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Chad set up a little photo studio in our house for some family pictures. The primary purpose was to have some pictures to print for use at preschool by Leah, but I thought I'd share a bunch here with all of you.

The girls took turns telling jokes to make everyone smile (or laugh with a wide open mouth in the case of Leah).

Our little family.

Of course, there were requests for taking a silly one.

Or two.

Just one more…

We also needed some shots of Leah by herself.

What a cutie!

Leah is the master of big faces, but it's unusual for her to just smile gently.

This is more the norm - a big and bold smile.

I've been asked several times recently, "What did you do this summer?" We moved. Period. End of story.

However, we did take advantage of the beautiful summer we've been having and took a day trip to our favorite nearby theme park, Dutch Wonderland. We began our adventures above the park on the Sky Ride.

We then hopped on the Joust Family Coaster. Despite doing OK on it last year and looking excited to do it this year, Leah did not enjoy the ride.

Molly, on the other hand, loved the little coaster.

Both girls enjoyed the Leapin' Frogs.

The Panda Party was fun too.

They got to ride a pony as well. Molly took the larger one.

Leah took the smaller pony, which was just the right size for her.

The Fun Slide is one of the girls favorite things to do.

They didn't miss the Merry-Go-Round either. And yes, that's me on it with them (this picture sponsored by Dramamine).

We ate lunch at Merlin's Restaurant. After lunch, Merlin did a magic trick for Molly that amazed her.

Leah was sure that she would not be outsmarted by the trick, but to her surprise the ball in her hand magically became two.

Leah wasn't big enough to ride the Flying Trapeze yet, but Molly and Chad had fun on it.

Unlike the little girl next to her, Molly was excited to ride the Frog Hopper. After the ride, Molly looked a little less excited and a little more nauseous.

The girls may not look it, but they're actually aspiring monster truck drivers.

We took in a high-diving show of the frog prince. It included some impressive diving from the frogs and the princess.

Molly had fun on the Wonder Whip, though perhaps less so than she had last year with her buddy.

We went for a drive on the Sunoco Turnpike. Leah and I took one car and Molly and Chad took the next.

A nice, relaxing drive.

To end our day, we took a ride on the monorail.

I took the girls down to Brookside Gardens and Wheaton Regional Park. There are no butterfly pictures because Molly and Leah kept exclaiming, "These butterflies are freaking me out!" But at the park, Molly and Allison loved climbing to the top of this jungle gym.

Before heading home, the girls took a spin on the merry-go-round (thanks to Amanda!). The park also has a train, and picnic grounds. It was a fun day with friends.

Another summer adventure - picking blueberries at Larriland Farm with playgroup friends. Everybody's ready to get started!

Leah wasted no time finding the perfect blueberries.

It's always more fun to hang out in the middle of the blueberry bushes with friends.

This is the way you must eat freshly picked blueberries.

After the blueberries, we moved on to picking purple and red raspberries. Leah took her job very seriously, inspecting her raspberries for the perfect color.

When we started looking for a house, the girls had only a couple of requests. First, they wanted to share a room and have bunk beds. Secondly, they wanted that room to be pink. They already got their bunk beds, but their room was a very boring neutral color. So, as we got ready to paint a bunch of rooms in our new house, we knew the first one to tackle would be theirs.

The girls wanted pink, but Jen was not up for in-your-face Pepto-Bismol pink. So, Jen found this very pale shade of pink called anemone from Sherwin Williams. Since it was their room, the girls both helped with the painting.

They painted for a little bit at the start, but then they got tired. I figured that might be all they did, but they proved me wrong. After a bit of a break, the girls returned with renewed spirits saying they wanted to paint some more.

They even livened things up with an impromptu song.

Here's the finished room. The girls love that it's pink, and Jen loves that it's a bit more subtle than your average pink room.

Molly and Leah were both able to participate VBS this year. They had a great week at Kingdom Rock, where kids stand strong for God! Jen taught Leah's preschool class, while Molly moved up to the Elementary group, finally getting to fully participate in all the awesomeness of VBS. Per tradition, the kids sang a couple of their songs in church the Sunday following VBS for your and my enjoyment.

We got together with Chad's family for a 4th of July BBQ, and Grams made this patriotic red, white, and blue trifle. Yum!

We didn't see any fireworks on the 4th of July, but we did go with friends to the Laurel fireworks the following Saturday. Molly loves fireworks, and spent most of the time with expressions of amazement on her face.

We weren't too close to the fireworks, but they were still loud. Leah was not a fan of this. Fortunately, she mellowed after a few minutes, and decided to enjoy watching them while covering her ears.

Leah even decided to take her hands off her ears after a little while (as long as they didn't get too loud).

Most of the fireworks ended up bringing a smile to Leah's face and a gasp of joy to Molly.

Both girls took swimming lessons for a week. Unlike her older sister, Leah's got no problems with the pool. She loved her swimming lessons.

The teacher's got to be a good swimmer to swim with 3 preschoolers on her. The other girl in her class was scared and crying, but Leah was having a great time.

Molly did OK in her lessons, but is still scared of putting her face in the water. She does great as long as she doesn't have to go under, but absolutely refuses to put her face in. So, after making no real progress in the lessons, we've enrolled her in lessons at MarTar Swim School since they specialize in helping kids with water anxiety issues. We'll see how helpful they can be.

Even though Molly is hesitant in the water, she still loves to go to the pool. She's been dying to go to our new neighborhood pool. So, finally last week we made it one afternoon. Leah's brave swimming needs to rub off on her big sister! Click here to see a video of Leah swimming.

We have moved to our new house! We packed the boxes, but hired Perry Moving to move everything. They managed to load the truck, drive to the new house, and unload everything in just over 6 hours. We were amazed with how quick they did it and the brute strength of these guys. Well worth the money to not do it ourselves!

Chad made sure to have the girls' new bunk beds set up in the new house for our first night there, and they were so excited. The first few days were a bit of a transition period getting them to actually go to sleep, but they are doing great with it now.

KyKy's Hawaiian Ice is just outside our neighborhood, so we quickly ventured over to try it out.

No, Molly's not wearing makeup, but this raspberry ice works just as well as lipstick.

The week after we moved, Molly join two of her friends, Allison and Sydney, at Art Camp. They explored art through books and had a great week.

At the end of the week, the kids presented their artwork in an art show. Molly was excited to show us everything she had made.

For this year's ballet recital, Leah and her class were snowflakes dancing to "Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Winter." She did great… at the rehearsal, which is where these pictures are from. At the actual performance, she was in a mood and refused to do most of the dance. Ah, 3 year olds.

Snowflakes fall.

Happy ballerina

And… bow.

Molly and her class danced to "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast.

Nice moves.

"We tell jokes! I do tricks with my fellow candlesticks."

Molly is one of the smallest in her class. The class she was supposed to be in didn't have enough girls, so they combined it with the next class up. She did great, though.

"Heaven's sakes! Is that a spot?"

Mid-air.

Beautiful dancing, Molly.

Ready to kick.

Finishing pose.

Grams joined us for the performance.

Leah was still in a mood after the show, but we eventually got her to cheer up a bit.

You can see the video of both performances here.

The girls had their ballet recital yesterday. They won't let me shoot video in the actual performance, but I was able to shoot the dress rehearsal the day before. It ended up being a good thing, as Leah was in a bad mood for the actual performance and refused to do much of her dance. Ah, 3 year olds.