Graduation Day and Last Day of School

Can you believe the school year is over already? It went so fast.  During the last week of school, Tommy's teacher told us to send in a bag of treats for the Aloha Party the day of graduation.

I whipped up a sweet little bag of treats for him which I was soooo proud of until....
I re-read the message from the teacher that morning before school and realized that she said she wanted bags of treats for everyone in the class.  OH SH&%!!! Luckily Andrew saved the day and ran to the store and got treats for everyone and still sent my homemade bag of goodness.  Ugh, major fail.    I need to go to the Derek Zoolander Center for Children Who Can't Read Good.  

Tommy was super excited about his goody bag.  I don't know if the other kids were jealous because obviously they were not the same but oh well.  What can ya do? :) They certainly got a lot of cool stuff at least! 

So that night was graduation.  He was so proud and so cute.  I loved every minute.

The kindergarten and preschool classes performed songs for us.  K-5 did the pledge and the Star Spangled Banner.

He definitely wasn't nervous! :)

Then it was time for everyone to graduate.  I snapped a pic of Tommy's bestie while he got his diploma.

Tommy was the very last person to graduate. Awww.  He started at this school in October of 2011.  When he heads off to first grade, he will be have been there for 6 years! It was his home away from home.  He'll be there this summer but in August, he will leave it for good.  Let me tell you, he is EXCITED.  :)  He has a bit of the kindergarten-itis. Ha!

Look at how proud that kiddo is! Puffed out chest, what a stud.

I had to take a picture of him with his sis.  Look at that pose.  Where did she even learn that? She was in a cheeky mood that night.

Family pic! I love these people so much.

Tommy and Bode pic, of course!

Tommy and teacher pic.  We'll miss you, Miss Debbie!

We got pictures with the grandparents. Like I said, Charlotte was in a mood.

I have to post this one with only Tommy because Charlotte was being such a stinker.

I have to say it certainly makes for some great outtakes.  I can't stop laughing. 

The last day of school for Charlotte is a field day.  Each class wears a matching shirt and they go outside and do lots of activities.  I haven't attended Charlotte's field day with just her yet so I thought I would go this year.  I couldn't leave work when I wanted so I ended up eating lunch with her instead.  The pictures above are from the wonderful teachers who remember to take them for me! YAY! 

 We had a fun time at lunch.  Silly Hudson was eating his ice packs because of course. :)

 Then I took Charlotte with me and went to Tommy's field trip to the park.  Tommy is a wonderfully protective big brother.  Too cute.

 Maybe not always at home but around other kids, he is always watching out for her. :) So sweet.

 Bode is too!

 What a trio!

 At one point during the day, the teachers decided to take the kids on a trail walk.  OMG, I was terrified.  There were ravines and waterfalls and everything that I could just imagine some kid getting lost and falling or something but it went off without a hitch! Charlotte was exhausted though!  I had to carry her for part of it.

 When we came back, we had popsicles! Yum!

 Tommy, Bode, Miss Debbie and one of the preschoolers! Aww!

Good times! School is over and Summer Camp begins!  First grade and Pre-K 4's, here we come!

Week of the Child 2017

 Every year the school celebrates the Week of the Child with fun dress up options every day.

They had mismatch day.  Notice Charlotte's socks. :)

 They had crazy hat day.

 They had dress as your favorite book character day.

 They had pajama day.

 They also had Hawaiian Day.

 Time for a Hawaiian Dance Party!

 On Friday, the parents get to come to school and have a picnic with the kids.  This is the last time I'll be able to do this with both of them at one time for awhile.  *sniff, sniff, tear*

Snapped a pic with his bestie!

It hasn't quite hit me yet that Kiddie Kollege is almost over for Tommy. He's been there since he was 10 months old.  It is hard to imagine him being anywhere else.  But he is EXCITED about going to first grade.  He can't wait!

What's Happening in School These Days?

 We haven't had a school update in awhile. Let's see what's happening during a typical school day...

Tommy and his best friend practiced following directions with legos.  This picture doesn't look posed or anything. ;-)

They had their 100th day of school.  They decorated hats to celebrate and counted to one hundred a few times with the 100 items they chose to bring in. Tommy brought in 100 candy legos.  We found them in the pantry from last year.  He ate one and said they were gross and they've been sitting there ever since. :-)

I got this picture that day and freaked out.  First of all, he can have the Meijer brand fudge stripe cookies.  I had just brought those in for his snacks for after school.  Also, I thought those little brown things were raisins.  So I figured he was super disappointed about his 100 snack and felt horrible.  I sent her a message but it was too late after hers.  But she did write me back said that those were actually chocolate chips.  PHEW.  I felt better after that.  Just a little.  He's been expressing frustration lately with not getting what the other kids get.  I feel awful for him. He's pretty resilient though and gets over it quickly.

 This is a picture from the after school program.  Once again, it's Tommy and his best friend, playing cars.  Too cute.

 On this day, they counted feathers and talked about penguins.

