thesellers.net

Per Molly’s request, we went to Red Robin (one of the only places around that still sings for birthdays) for her family birthday dinner with the Sellers side. Molly made this birthday hat for herself to make sure the staff there knew it was her birthday.

Leah had fun playing with Aunt Caroline much of the evening.

As they always do, Aunt EA and Uncle Scott entertained with a singing card. Unfortunately, Red Robin is too loud to hear it, but we’ve heard it many times since we got home.

It was a monster-themed evening, including some Monsters University toys like Art here.

Molly also got both the new Monsters University as well as the original Monsters, Inc.

Our real reason for being there was of course the singing and sundae for a birthday girl.

You can even relive the magic in this video of the singing.

Sunday was Molly's actual birthday, so we opened some presents in the morning before church, including a couple of jump ropes.

Leah gave Molly a couple of hula hoops. While Molly can spin these crazy fast, when Chad and I gave it a go, hilarity ensued. I laughed so hard my sides hurt!

Molly also opened the present from Aunt ‘Chelle’s family while video conferencing with them. We did this for Emmie's birthday, and the kids really love seeing each other's reaction to the gifts.

G’Mom and Grampa came in town to celebrate Molly’s birthday, and they arrived with some fancy My Little Pony puzzles in hand.

Leah had no trouble with the puzzle, except that her hair was constantly in her face. Of course, she still refused a clip or headband to solve the problem.

Molly had a half day of school on Friday, so she requested to spend the free afternoon painting pottery. G’Mom did a nice job supervising.

This was Leah’s first ever figurine to paint. She very patiently waited for each of the three coats to dry of several different colors. And Grampa was very patient with helping a 4-year-old paint.

While G’Mom and Grampa assisted the girls, I took the opportunity to paint a piece of my own.

On Saturday, Molly showed off her reading skills for G’Mom with a Junie B. Jones book.

Then, it was game time. I don’t think Leah appreciated G’Mom skipping her in this game of Uno.

Molly’s excited about playing a wild card.

Leah played one hand on her own, but then she decided to help Grampa.

Hooray! Molly wins!

Dinner can be an amusing time in our house, especially when there are exciting birthday events looming. Here's a peek into a couple of those dinners.

I’m not sure why Molly seems to be pretending to have a chin injury with her napkin.

When you’re making a silly face, it’s easy to miss that you’re using the wrong end of your fork.

Magic utensils, no hands necessary.

This is not the way she’s supposed to eat ice cream.

Ice cream causes silly faces in Leah. As does everything else.

We've had lots of fun around here lately. First up - International Night at Molly's school. The whole family went and had lots of fun tasting different foods, checking out toys from different countries, and watching performances from different cultures.

Molly has now lost all four of her lateral incisors in the last two months. None of their replacements have shown any signs of coming in yet, so she’s got some nice gaps in her mouth.

Friday was Wacky Hair Day at Molly’s school, and Molly was excited to join in the fun. Jen found an idea to use pipe cleaners to turn up the fun, and added them in to Molly’s pigtails. I was surprised that they stayed in all day.

Our girls often take way too long to eat dinner. So, we’ve instituted a system where we have a dinner timer. If they beat the timer, they get a sticker on a chart. After collecting five stickers, they get to pick a place to go out for dessert. Our first dessert excursion was to my favorite gelato place - Cafe Di Roma.

The girls liked combining Leah’s birthday cake gelato with Molly’s raspberry gelato. From Leah’s face, it looks surprisingly good.

We made the trek down to Montgomery County to the home of the Kentobeans for a gathering with a bunch of friends. The Dunbars, our friends who moved away to Texas a couple years ago, were in town to visit. The party was lots of fun, but I forgot my camera. The girls got these party gifts, which they love. So, I photographed them after we got home.

Molly’s mad scientist and Leah’s robot look evil to me when seen up close.

Thanks to the Kentons for hosting such a fun gathering (and supplying such wonderful parting gifts). It was great to see the Dunbars (and everyone else).

For much of the winter, Molly has been doing a gymnastics unit in P.E. at school. At the end of the unit, they invited parents to come in to see all they had learned. Here she is with her friend Grace ready to do some cartwheels.

Nice cartwheel, Molly.

It didn’t last long, but she did a nice headstand.

It's so nice to live right next to school, so I can walk over to see what she's up to. Next time, I might even find out the right time to be there so I don't show up half an hour early ;).

After so much snow and such extreme cold, this past weekend was incredibly nice with temperatures approaching 60. So we broke out the bikes and scooters and headed over to the blacktop at Molly’s school.

It was so warm that it melted the snow and ice, except for the stuff piled up on the side. It felt funny to be playing outside in the warmth on a blacktop surrounded by large walls of snow.

Leah was given this little bike by her friend Matilda last Fall, but didn’t get a chance to ride it before the cold. She wanted a little help at first since she had never really ridden a bike before, and Jen was happy to oblige.

Eventually Leah was doing it mostly herself with Jen fading into the background.

Leah in silhouette and shadow. I love her pose here. Makes her seem so much older than four.

She's a hopscotch champion. Leah may have a couple years before she’s in elementary school, but she’s already ready for recess. Please excuse the missed focus; she was moving very quickly.

