Teens see strange light formation over Oxford, Mississippi

While a parent is driving, two teens see a group of lights above the tree tops off of Old Sardis Road in Oxford, Mississippi. 
Note: Minimal corrections for spelling. To see the original report, click on case number.
Above Illustration by SW.

Picture drawn by 16 year old daughter, after the sighting.

MUFON Case #  23178
Date:    04/22/2010
Time:    21:24
City:    Oxford
State:    Mississippi
Shape:    Disc,Oval,Saturn-like
Summary:    children see UFO at treetop level outside the car while going down the road   

Report:
My oldest two children and I were returning from a school oriented event on the evening of April 22, 2010. We just left a main road in town; West Jackson Ave., to another, lesser road: Western Hills, as a short cut towards my parents' and my own home just off Old Sardis Road.
We passed through a police roadblock that was checking drivers' licenses and driver sobriety a few minutes past 9:00PM. Just shortly after leaving the checkpoint, on down the road out of sight of the roadblock, My oldest daughter, who was in the middle row seat in the back of the minivan, suddenly said in a breathy type voice:"Oh my God! It'ssssss ... a spaceship! Mom! A Spaceship!"
My teenage son, who was riding shotgun, was looking up on his side of the car and started to squeal: "It's HUGE! OH MY GOD IT'S SO BIG!"
Naturally, I am trying my best to look and see whatever it is that has got the kids so excited. All I saw was a flash of an orange light near the top of my windshield's passenger's side. I am all over the road trying to see this thing, my daughter in the back seat is starting to cry and getting a little hysterical. My son is twisting around in his seat so much to continue to see this thing, that I fleetingly wonder if he is going to give himself whiplash. He is also jumping up and down as much as the seat belt will allow and also semi-hysterical. Both are talking at the same time and I could not make out whole sentences.
At the same time I am trying to control the urge to keep looking for whatever it is in the sky, I am still traveling down a curvy road in the dark. So, I have to give up trying to see it and concentrate on where I am going. Luckily, there is no traffic coming my direction.
We enter part of the road where the trees block any sight line the children have, and when we emerge from it, the object was gone.
When I get to the intersection of Western Hills and Old Sardis Road, I pause to look back and see if we can catch any sight of the object. There is nothing. I try to rule out things by asking the children questions about the object. We are not far from Oxford's airport, and I was almost positive the kids saw a plane banking to land at the airport. I realize that if it was a plane, I would have heard the sound since my window was still all the way down from going through the roadblock. The size of the object described and put in relation to a plane banking would have made it impossible to miss the sound of a plane's engines.
I ruled out hot air balloon, air plane, street lights, storm clouds, automobiles, ... you name it. Also, note that in the amount of time from when my daughter saw the object first, to when I paused to look back where I had a good view of the tree line, was just a couple of minutes. Any of those things I described except maybe a plane or automobile, would still be nearby, but there was nothing.
After a couple more minutes looking around for anything to pop up, I started the van towards my parent's house to pick up my youngest daughter who was not feeling well enough to attend the event with us that evening.
I have to admit, I was terribly creeped out by this event, but at the same time, incredibly jealous that the kids saw this thing and I didn't. We live in a very rural type neighborhood and the thought of driving home in the dark was a bit uncomfortable. This thought was echoed by my kids and another almost hysterical outburst was displayed by both. I explained to them I was sure that if THEY wanted us they had an excellent opportunity to get us back there, and to not to worry about things they had no control over. This did not go over very well.....
Upon reaching my parent's house, my son and daughter ran inside and was telling my folks all about what they saw and trying to describe it. I stopped them and told them to each get a piece of paper, go into different rooms, and draw what they saw. ( I have added pics of the children's drawings) I did not since I really didn't see anything but maybe a flash of orange light. It wasn't very bright, but enough you would notice. The roof of the van blocked my sight.
My parents were not very impressed, but somewhat supportive of at least the children's account of what was seen.
On the drive home from my folk's, I advised the children to keep quiet about the sighting to friends at school. I also tried to calm my son down since he seemed to be having a hard time getting over being scared. Of course, ALL of us had our eyes glued to the sky all the way home.
My husband was already asleep when we got home so we had to wait until the next day to get his opinion and input about the incident.
My husband ought to have "skeptic" as his middle name, and was kinda dismissive until I remembered the drawings. He didn't know what to say after that.

I watched the papers and local news for weeks very closely for any mention of "lights in the sky". I wanted to call and ask if any police officers at the roadblock saw anything, but my father is a retired Oxford police officer of 20+ years and I don't need that kind of grief.
I wrote to a couple of "paranormal/UFO investigation groups, but did not get any answer. I came upon this site and now maybe, I can get some answers.

Original Photos:
Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3
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