Two Mollys make a right

For her birthday, Gran got Molly an American Girl Molly McIntire doll. She had thought ahead and bought it for her back when they were retiring her.  She's pretty much in love with it and has dressed her in her night clothes and then back into real clothes for two nights in a row now. She came with the Meet Molly book which we have already read. When we finished the book, we talked about the moral of the story, which is basically two wrongs, don't make a right. A bit later, she was curled up in bed with her doll and she says "two Molly's make a right" Awe, so cute! Right?

Boxed up and ready for shipment.

Her birthday party was this past weekend. She had a blast with all her buddies.

Posing with her Elsa cake. After we sang, and she had blown out the candles, she staked her claim on the candles (licking them), saying "I want the candles!" Not missing a beat, Maggie said "I want the cake!".

Waiting for piñata candy. Thanks to Jessica for snapping this picture.

Some parents who are good at parties know where to get fancy piñatas (Elsa effigies). We don't plan ahead like that, so Molly got a donkey from Food City. She warmed up to it.

Hanging out with Lorelei

I've actually been pretty social lately! We went out for Ramsey's birthday...to Red's...an actual bar. Friends for 25 years! No way is that possible!

 Together for 16 years, married for 12 next month! No way is that possible!

Last week Allysia, Ramsey and I went to a BYOB painting class. It was really fun!

 

Check it out! Hahaha

We also went to lettuce days. Molly got a pony ride.

Have you met Maggie's evil twin?

 

  Molly's actual birthday is Wednesday! 6 years old! No way is that possible!

Cricket

Finally! Something happened that prompted me to get going and write a post! It's not that nothing has happened in the past few months, but nothing this good. It was completely random and unexpected too, so it makes it that much better. Today my dad came over with a treat for the girls. Salt and vinegar CRICKETS! so exciting! When he brought them out, Molly seemed disgusted (who can blame her?)and I was definitely not going to be the trailblazing good example of trying new things.  Plus, I don't like vinegar.  Molly then completely surprised me by popping one in her mouth with very little fanfare. I was unprepared for this, so here is the video of Molly's 2nd cricket.  It's a shame I didn't record the first one since it was more fully formed.
 
 Maggie came around eventually with a little persuading.

We're super lucky that we get to go to my childhood home 2 times a week almost every week. I'm there so much, I honestly don't even really feel nostalgic about it or anything. Here's Maggie helping in the Jordan garden, standing in front of my former playhouse.

Maggie is such a funny little thing. Her favorite song to sing, she has made up herself.  It's call "Fastest Baby" It goes "I'm the fastest baby!" repeated over and over and over. The other night, Jonny says to me "Maggie really takes that fastest baby shit seriously" and he's right, she does.  If they are racing to the bedroom and Molly beats her in there, she bursts into tears and screams "NO! You're not the fastest baby! I am! You're the SLOWEST baby." So hilarious.

Here she is with the muse for her fastest baby song, her tricycle.

Awe.

Don't let Gran see this picture

I'm pretty sure Ramsey is the inspiration for Molly's look.

It was kind of unexpected, but I love this cat.  She's seriously awesome.

Wrapping up a package

Trying to move it.

It's contents

She's seriously awesome.

Isn't it fun to have kids help in the kitchen? This is one of those things where fantasy doesn't mesh with the reality.  It's going to be 100 times messier and take twice as long and there's the possibility that at any moment they can completely destroy the recipe by dumping a whole package of salt into it. I'm hoping it gets better.

Molly got her ears pierced! She's wanted to for a long time and I have put her off.  One weekend she was particularly forceful and I think Jonny just got sick of listening to her.  So Jonny took her to Claire's and let her do it.  My mom told us of the doom and gloom that awaited us (In fairness to her, Mere's ear piercing story is pretty icky), but it's almost been 6 weeks now and we haven't had any problems. She of course got the Elsa's. Fair warning, Molly breaks a commandment in the video-Looking at you Bryn! hahaha.

Looking good!

I asked Maggie if she wanted hers done too, She's a definite "No!". It's funny though because she LOVES watching the video over and over.  I hate to say it but I think she's entertained by Molly's pain.

Jonny's such a good dad.  They all fell asleep watching a movie the other night.  The movie was likely terrible, so her really is a good sport.

Naps can strike at anytime.

