Leah's first school picture. She looks so grown up.
When she got home with it, she had to show Chad that she had "looked at the camera". She was so excited. Perhaps she'll be more willing to look at the camera when he's behind it now.
As a 1st grader, Molly's very experienced at this now. And she is indeed wearing the School Photo dress I made her for picture day.
As all schools seem to do these days, Molly had a costume parade at her school. All the kids march around the blacktop so all the parents can see their costumes. (Leah's preschool paraded around too. See the video here.)
Leah is ready to go with her giant hair. Molly decided to get herself dressed, and we did not realize that she actually had her costume on backwards until we were walking to our neighbors house to start trick-or-treating. Oops!
We joined a bunch of our neighbors at our backdoor neighbors house before starting trick-or-treating. Here are most of the kids who met up to trick-or-treat.
The day after Halloween, Molly and Leah donated 4.5 pounds of candy to Operation Gratitude at our dentist office. The program sends care packages to troops serving overseas.
They also made Thank You cards to send with their candy. They were both eager to draw pictures and tell the soldiers "Thank You for protecting us."
Leah's preschool class learned some Halloween songs, just as Molly did 3 years ago. Leah was excited to show off her songs for us.
When we bought our new house, there were two things on our wish list that this house didn't have. 1. A double oven and 2. a screened-in porch. I was OK with letting go of the double oven, but the porch was something that Chad and I both really wanted. My sister's house has a screened-in porch and when we visit, it's so nice to eat outside or let the kids get some fresh air while still being close enough to keep an eye on them.
Our house had a nice size back deck, so we knew we had a good base to start from. The week after we moved in, we immediately started looking into expanding it and adding a screened-in porch.
After a 3 month wait, construction finally began last week.
Progress happened fast.
After only six days working, it's done! The new porch looks fantastic. We still need to add a fan and lighting (with the help of a very generous neighbor), and then we need furniture. We can't wait to use it. Spring come quick!
Sunday was our second day of Halloween festivities. We traditionally trick-or-treat Grams's house on Halloween, but given how late Molly gets out of school and the fact that Halloween is a school day, we had to move it up a bit.
We paused for a quick picture with Grams before heading back to church for more festivities.
After a two year hiatus, Trunk-or-Treat was back at our church. Before the treating began, there were some fun activities. Molly's making a spider from two hand tracings.
Leah had a bit of trouble eating the donut at the donut swing. She eventually got a bit, but then decided that was enough and pulled the rest off.
Then it was time to go outside to Trunk-or-Treat. There were lots of great cars with lots of treats. The girls' bags were full by the end.
Between Leah's wig and Pastor Matt's beard, there's a lot of hair in this picture.
Leah ended up winning a prize for one of the best costumes thanks to her giant hair. It's an impressive wig, but especially fun given her little head inside of it.
We picked up a couple of pumpkins from a neighborhood farm stand. This year, Molly and Leah were surprisingly happy to scoop out the insides.
"Look at all this goop!"
The girls each picked a design to carve. Molly traced her design onto her pumpkin before Chad carved it.
While Molly's pumpkin design choice was an easy one, Leah's was much tougher. I spent quite a while carving the intricacies of it.
The results…Rapunzel and a scary-face jack-o'-lantern.
We kicked off this year's Halloween festivities with our neighborhood's Fall Festival on Saturday. Molly requested that I make her a Belle dress (from Beauty and the Beast). Leah has been talking about being Merida (from Brave) for months, so we borrowed a crazy Merida wig from a friend to complete the look. Leah kept asking, "Why do you keep laughing, Mom?" I just couldn't get over all that hair!
The neighborhood party included a costume parade. Molly and Leah walked hand in hand.
They then decorated some pumpkins,
which included stickers and markers for decorating.
There was also a DJ who did lots of fun activities. Molly did not want to participate in the hula hoop contest, but she did want to play with them after it was over. Yes, she's hula hooping with 4 hoops there.
They had 2 moon bounces - 1 traditional one for those 4 and under, and one obstacle course for the bigger kids. Molly must have gone through this 50 times. She had so much fun!
I chaperoned Leah's first field trip at ECP to Tridelphia Farm. As we walked to the corn field, Leah's buddy observantly stated, "Ms. Jen, those corn stalks don't look so good." So true, but that's where the good stuff was hidden.
Leah had fun finding her hidden treasure too. Popcorn!
We took a short hay ride over to another field full of goodies.
Little pumpkins, perfect for the preschool types.
Molly had a couple days off from school, so we spent a long weekend in Memphis with my family. Friday morning, we headed to some nearby trains to play. I think this one is haunted with the ghost of Leah.
Kids and grandparents, on an old train.
A festive photo.
JJ loves his "Yayyee".
The trains were right beside a lovely square with pretty red flowers,
and lots of room to run!
These girls had so much fun together.
So much so that Molly just had to jump for joy!
JJ's getting pretty good at playing with Legos.
We decided to go bowling with the whole family while in Memphis. Leah and Molly loved it. Leah needed a bit of help, but was excited to bowl the entire time.
We had to keep telling Molly to be patient for the guard to lift because she was so excited to bowl that she couldn't wait.
Not sure if this was a spare or a strike, but Chad caught the excitement either way.
We had a night-time dance party at G'Mom and Grampa's house. What you can't see is that the room was dark except for a small disco ball.
Leah is doing The Raspberry Scare, while Emmie is doing Pretzel Arms.
I made Molly a new corduroy dress just in time for Fall pictures at school. Coincidentally, the Oliver + S pattern is called the School Photo dress.
Molly thinks it's funny to trick people with her pocket.
I also made Leah a new corduroy dress. After trying it on, Leah asked if she could leave it on to play. Guess she likes it!
