Adair is SIX!

The precious baby girl who made us parents is SIX today and headed to first grade in the Fall!  She is the light of our lives!  She is bright, inquisitive, kind, loving and an amazing big sister.  

To celebrate turning six, Hank and I took her on a special trip the the American Girl Store and Bistro in Atlanta yesterday.  She chose Caroline as her gift and we had a blast at lunch and enjoying her special cake.

We also celebrated at home with cinnamon rolls for breakfast and ice cream cake for dessert.

Last Day of School and Birthday Celebrations

It's hard to believe the last day of school is already here!  The girls have all had a great year!  Hilltop has been a blessing to us this year.  The girls have learned so much and it has been amazing to watch their minds expanding day by day.  It has been an incredible year of growth!

Myla Grant loved her sweet teachers!  Miss Stephanie and Mrs. C.  She learned to count and recognize numbers, letter sounds and to recognize many letters, she is great at distinguishing size and stacking/nesting things.

Adair and Emalyn's lead teacher, Ms. Marcia, is retiring this year after teaching for many, many years.  She has been such a blessing to the girls.  

Adair has learned to read, write, add, subtract, multiply and divide, among so many other things! 

Emalyn has learned to pour, spoon, trace metal insets and cut them out, recognize many letters, order numbers, among so many other things!

We also love Miss Roopa!  She has been such a sweet spirit in Adair and Emalyn's classroom!

One of the neatest things about Montessori is the way they celebrate birthdays.  Since Adair and Emalyn have summer birthdays, they got to celebrate on the last day of school.  The birthday celebrations at Hilltop are a true celebration of life.  Both girls were celebrated separately.  Each of them was seated in the middle of the circle of children and invited to share pictures of and answer questions about their lives.  Then their class sang to them as they held the globe and walked around the "sun" to signify the number of times the earth has circled the sun since they were born.  Each celebration is individual to that child and such a neat experience!

Adair circled the sun six times...

and Emalyn circled the sun four times.

End of the Year Recitals

Adair and Emalyn had so much fun taking ballet at Children's Dance Foundation this year!  They both looked forward to their recital for months and got so excited about dressing up in their costumes and dancing on stage.

Adair also took violin lessons for the first time this year.  She learned so much!  By the time the recital rolled around, she could play 5-6 songs from memory and got to choose the one she wanted to play for the recital.  She chose "Song of the Wind".  She did a wonderful job introducing herself and playing her solo.  I worried about her being nervous, but if she was, she didn't let on.  She did great!