Since the beginning of these posts almost 6 (yikes!) years ago, I have brought up our children's various terrible sleep habits at their various ages.  They are still not great sleepers and it has gotten to the point where Jonny just leaves our bed when one of them shows up.  Sometimes he goes to their room, but lately he's been trying out the guest cottage.  I should probably fix this mess, but I'm usually asleep, so it's difficult. I mention all this because the other night, I woke up and Jonny was standing and Maggie was in bed with me. I hadn't placed everyone yet, so I was asking him what he was doing, where he was planning on going.  He says to me that he's going to go over to the cottage and Maggie (seemingly completely asleep next to me) says "It's okay Daddy, I still love you." I don't know if she was really awake or just has some great sleep talk timing, but I was cracking up. Such little punks!

Storytime

My mom really felt strongly that I needed to write about all of Molly's tall tales.  She's really into storytelling and pretty much constructs a whole alternate version to every day at school.  They generally revolve around either her being ridiculed or awarded...being attended to.  One of my favorites is how one day she was so amazing at school that she surpassed her green status and had to change her card to purple.  She's also been "punched in the face" and she watched her 4th grade buddy's finger get stabbed with a knife. When pressed she'll usually admit she just having some fun.  It can take a lot though-you pretty much have to threaten to call the school and find out.  For example, I had to explain to her that if someone really brought a knife to school and then stabbed another student with it and no one knows...as an adult, I should probably notify someone.  It's starting to feel like some ghetto "Mulberry Street" story. My mom thinks it's funny because it reminds her of Chris.
Molly was legitimately awarded in November though.  She was Mustang of the month for her class! The better moms took pictures.  I didn't.  I think Mere might have one, but she's off with my mom being a world traveler.
Hold on, we've actually been taking pictures.  There's a ton here to get through.

Maggie's school picture turned out super cute. I normally see her crying at school, so this is a huge improvement.

We had family pictures taken a couple weeks ago.  They turned out pretty good, especially the ones of the girls.

Ugh, she's too photogenic.

Maggie was way more into pictures this year than she was last year.  This one is super cute, and it shows the personality that only we see.  She is such a punky little goofball at home, but as soon as she's in the company of strangers, she clams up.

We went up north and visited Granny.  While we were there we went with the Morris clan on the Polar Express train.  It was a good time and the kids were totally into it.

Getting ready to go!

The first gift of Christmas!-Still had the "made in China" sticker on it. Ha Ha Ha

Everyone more or less looking at the camera. Maggie gives it a thumbs up!

Poor Grayson is in for it. He may have been asking for it though. I didn't get a picture of it, but a little before this, he was stroking her hair while they looked out at the "North Pole".  Creepy? or Sweet? We don't know.

Don't let the cat in, she rolled in something.

Molly had her school performance on Tuesday.  I only have the pictures from before we left.  It was crazytown, so I didn't even try. They had the whole school up on and around the stage and between her location and our location in the auditorium I didn't even see her. Oh-Well.

Here she is practicing her singing stance.

And her curtsy.

Maggie's performance was tonight.  It was also crazytown, but this time we were assholes and made a spot for ourselves up front. We weren't sure she was even going to go up on the stage at all.  When I dropped her off she was crying and when they walked her out, she was still crying.  I let her sit with me and I think she decided I was close enough that she could see me, so it would be okay.  I'm glad she did since she actually sang and had a good time. 

"I'm a little snowman short and fat.  Here is my scarf and here is my hat."

Of course there was Santa! This is Maggie's 2nd Santa meeting and Molly's 3rd, just this month.  Santa is kind of everywhere now.  I feel like I saw Santa 1 or 2 times my whole childhood.  You used to have to go out of your way to see him, now he comes to you.

I see London I see France. this is her newest trick.  Kindergarten is teaching her lots of important things.  So far I kind of feel like this may be one of the most important things.  Everyday when I drop her off, she goes straight to the bars and starts hanging upside down and doing all sorts of crazy flips. 

 

Ok, it's possible that I should give Kindergarten credit for this too. I found this on the floor of my bedroom.  I asked Jonny and he didn't help her and I didn't either. It's by far the most complicated thing she's written by herself.  I love it so much. I love that it's song lyrics. I love that it's novelty song lyrics more. I love that it's Christmas novelty song lyrics the most.

Maggie and I got to go to school and help Molly make a graham cracker house.  It was fun.  They mostly focused on eating as much candy as they could while I was focused on trying to make it all stick better

 

Molly's now on break for 3 weeks! Lots of Christmas fun to come I'm sure.