May Celebrations

May is a very busy month. Mother's Day, my annual trip to D.C. for work, and end-of-preschool celebrations kept all of us on our toes. The girls both performed in the YMCA preschool celebration, Moira played a role in the Children's Museum preschool celebration as well, and then Moira "graduated" from preschool at the YMCA. It's hard to believe she'll be starting kindergarten in August. Below is a video highlighting all of the celebrations or you can click on the link here. 


YMCA Parents' Day
Hannah and Moira did a lovely job of singing (or shouting, depending on the moment!) two or three songs celebrating parents and the end of the school year. Hannah's highlight was a cute song about rainbows, and Moira's highlight was the B-I-N-G-O song revamped to focus on how much they love M-O-M-M-Y and D-A-D-D-Y. Moira's class had a couple of very loud shouters, but I thought she did a decent job of holding her own. Afterwards, the girls were very excited to give us the gifts that they had made, and it was a bittersweet moment for me because we're not going to enroll Hannah in the Y preschool next year, so it's the last time we'll see all of her fantastic teachers. 




Paige (teacher's aid), Hannah, and Mrs. Horton

Moira and Mrs. Yarling

Moira and Miss Byers
Mother's Day and D.C.
We had everyone over to our house for Mother's Day. Aunt Kate and Uncle Scott put together two adirondack chairs and painted them for mom, and the girls made her presents. We had Les and Linda come over as well, and they gave Hannah a belated birthday gift that she loved (puzzles are one of her favorite things). The girls also gave me a nice little gift, and we had a fine day together before I left the following morning for my annual trip to Washington D.C. for work. I had a great time learning at the conference and catching up with old friends in the few spare moments I had.



Verena and I
Monica and I 

I left the conference early to ensure I could make it home to see Moira in her most excellent performance at the Children's Museum. The teachers read books, and the students act them out. This year, Moira's class story was "The Little Red Hen" and she was a brown mouse. Then, at the end, the entire school sings a song. I'm still anxiously awaiting the DVD of the performance because the song was so much fun. They re-wrote "On Top of the World" by Imagine Dragons to be all about the Children's Museum year, and it was so well done. At the end, the preschool staff put together a slideshow of all of the children and their adventures throughout the year that literally made me cry because my little girl is off to Kindergarten next year, and I just can't believe how fast she has grown.

Moira and mom selfie

Little Red Hen performance

On Top of the World

Moira and Mr. Wurthmann

Moira and Miss Hosey
Last, but certainly not least, in May we celebrated Moira's "preschool graduation" at the YMCA. I must admit that I was a bit skeptical about a graduation ceremony for 4- and 5-year-olds, but in the end, I thought the Y did a great job of celebrating the students' successes in an age-appropriate way. The ceremony started off with all of the children walking to their chairs with "Pomp and Circumstance" in the background, then they performed sign language to a song, and then they each had their name called as they crossed the "bridge to kindergarten." There was also a wonderful poem that their teacher read about the importance of play for young children. The lasting memory for me will be watching Moira smile atop the "bridge to kindergarten," leisurely walk down one step, and then bound off the last step with a perfect little leap. It was so, so Moira. She was very proud of herself, as she should be. She's definitely ready for kindergarten!

Waiting for the ceremony to begin

Their little chairs all lined up

Moira walking in (and celebrating already?)

Moira right after she saw us!

Performing her song

Atop the bridge...

...Pausing...and the leap you have to see in the video!


Running to us afterwards!

The proud preschool graduate

Love this photo Uncle Scott captured

Some of Moira's biggest supporters

And perhaps my favorite photo of the girls from that day.
More to come soon on our summer adventures!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Random Moments

Image
I am still playing catch-up from all the photos we took over the holidays, and I have a few random ones that I want to share! Here they are: Moira's first official haircut. She was so good. I wasn't sure she would sit still, but she did. The stylist did a great job of keeping her entertained! Moira walking around in her "shoes." Moira is fascinated with shoes. She loves taking our shoes on and off. And she loves walking around in adult shoes. We went to the Eiteljorg on Martin Luther King day and Moira had fun exploring the Wild Wild West. You may recall that Moira's 2nd birthday party was pretty entertaining because Moira fell asleep in her high chair, and then she was completely overwhelmed by everyone singing Happy Birthday. Since then, we have had lots of family and friend birthdays, and she has mastered singing Happy Birthday. At this point, she sings Happy Birthday to just about anyone and anything--babies at a restaurant, the light, the birds......
Read more

To Hannah, With Love

Image
Hannah, You, my darling baby girl, are growing up entirely too fast. By the time you were one, here’s what you were up to: On the Move Well, truth be told, you haven’t been that interested in moving.  You’re quite content to reach both arms in the air and look imploringly at mama or dada to pick you up. By the time you were 5 months, you rolled over, and by the time you were 10 months, you finally decided to crawl. Since then, you’ve become a very quick little girl on your knees, and you’re just starting to consider standing up and walking on your own. One of the cutest things you do is crawl while holding onto a baby stroller—it is quite a feat! I predict you’ll be about 16 months old before you walk, and that is fine with me. What did you say? Hannah, you are a talker. At a year old you have a few words in your vocabulary. They include the traditional words like “mama” and “dada.” Your very first word, however, was “Mo-ra” in honor of your big sister,...
Read more

Time flies!

Image
It's hard to believe Moira is already 5 weeks old (today)! Here 's a quick recap: October 14th, 9:32am, Moira Joan Mackintosh came into the world. She was a healthy 7 lb, 14 oz, and 20.5 inches long. My labor was fast, but delivery was slower than I would have liked. On the whole, neither Moira nor I can complain . October 16th, we came home. I discovered after a couple of sleepless nights that Moira would only sleep for about 15 minutes in her bassinet. She preferred sleeping on someone or sleeping in her little swing. The first few weeks went by in a complete blur. We were all trying to get used to a new kind of normal. Moira and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out her preferences for eating and sleeping. Alan spent a lot of time trying to help his girls get as comfy as possible. We've had fun discovering the little things about Moira. She has dimples and so much dark hair. She has the cutest high-pitched hiccups. She loves it when her Dad holds her and paces with...
Read more