Graduations

Both Hannah and Xander are officially on summer vacation now. They each had their own graduation ceremony and they were so darn cute!! They are now happy to be home and that summer is here and they cannot wait to go swimming.

Alexander "graduated" on May 22nd from his park district class. They had a small ceremony where they got to show off how much they knew about shapes and colors and also got to show everyone how well they could sit still and listen (which is a HUGE accomplishment for my little guy!). All of the kids in the class got diplomas too. The teacher took turns calling out their names and let them stand under a crayon arch for each parent to take pictures.

Xander and his teacher under the "arch"

Kiddie Krayons Class of 2008

After the ceremony we all went back to his classroom for snacks. The kids had each drawn a picture on the chalkboard to help decorate the room and so there was this huge mural up on one wall. Some of the kids got really creative too. There was a ceiling fan, Superman, a dinosaur, a lamp, a truck and quite a few more.

Xander's contribution to the mural was Tyrone from the Backyardigans - I think he did a pretty good job!!

Class ended with singing the rainbow song (which was sung at the end of every class) and a final goodbye to everyone. I had tried to explain to Xander that this was the last class and that there were not going to be anymore classes but he didn't quite understand. He's still occasionally asking me if we're going back to "Mrs. Jacky's" but I think he's slowly getting it. We keep talking about how he's going to go the the "Big Kid" school next school year with Hannah and now he's getting excited about that. I just hope he's this happy and excited about it come August!

Hannah graduated on the 29th from 4 year old preschool. Their ceremony was a little more organized then Alexander's but it was just as cute. They sang 4 songs for us, which included Yankee Doodle and a hip hop version of the ABC's (that I am still laughing about). After that all of the kids went to the back of the hall to wait for their name to be called so that they could walk up the isle to get their diploma. Some of the kids had to be coaxed down the isle and some of them ran, but Hannah did neither. She calmly walked down to get her diploma and quietly walked back around to wait with the rest of her class.

Shaking Hands with Father Mark

Getting her diploma from Miss Gross, the principal

Our new Kindergartener

The ceremony ended with the teachers saying a few words and then it was time for refreshments. It was a nice little celebration for the kids and they were all happy to be together. Hannah and her friends posed for lots of pictures and had a good time running around together, some for the last time. Some of her friends will not be back next year so we gave her some extra time with them before heading home. All in all, it was a good day.

I am still a little amazed at how fast the school year went. I'm even more amazed that both kids will be in the same school next year. I mean, Alexander will only go for a half a day for 5 days so he'll still be home with me some of the time but Hannah will be there all day AND she'll wear a uniform! They are getting too big too fast. Next school year will be an adjustment for all of us but that is still a few months away so I'm not going to dwell on it now. For now I am going to try and enjoy as much time as I can with them this summer and just worry about having fun!