Preschool Graduation

On Thursday, the Little LuLu graduated from preschool.

And I spent the entire day in a puddle of tears.

I don't know why this particular milestone stuck in my heart ... and mind ... and overactive heightened emotional state....but it did.  She's the last baby.  I'll never get to do preschool again.

A letter of the week with coordinated snacks, silly sock days, letter buckets, special stickers for learning Bible verses, WOW stickers for saying something spectacularly mature, and tons of construction paper crafts...I could live in this season of life indefinitely, and leaving it behind brings me sorrow.

BUT, it's time to head to kindergarten.............and that requires good hair.  :-)

Ems asked me to use hot rollers in her hair for the very first time, and she even came downstairs at an alarmingly early hour of the morning excited to get started.

Cute.

Lucky for me, we live in a "dry climate" where the humidity levels climb to 97% hardly ever.

Hardly ever, and also on preschool graduation curly hair day.  Naturally.

So, the beautiful hair lasted all of seven minutes, which was precisely enough time for me to get this amazing photo which I will treasure in my heart forever and ever and ever.

Because, as I mentioned, we are leaving preschool behind.  Forever.

I love this photo.  She is sitting in a little chair that a PRECIOUS family hand painted and gave to me at Emma's baby shower.

Caps and gowns on five years olds.  Adorable times a million.  Tears from every Mommy in the room.

Emma and her teacher, receiving her diploma.  The first of hopefully many that will be delivered into those little hands over the years!  :-)

The graduating class of 2013.  I want to pack up all ten of these kids and make them be in the same class together for the next thirteen years.  That would be my idea of the perfect school.

Emma may have been slightly uninterested in the Pastor's little "charge to the graduates".  He was a fine keynote speaker, but she looked a bit disconnected from the message.  Ha!!!

She was selected to do TWO solos during graduation.  First, she got to sing a verse of Thank You Lord.

"The bears in the woods say thank you Lord."

"Thank you, Lord!"

"Grrr!  Grrr! Grrr!!!"

She went to the microphone and MOUTHED the words.  Not a peep.  But then she returned to the microphone later on to recite a Bible verse, and she did it perfectly!!

"Oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good!"

Psalm 118:1

After the ceremony all the moms were invited back to the classrooms for a Mother's Day Lunch.

There were fresh flowers on the table, and they served a salad trio and muffins.

Each child had drawn a portrait of their Mommy, and we had to guess which drawing was us.

Here's me.

I don't know where the green eyes came from, but I'm very relieved that I have gray earrings instead of gray hair.

It was a very sweet day, and even though emotions ran a little high, I had a wonderful time.

There was a huge storm during graduation....thunder clapping and rain beating down on the roof.

One of the most fun parts was running to the van afterwards with our yellow balloon, jumping in a puddle on purpose, just for fun.

We still have three more days of school, but they are all fun days and field trips.

She was completely exhausted when we got home, so she took a little rest.

(With a pillow.)

Earlier in the week, we delivered a flower fairy garden to Mrs. Alice Ann to thank her for a wonderful year.  Emma had a sweet relationship with her teacher this year.  It was most definitely a year of growing, maturing, learning, and preparing for all the exciting things God has in store for us next.

Oh, we give THANKS to the LORD,

for He is indeed so very, very GOOD!