Ava’s Last day of 4th Grade

Ava finished up 4th grade on June 3rd. She had such a great year this year. As the year went on, things slowly got back to normal as COVID regulations were relaxed. It was so great for her to be able to go on a field trip, have Spiritfest and have a chorus concert and all the other things that weren’t allowed during COVID. Ava loved her teacher, Miss Riebe, and learned so much from her this year. They also had a teaching intern from Clemson, Miss Carter, in their class. Ava loved Miss Carter as well and was very sad when she got a full time job at another school but was excited for Miss Carter to be able to have her own class. Ava fell in love with social studies this year and really blossomed in math. She made some really great friends, especially her best friend Anahi. It always makes us so proud to see her grow and blossom so much each year in school. Now on to 5th grade, the last year of elementary school!

Ava’s Awards Day

For the first time in 2 years, we were able to attend Ava’s end of the year awards day in person! And this year was even bigger because the 4th grade awards are all together in the cafeteria. The principal Mr. Wise and assistant principal Ms. Gerard helped hand out the awards as the teachers announced them. We were very proud of Ava for making the A/B Honor Roll and for receiving the Excellence in Art award from her art teacher. She has had such a great year in 4th grade and loves her teacher, Miss Riebe.

Zoe’s First and Last Days

Since I can’t compare different years of school, I wanted to compare Zoe on the first day of 4k and the last day. She grew so much in one school year! Kindergarten here she comes!

Zoe’s Last Day of 4k

Zoe finished her first year of school on May 13th. She had the best first year of school and loved every minute of preschool. She made some really sweet friends and learned so much. Our little social butterfly loved hanging out with her friends 3 days a week and especially loved Fridays when she got to eat lunch at school and stay for late stay. Her teacher, Mrs. Sharp, was so sweet and Zoe really enjoyed being in her class. She is so ready for big girl school now!

Mother’s Day Tea

Another benefit of COVID restrictions going away is that Zoe’s preschool was able to host a Mother’s Day tea for the 4k classes. I went to a similar event when Ava was in 4k so it was so special to be able to do this with Zoe as well. Her teacher made the whole day so special. The kids sang several songs they’ve learned over the year, made special gifts for the moms (including World’s Best Mom crowns) and had cookies and lemonade. It was a special day with my girl!

Dance Portraits 2022

Zoe’s dance studio does portraits every spring. They have the kids wear their recital costumes and get some really great shots. Zoe actually indulged me and let me get some shots of her before we headed to the studio so we didn’t buy the portraits from the studio (but I did save screen shots of the watermarked pictures). She looked so cute in her Space Jam costume! And she and her sweet dance friends had a blast taking pictures together (they even snapped a shot of her and Aviah, one of her best friends, waiting for their pictures). We love watching this girl blossom so much in dance!

Chorus 2022

Ava was very excited that the COVID restrictions let up in the 4th quarter and her music teacher was able to start the 4th and 5th grade honors chorus program again. It was another sign that things were getting back to normal at school. They had several rehearsals after school and then a performance. It was the first time we were able to be in the school building for an event since things shut down 2 years ago and it was so special to share that with Grammie, Nana and Papa. Ava really enjoyed chorus and is excited to do it again in 5th grade. She has a beautiful singing voice so we are happy to encourage her in chorus!

Easter Portraits 2022

I think this may be the only year that I’ve ever taken Easter portraits on Easter. Thankfully, the girls agreed to snap a few pictures before we ate lunch.

Easter 2022

We spent Easter with my mom and grandmother again this year and it was a really sweet holiday weekend. We let the girls dye eggs on Saturday in between going to see Frozen. Then Sunday morning, they opened their Easter baskets before we headed to my mom’s church for the service. Her church had a full orchestra for the service and the music was beautiful. Then my mom and grandmother joined us at our house for lunch and an egg hunt. It was fun to hide eggs in our new yard for the first time. And as usual, we ended up not finding one of the eggs…I guess that is going to become a tradition. Although, weeks later Zoe actually found the egg! We loved celebrating the resurrection with my mom and grandmother this year!

Raising Theater Kids

DJ and I love Broadway shows. We listen to Broadway music at home all the time. The girls love singing along to songs from The Newsies, Lion King, Wicked, Dear Evan Hanson, Rent, Hamilton, Les Mis and Phantom (just to name a few). Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to take the girls to see how amazing Broadway is in person yet because most shows are not appropriate for kids (we screen the music we share with them). That is until this year. We were so excited to hear that the Frozen Broadway show was coming to Greenville. We knew we wanted to take the girls to their very first Broadway performance and Frozen was the perfect show to enjoy together as a family. The girls loved getting dressed up for the theater and seeing the show. It was such a good show too! We are looking forward to taking them to more performances as they get older!