Molly found a bit of chalk and drew a little, then gave it to Leah. Leah was more into it and stayed focused on drawing for some time.

Leah’s drawing a sun here with her tiny remnant of chalk in her little fingers.

Leah decided a fun game was to try to run into me with her bike. I had to snap this quickly before fleeing her attack.

By the end, Leah was getting around on her bike pretty well.

After an hour or so on the blacktop, we moved to the playground. Molly’s love for monkeys has turned her into a master of the monkey bars. Note that proper swinging technique includes sticking out your tongue at all times, even if your hair is in your face.

Slides are fun, whether they be twisty...

or straight.

While these pictures may look like Leah is posing for me, she is actually trying to avoid my camera. She would run by, briefly glance at me to taunt me, then disappear down the slide. Fortunately, I’m pretty quick and managed to catch her taunt a few times.

This time, Molly decided to help me by capturing Leah before she could run away from the camera.

We very much enjoyed our day of fun in the sun.

Of course, after our weekend of warmth, we've already had snow on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Just 2 or 3 inches between the two days, but still a dramatic turn from our warm weekend.

As Chad mentioned, Molly has requested an American Girl party for her upcoming birthday. The girls asked if I'd make them new dresses for the occasion. Molly picked the Caroline Party Dress for the tea party.

As requested, the dresses have pockets.

Sometimes making up funny stories behind the camera makes for a funny photo shoot.

Of course, for an American Girl doll tea party, the dolls need new (and matching) dresses too. I had to get a little creative for these and modified the Mini-Miss Mary Mack doll dress to match.

Rose and Molly, can you please stand still? It can sometimes be difficult to get these two to cooperate. ;)

Saturday, Jen told Leah she had a surprise for her, and she needed to close her eyes. She’s a bit excited about it.

It’s her very own American Girl doll!

Leah’s a bit shocked.

"She’s so beautiful."

I think she’s excited.

This girl loves her new doll.

Jen’s been looking for an American Girl doll for Leah for some time, but she really wanted to find one before Molly’s upcoming American Girl birthday party. Jen found a friend who had this doll as a girl and had saved it for her daughters, but ended up having all boys. She was happy to pass it on to a little girl nearby, and Leah was happy to have her.

Leah decided to name her Rose Jane McIntire. McIntire is the last name of Molly’s American Girl doll, and the girls have decided that Rose is her sister. The two dolls have been in constant use the past couple of days, and generally wear at least 8 outfits over the course of the day.

For Christmas, Jen gave me a Valentine’s Adventure at Terrapin Adventures. This is a special couples event they hold around Valentine's Day. When she signed us up, she didn't realize we would have had three days of serious snow falling. It snowed again the morning of our adventure, but not heavily. It was forecasted to stop around the time we were set to start, but it didn't. Instead, we got a steady dose of light snow throughout our three hours outside.

Jen’s suited up in her helmet and harness, ready to go. I'm especially proud of her for going, as she was not looking forward to being out in the snow and cold.

And here we go. Jen’s up on the first level of the High Ropes Course, ready to go. Guess I need to get up the ladder.

Nice work balancing, Jen.

Here we are, up high on a ropes course as the snow gently falls. Not our typical date, but certainly very fun.

Climbing across the cargo net was a serious workout.

You get pretty high up on this course - about 40 feet off the ground. At that height, the wind can make the whole course sway, adding a bit of extra challenge to it.

Jen's just hanging around.

Carrying a nice camera around on a high ropes course can be a bit challenging, but Jen gave me a break for a bit of the third level. So, here I am hanging around way up high.

You have to bend your knees to balance on these platforms 40 feet in the air. A few things to note about this picture:

1. Despite what it looks like, I don’t really have to pee.
2. It’s hard to see it’s snowing and windy in this picture, but you can see the streaks of two flakes blowing in front of my coat and my hat blowing
3. I probably should have double-knotted my left shoe.

After the High Ropes Course, we went on the Giant Swing. It’s a 40 foot tall swing for multiple people. You’re pulled up by a winch, then chop a rope to swing. The initial drop was a lot more than I was expecting, and it made Jen a bit queasy. I still thought it was fun. I'm not so sure Jen would agree.

We then moved on to the Zip Line. I don't have any pictures of it, but it is featured in the video below.

Our last stop (after the unpictured zip line) was the tower.

We climbed a tiny bit, but we were both tired and our fingers were frozen from being outside for three hours. So, we headed in for some hot chocolate and Hershey’s Kisses.

Pictures are nice, but if you want an idea of what it was really like, video is much better. Here's a taste of the fun.

In addition to the fun activities, they held a raffle for a gift card to Rams Head Tavern and we won! We were up on the second level of the ropes course when they shouted our names.

The plan for the second half of our date was a bit more traditional - dinner out. We headed to RG's BBQ Cafe, a new restaurant that's supposed to be great. Jen had bought a Groupon for it and we were looking forward to checking it out. Sadly, it was closed. It should have been open, so we're not sure why it was closed. Our only guess was that it had to do with the weather.

So, we turned around and headed back to Savage Mill to the Rams Head Tavern. Instead of using the Groupon, we used our newly acquired gift card to get a yummy dinner.