Late to the game here, but you've got lots of good advice already. I played with copies of the photos (I will not post directly -
click here if you want to see), as I like to make sure that what I'm suggesting works first before posting. Your second set of edits are very close to what I'd recommend, but you went a little too far on the sharpening and the structure. They're little girls and you want them to look soft and bright.
I don't know what s/w you're using, but try and limit the sharpening to the girls (use unsharp mask). Also, vignette them a little against the background to make them stand out. I use a method I read in Photoshop User that works with PS or PSE that adds a very subtle vignette using layers and blend modes that you can read
here. It's
very subtle, but extremely effective in making the subject stand out without actually adding a traditional vignetted look. In this case, before applying the vignette, I duplicated the layer and softened the focus of the vignette layer portion using a blur filter to further emphasize the subject. You can use a subtle tilt-shift filter on the older girl to achieve a similar effect.