 When you learn to tie your shoe, you become an honorary shoe sheriff. Tommy has not become a shoe sheriff yet.  Only two in the class have.  I'm thinking we should maybe work on that someday?  ;-)

They were flashlight reading in this picture.  His teacher said it's something they love to do.  I think one kiddo fell asleep.  Just kidding! ;-) It's the little things though for little kids.  I'm sure they get really serious about it.

Tommy had Show and Tell last week.  He decided to bring in his Smithsonian Space book that he got for Christmas.  His teacher told me that he was going through the book explaining everything about space that he knows.  All the kids were asking questions.  His teacher said she admitted at one point, even she was raising her hand and asking Tommy questions.  Haha!!

Tommy loves Kindergarten and he loves learning.  I love hearing about his days and all the fun stories his teacher tells me about what kind of person he is becoming.  I'm so proud of him and everything he is doing.


So we've heard plenty about kindergarten.  Who's wondering about the 3's class?

 Here's a picture of the core crew.  I believe this was their New Year's noisemaker celebration.  Best buds! Love the smile, Charshe!

Here's the kiddos doing a little painting. I love this picture just for the sheer fact of Charlotte's hair looking so ridiculously cute.  I can't get over it.

This was a game where each kid had a color ball they had to race to pick up.  She said they did fantastic with this task.  Looks like Charlotte had green which she says is new favorite color besides pink.

I haven't gotten as many pictures of Charlotte but I have gotten lots of stories.  They send me something all the time telling me how funny she is or how crazy her stories are.  Here are a couple snippets.

"Hey teacher, my mommy was 10 years old when she was a baby!"

"Hey guys, when I have a piggy at my home, it blows my house down and then my dad builds it again."

Anatomy lesson with Charlotte, "My heart is inside my stomach!"

Charlotte had a phone during playtime and said, "This is Mom! I'm stuck in Canada!!"

"Hey teacher, I went underwater and I bit and ate and kicked the shark."

"Hey teacher, my mom and dad ate a stingray."

Besides all the funny stories, I can already tell that Charlotte will learn best through songs.  She is constantly singing. They learn a song for each letter to get used to the sound and learn more vocab for  each one.  She just LOVES those songs.  She also loves entertaining her friends.  She is a riot.  Anything she can do to make them laugh, she is on it! She also loves school and her best friends.  She makes sure to get a "huggie" from each friend before she leaves each day.  It's adorable.

These stories and pictures make it slightly easier to be away from them during the day.  It makes me so happy to see how much they love their friends and their school.  I miss them so much but I know they are having such a great time becoming the wonderful people they are.

How's School Going?

I'm really enjoying the school's app. We see lots and lots of pictures of the kids throughout the week. But I'll be honest there were some during the first few weeks that weren't too exciting. 

 Like this one with their art teacher. Where's Tommy? Oh he's behind the art teacher.

Or this one? Where's Tommy? Behind the paper chains.

And there was the one from Charlotte's dance party in the last school post.  Where's Charlotte? Behind some other kid. :)

It truly makes me think of Monster Inc when Mike always got blocked out of the picture.  Haha!

Anyway, kindergarten seems to be going pretty well for Mr. Thomas.

 Most of his pictures, he is full of personality.

 Or completely offended he has to be in a picture.

 Or just not in the picture hardly at all.  :)

 Or he's the star of the show!

 It's mostly all personality though.

 He's been hard at work making new friends and being, in his words, the "best in the class."  He never says what he means by that but he claims to be the best. 

Painting A's! 

 The room that they are currently in is pretty dark and drab but next week they will be moving into their new classroom now that the renovations are finally done. How exciting! They will have windows again!

Tommy is so funny.  He is so full of... he's so full of WORDS! That kid talks so much! He is a leader too, according to his teachers.  I thought this was a good thing until he told me that he "likes his new friend Bode because he does everything I say!" So we are working on what it means to be a good friend.  Haha!!
He is so inquisitive and smart too.  The other day he asked how a baby gets out of mom's belly so I told him a mom has a hole at the bottom that it comes out of.  He thought about it for a moment and then said, "Like a duck?"  I said, "Yes.  Exactly like that." "Okay." He didn't ask any other questions after that.  Hahahahahahaha! I laughed so hard (later of course). 

So how is Charlotte doing??

 Does this picture explain anything?? Haha! No, she's doing fine and she loves books. I have no idea why she is looking at the camera in this picture.  Too funny.

 She actually let me put her hair in pigtails so they took lots of pictures on this day!

 These cuties are waiting on their friends to finish going potty. 

 Charlotte made a school bus in art class.

 I got this message the other day.  I thought I had the accident figured out until I picked her up and she told me that Jude puked on her.  OMG!! Even worse than I thought!!! 

The next week she was home sick with me, if you can imagine.  I picked up Tommy when she was sick and her teacher told me there were only two students left that weren't sick that day.  Sheesh.  It spreads quickly! She doesn't look too sick though, does she?

 But yes Charlotte is loving school. 

 I think she loves it most of all because she gets to play dress up all the time. 

And I mean All. The. Time.  Fun stuff!

I'm so glad they have so much fun at school.  I'm glad they get one more year of going to the same school.