You can grow plants fine if the light is sufficient. The biggest problem is the height of the tank (which will make it hard to reach the bottom for both you and the light). What kind of light are you thinking of buying (or how much are you willing to spend). The cheapest route are flood lights - a pair would cost you around $50 (depending on exact model) but you would want to hang them which is a bit more difficult.
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Anyway plants that would do well are anubia (do not bury the rhizome) java fern (do not bury the rhizome); crypts (wenditt is common - maybe a wenditti bronze and wediti green); maybe jungle val and maybe a melon sword.
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Some people (a lot of people?) glue the anubia and java fern to rocks or driftwood but i never do - i just find places to wedge them or anchor the roots with substrate or a small rock but that is just me.
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There are many many types of anubia - so you can find some with diverse leaf shape and colour - a few i like are nana golden (bright green); coffee (over the years this plant can become a giant); petite nana (dark green) (the petite part is the size of the leaf); afzelii, barteri (another larger anubia), anyway browse there are many different types and colour ranging from very dark green to streaks of white. Another interesting plant if you can get it to grow is banana plant. There are also dwarf lilies (you really only want one banana plant or dwarf lilies because a single plant can send out a lot of leaves); aponogeton boivinianus is a nice bulb plant as well as aponogeton cripus (avoid ulvaceus - it just isn't a good fit for your tank also it hibernates a lot which might upset the kids if they get upset when a plant sheds all of its leaves and stop growing for 6 months). There are tons of other plants but those are some very easy to grow yet unique sort of plants you might try.
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If you wish to mail order plants some good sites are:
macrusfishtank
dustinfishtank
aqariumplants
aquariumplantsfactory
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I would avoid stem plants such as rotala - in your tank they will require some effort and given the depth of the tank you might find it difficult 'maintaining' them. stem plants include things like rotala and ludwigia.
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as for fishes - you might try 10 or 15 pygmy cory; 5 kuhli loaches; some of the fishes people have mentioned; kubotai rasbora; 5 honey gourami; ... there are tons of fishes.
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after a month or two and your tank is establish you might get 5 to 10 otto.
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Some fishes to avoid: dwarf gourami (can be vicious monsters; german blue rams (lovely fish but delicate and require warmer temps); pleco (can be a bit messy for a first time tank - also cleaning the bottom is going to be a bit of a chore with the depth - if you must get a pleco make sure it is an l204, bn (lemon have lovely blue eyes), or a clown and only get one.
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avoid angels or if you do get angels get just one.
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another nice fish is sparkling gourami - 6 to 8 of those -
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naturally i don't expect you to get every fish mentioned by me or others as your tank can't support that many fishes and when you do decide what fishes to get collectively make sure they are temp compatible. For example if you want a betta then you will want fishes that like warmer temps (78 or so) but if you want kubotai rasbora you will want fishes that prefer cooler temps (74 or 75).
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If you want to buy fishes on line aquahuna is probably the best bet with regards to price (including shipping) and easy of working with. If you are going ot buy local - maybe just first go one day and have your girls point at every fish they like (or dislike) and then put a list together of what works together.
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if they go for gold fishes (always a possiblity) they get large and you really only want 2 or 3 and very little else - maybe some pygmy cory or otto.
