My "Charming" Ballet Dancer

I haven't given an update in a month or so on how our girls are doing and thought I would catch you all up (first I'll do Jillian, then hopefully Faith in the next couple of days!). Yesterday I had a parent/ teacher conference at Jillian's school. Mrs. Hayes was very complimentary about Jillian and said that Jillian was a very "charming" little girl and that she really enjoys having her in the class. Jillian listens well to directions and works really hard, as well as takes pride, in her craft projects ( but Mrs. Hayes reassured me she has found a nice balance and isn't too perfectionistic about it).

She is also extremely social and has made lots of new friends at pre-school. Her ABSOLUTE favorites, besides our church friend Ava, are Michael and Sofia. Jillian was invited to a birthday party for a little girl named Sage at Chuck E Cheese this Monday, along with a couple other pre-school friends. It was a lot of fun for me to spend time with the other pre-school Moms, and to watch Jillian play with some new friends.

Getting ready for dance lessons in just a few minutes..

Also, we have re-started ballet lessons (in a more "advanced" level this time) at the community center, Thomas Farm, in our neighborhood. Jillian really loves her teacher. Miss Sabine is very gifted and owns her own dance studio. Its funny though, after her first lesson, Jillian told me that her teacher kind of talks funny. She said, "I don't know what she is saying some of the time. She talks like Jillian Alice (her baby doll who speaks in multiple languages). " :-) Miss Sabine speaks in French to the class for the majority of the time, which I think is AWESOME!

Also, Jillian has a "pen friend" in England. Our friends, the Cullen's, 4 year old daughter, little Leni has been sending letters and photos to Jillian and she has been doing the same for Leni!! It was so cute, Leni sent Jillian a note officially asking her to "Please be my pen friend?" The girls met each other right before Jillian's 1st birthday and they quickly developed a friendship. It has been so fun for all of us for the girls to be keeping in touch with a friend across the pond.

A picture of Jillian with Brad and Leni with her dad Jon. This picture was taken only a few days after we had moved into "flat". Jon and Maria (Leni's parents) were some of the first people that we met in Cambridge and two of our favorite people in the whole world. :-)

As you can see, we didn't have much to put on our shelves! We only brought over what we could fit into our suitcases (along with two boxes that were sent to military friends in Germany--they later came over to visit us and brought over our stuff with them). We literally only had a handful of toys for our one-year old. But Leni's thoughtful "Mum" came over and shared some of their toys with Jillian until we got some more!