have canceled each other out.

Molly is back in lessons at the swim school, and this time she’s brought her sister along for the fun.

The girls are doing fantastic, with new firsts every lesson. Molly swam the length of the pool for the first time here.

Not long ago, she wouldn’t put her face in the water. Now Molly is swimming with her head down.

Leah got to wear flippers for the first time, which was loads of fun.

Molly’s getting pretty good at making a splash when jumping in the pool.

Hopefully, this will make summer swimming season much more enjoyable for both of them.