Saying Goodbye To Our Neighbors

Our neighbors are moving to Hawaii. Although this sounds like a dream come true (and I'm sure it will be!), it makes me a little sad. They moved in the week Hannah was born. I met them as they were coming off the moving truck; I was taking Hannah on her very first walk at exactly one week old. I stopped and talked to them and they introduced themselves as Jenni and Michael. They also told me that they were adopting a little girl from Guatamala, her name was going to be Sarah, and she was already a few months old. I thought how fortunate it was to have a little girl the same age as my little girl. They began playing with each other on occasion as toddlers and ended up in the same preschool class where they became "best friends" with each other and another sweet little girl named Caroline, who happened to be adopted from China. Here are the three of them at the end of the school year:

Anyway, Sarah and Hannah became good friends and I was thinking that they may grow up to be the best of friends since we were neighbors. I expected them to play together, ride the bus together, and grow up together. However, they had the opportunity to move to Hawaii - something Jenni and Michael really wanted - and with the market in its current state, the timing seemed right. They sold their house quickly, and today, they are leaving. We helped them pack up the last of their things. Here are the final pictures of Hannah, Hailey, Sarah, and her brother MJ.

I know they will love living in Hawaii, but they will be missed!

Toddler Bed Attempt #20983472

Okay, so maybe that's a slight exaggeration but it has been quite a while since we set up the toddler bed in her room (about 5-6 months). It's been a slow progression, from not even wanting to go near it to playing in it to reading stories in it to finally now sleeping in it. There were times when it seemed like she might never give up the crib, which is of course became really nerve-wracking for Mommy when she decided it would be fun to climb out of her crib every single morning.

Success!

Big girl! Next big step: potty training! We've already had quite a bit of success so hopefully we'll have good news on that soon too!

Theater Camp

Grammy and Grampy knew how much Hannah loves the plays they have taken her to, so once they found out their civic theater does a theater camp for 5 year olds and up, they kindly offered to send her. They came over and picked her up on Sunday and Hailey and I came Thursday night so we could watch her end of the week performance on Friday. Hannah loved the camp and we got to watch the whole group sing "On The Good Ship Lollipop" and "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." She also was in a smaller group that did "Hey Diddle Diddle" and was in the chorus for "Mary Had A Little Ham" (no, that's not a misprint - it's supposed to say "Ham"). It was very cute and Hannah loved doing it. I will spare you posting the video because it's 15 minutes long, but here are a few pictuers of her after the big performance.

In the lobby:

Holding the lollipop she made (on stage):

Pictures: 2 & 5 Years

Sarah & Paul had Mare do family pictures for them and asked to have the kids in with their cousins for a few of them. Mare also mentioned that we could do a few pics of the kids individually as part of their birthday gift. They all turned out amazing!

Here are the cousin pictures:

Hailey's 2 year pictures:

Hannah's 5 year pictures:

And a few of the girls together:

So cute! :)

5 Year Old Stats

Now that Hannah is 5, I will continue to fill in all her new accomplishments, but I'm not going to continue on with all the stats from when she was a baby. She is, after all, quite the big girl now, as she constantly likes to remind me.

Height/Weight: 46 inches and 43.5lbs (although she was in the middle of a growth spurt and grew another inch and gained another pound within a week or two of this measurement)

Physical Features: Her hair is still blonde with the slightest red tint to it that you can see on occasion. Her hair is almost shoulder length and her bangs are almost long enough to tuck behind her ears. It is still very fine and soft and flips out or under, just like mine. She has decided that she will be growing it out, like Repunzel from Tangled, so we have been just trimming it; no real cuts. Her eyes are still blue. She is getting some freckles on her nose and cheeks and a couple more on her arms and legs. She is tall and thin and often mistaken for a 7 or 8 year old.

Milestones: She can write her name with an uppercase for her first letter and lowercase for the rest, write all the letters in uppercase and some in lowercase, write 15 words or so from memory, recognize about 20 words without sounding them out, sound out words, swim with armband floaties, draw pictures of people in action with a background, tell stories, tell jokes, memorize her favorite books, count to 100, write 0-10, skip, swing without help, get in and out of car/carseat alone, wash hair alone, brush teeth alone, use a butter knife, color mostly in the lines, and read short books. She asks questions about everything and loves to draw pictures and write words. She is working on riding a bike without training wheels, tying her shoes, memorizing her full address and phone number, writing short sentences, and swimming without floaties.

Pictures (okay I'm keeping this because it's so neat to see):

Birth:

Age 1:

Age 2:

Age 3:

Age 4:

Age 5:

Last Day Of Preschool

It's hard to believe that we are here already! It seems like just yesterday, she was starting preschool and now it's over.

This is Hannah's first day of preschool, two years ago!

Hannah's last day of preschool. That picture above Hannah's head is in the same place in the picture above, she just wasn't tall enough to even see the bottom. Shows how much she has grown over the last 2 years!

Headed into school for the last time:

Standing by the door:

Grabbing her backpack for the last time after class:

We have been so fortunate to have such wonderful teachers for Hannah. Fist there was Mrs Dostalek (this was the end of last year):

And then there was Mrs. Howard:

We were fortunate to have Mrs. Chavez as her assistant both years - she LOVED Hannah and was so sweet:

Holy Cross has been such a blessing to our family! Hannah's teachers have been amazing - they taught her so much and she loves to learn. We couldn't have asked for a better preschool experience and look forward to sending Hailey there as well!

It's amazing how close we are already to the start of school - just 2.5 months before she's an official kindergartener! We just received her assignment and she got afternoon kindergarten (11:15am-2pm) - just what we wanted. On to elementary school!