preschool
Transformer Starts With {T}
Today was Holden’s preschool picture day.
I had visions of spikey hairs, a nice crisp cotton button-up shirt with dark jeans and his new Chuck Taylors.
He had other ideas…
His favorite {Rock N Roll} shirt ~ Ross
Plaid cargo shorts ~ Old Navy
Outer space socks ~ Ross
Plaid slip-ons ~ Crazy 8
Spikey hairs ~ got2b glued
At least I got my spikey hairs ~ 25% ain’t bad!
This little one is growing up…
Next school pics will be sometime around May in his cap and gown.
Scary, I know.
Life needs to s-l-o-w down.
Is was also Share Day ~ letter of the week is {T}.
Transformer starts with {T}!
*****
THURSDAY also starts with {T} ~ hope yours is a happy one!
XOXO
Last
This little fetus had his first day of his {last} year of preschool today…
Man, five years has never gone so fast.
I remember September 28, 2006 like it was yesterday…
And in 5 years from now when he’s starting 4th grade, today will seem like it was just yesterday, too…
Elliott sent him off with good luck hugs.
Lots to learn this year in pre-K…
…and Miss Sandi will show him the way.
*****
The LAST thing I want to feel is that I hurried away these days…
These days of short order meals.
Water on the bathroom floor.
Lego explosions.
Sassy back talking.
Repeating things 18 times.
Yadda. Yadda. Yah.
So I will sit back and {try} to LOVE these days before a whole new set of challenges arise.
Sometimes you need to stand back and reflect to truly appreciate where you are.
And I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
Refreshing
Holden’s summer camp theme this week was {Winter In July}.
{there he is in the lime green shirt}
Thanks to my friend, Sandra, who alerted me that this pic was on our local paper’s on-line alert. Unfortunately they got his name wrong in the little write up.
But how refreshing does this look….snow cones anyone?
Happy Friday!
{Wheredidmybabygo} Wednesday
Look at this baby…
When did he get so big?
All of a sudden he’s a preschooler…
…and has his first picture day!
*****
It was also “Back to School” night.
Lots of precious artwork gracing the walls…
{Oops! I don’t know what happened here, but Holdy’s is the one to the left of Jacob’s with the dark green leaf}
*****
Where did my baby go?
6 Hours
2 weeks from today I will have a kindergartner.
3 weeks from today I will have a preschooler.
This equates to 6 hours a week of “ME” time.
No, I won’t be out getting weekly massages, pedicures, blowouts, spray tans or shopping sprees…
BUT
I will be able to run errands, clean the house, do laundry, get organized and begin my half marathon training.
UNINTERRUPTED
and
UNHINDERED!
You know, doing the things that should take 30 minutes, but can take all day when there are little ones involved.
This is a bittersweet time.
The start of many years of education for Elliott and the “introductory phase” for Holden.
Years that I hope they will enjoy.
Years that they will never get back.
New milestones for everyone.
New teachers. New friends. Learning. Discovering. Reading. Writing. Arithmetic.
Yes, I always wanted to be a stay-at-home mother.
Yes, I love it and wouldn’t change it for the world.
But everyone enjoys a little alone time once in awhile.
I am looking forward to my 3 hours every Tuesday/Thursday morning.
But most of all, I am looking forward to watching and being involved with Elliott and Holden as they embark on their educational journeys.
Here’s to the official last 2 weeks of Summer!
*****
Children’s Garden
The title of this post was going to be “We Have Ourselves A Kindergartner!” and as I was typing the word “kindergartner” I thought, “That’s a weird word…I wonder where it came from and what it means.”
Thanks, Wikipedia for clearing that up. You can learn more about kindergarten than you ever needed to know here if you are totally bored and have NOTHING to do one day!
Nevertheless, we do have a kindergartner in the house.
She chose one of her fave restaurants for her special dinner:
…and opened a few gifts which included this:
{Somehow I think this lunch box is going to win out over the cute polka dot one I got her!}
The cherry on top wasn’t the one that sat upon the hot fudge sundae, but the JOY & HAPPINESS we all felt as we watched Elliott march out onto that parking lot in front of the crowd with grace and determination (after telling me, “I promise I won’t make silly faces like I did last time”), perform her songs, wear her cap and display her diploma, present us with her yearbook and wish all her little friends a “Happy Graduation” while handing them their leis.
Yes, she is ready for Children’s Garden and we can’t wait to see what’s waiting there for her to explore.
We love you, Miss Elliott. You make us SO very proud!
XOXO
Leis For The Graduating Keikis
I wanted to come up with a simple little gesture to present Elliott’s graduating preschool class with this evening at the big commencement ceremony.
What better way than with…..candy!
Parents, you can thank me later.
I remembered back 10 years ago when two friends and co-workers of mine, Kim & Deb, would make candy leis for special celebrations in her kids’ lives.
I think it’s the perfect thing for Miss Linda and all her Tuesday/Thursday friends!
1 adult-sized & 10 pint-sized candy leis, comin’ up.
I got this brainy idea late last night so off I was to Wal-mart at the crack of dawn (so happy they open at 6am!) to gather some confections and more ribbon (along with a bathing suit top, lighters for the grill and some organic potting soil).
Time to get started…
I had NO idea what I was doing, but figured it’s wasn’t rocket science.
You will need the following:
Plastic wrap, scissors, some candy and fun ribbon.
I found that the ironing board makes a great work space! Since I don’t use it to iron, why not make some candy leis on it.
1. Roll out about 4 feet of plastic wrap and cut.
2. Place about 6 candies or groups of smaller candies about 2 inches apart from each other down the middle of the plastic wrap.
3. Fold the bottom edge of the wrap to meet the top edge.
4. Roll the candies until you have a “rope” and all plastic wrap is rolled into itself (does that make sense?)
5. Tie off in between each candy with about 4 inches (totally estimating) of ribbon.
(You can use curly ribbon and curl with scissors after you tie your double knot, but I used some leftover zebra ribbon and picked up a roll of cheetah to keep with the fun animal print theme for the kids. I ran out and had to use some striped, wired ribbon for Miss Linda’s…didn’t want to use it for the little ones in case anyone got scratched or poked, but hers turned out cute as well.)
6. Take the 2 ends and join them together overlapping a bit and then tie off with another piece of your cute ribbon.
You’re done!
Super quick & easy ~ I was done by 8:30am.
Next time I will select some different, more diverse candies. Perhaps some Laffy Taffy, Air Heads, sugar-free gum & Dum Dums. In the interest of time, I just grabbed a big bag of Tootsie Roll candies.
We’re not supposed to send candy to school, but she can’t get in trouble or kicked out, she’s graduating!
YAY!
Gallery Viewing
This past Tuesday evening we attended Art Night at Elliott’s preschool.
So fun to see the tikes and their little masterpieces created with all sorts of different mediums and components.
So bright.
So cheery.
So creative.
Here are our artist’s pieces:
Can you tell she LOVES purple?
This is my favorite:
This one was full of glitter (you guessed it, purple glitter!):
and last, but certainly not least, a collage:
Next February when we attend Art Night, we’ll be seeing Holden’s masterpieces.
Thank you, Elliott, for sharing your beautiful works of art with us!