Isla's Kindergarten Graduation

I've basically been dreading the end of kindergarten from the beginning of the year. Kindergarten is such a special time. There is just an innocence and a bond between the kids that seems to leave as they get older. Not to mention, Isla was in a great group of kids. We had twice weekly playdates all year long - Tuesdays at the park after school and Thursdays at an indoor play place after school. It really made the group feel so much more tight knit than it normally would. 

For the graduation itself, the kindergartners walked out to pomp and circumstance, which is just too cute to see little kids walking out to that wearing their little graduation caps. Then they performed five songs before the actual graduation. During graduation the principal said Isla's name wrong and Isla made sure to turn around and tell her so...hahaha! She butchered a few other kids names before apologizing for getting so many names wrong. Aww kids, they will just tell it like it is...like when you say their name wrong in the middle of graduation. 

After the ceremony there was a little reception for the family and time for signing yearbooks. Unlike Connor who is 0/3 for ever getting signatures in his yearbook, Isla made it her job to run around and collect as many of her classmates signatures as possible. She also made sure to hit up her teacher and the PM kinder teacher as well. 

^^ Isla and her amazing and sweet teacher. 

^^ Isla was so excited to get balloons..though the balloons caused quite the drama because apparently you can't have balloons at the graduation because of them being a choking hazard. Who knew? But they let me put them in the office, then grab them after the ceremony...when apparently the choking hazard was no longer there.  

Just in case you want to spend three minutes of your life watching Isla sing and get her diploma, here you go...

And just because I am a sucker for looking back, here's Connor's kindergarten graduation. He looks so little! Is Isla going to grow and mature that much in two years too?! No need to answer that, I already know.

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Isla's ABC Parade

The kindergartners at the kids school does an ABC parade at the end of the school year. Each kid wears the letter vest they made earlier in the year and first parades around for the parents, then parades through EVERY SINGLE CLASSROOM. Yes, it's a small school. Here's the original post from when Isla made her "I" vest back in October. It's the sort of thing I love as a mom. Though I wouldn't complain if, say, it happened the week before school got out instead of the week of ;) That's probably only because this mom is fried with all that is going on this week. SO.MUCH.STUFF. I've actually had to hire babysitters for Callum for two different things at the school this week...it's a long complicated story, but the kids school doesn't allow non-student minors on campus during school hours. Not to mention the other things I took him to - like this parade and the school picnic at the park. But I'm getting off track with all my angst. The parade is super cute and it's fun to see all the different vests. Some of them are just so creative. 

^^ Isla is in the middle of this picture, holding her hand up, waving at me, as they left their classroom to start the parade. 

Now on to the big kindergarten graduation! And then Isla's tap and ballet recitals this weekend. To say this week is busy is the understatement of the year. But we are making it through, not even one day, but one hour at a time.

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Isla's Thanksgiving Performance

Isla had her thanksgiving performance at school this past week. It is something only the kindergartners do. And it is the type of thing I totally eat up. They sang a few song, with hand motions of course. Isla was quite animated with it, specially the fat turkey part. She was also on the end, so literally turned and did her performance directly toward us the whole time. At one point, she also tried forcing the boy next to her to participate in the hand motions because he was just standing there...haha! It was a really cute little performance and she was totally jazzed about it.

^^ That moment when you see your mom and dad in the crowd...not that we were that hard to miss, with an uncooperative toddler in tow. 

^^ Performing just for us

^^ The fat turkey line

^^ One of her two new signature picture poses. The other one is a curtsey in which she does not look at the camera while doing it. 

^^ Isla and her buddy Pierson in what may be my favorite picture ever. Callum loves him just as much as Isla does. 

You guys, I seriously love kindergarten. It is such a sweet age. Also, there is a camaraderie among both the kids and the parents at this age. I don't know if it's the kindergarten only playground or what, but I really like it. All the kids play. The parents are more friendly, wanting to do play dates and there is even a once a week park date for the whole class after school. And it's not just Isla's class because it was the same way when Connor was in kindergarten. Maybe it's the age? Or that everyone isn't jaded with school yet? Or that it's half days? Who really knows, but I do know that I like it. 

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Kindergarten Goodness

Alternatively titled, Kindergartners and ALL their projects. 

Don't get me wrong, kindergarten is such a sweet time. But, when your kid brings home two projects the week of their birthday, which also happens to be the week the stomach flu took down two people in your house, it feels like a bit much. Alas, we survived. 

First up, Isla's letter vest. Every week a different letter is covered in class and one person gets to decorate a vest for that letter and there will be a letter vest parade at the end of the year. The kids all seem to covet the letter vest that starts with their name. So it was pretty cool that "i" was the letter the week of Isla's birthday and that she got that vest. Her and I went online and looked up various things that start with "i" and she picked the pictures she liked best. 

^^ This girl and her poses, I tell you! This is the back of the vest, but she didn't want to just turn around, so she turned the vest around. 

Next up was Isla bringing home the "birthday bag" from school. It included a birthday certificate, a special birthday book to read and a page to tell about what you did for your birthday. Then you bring it back to school and share it with the class. Isla drew a picture of herself blowing out the candles on her cake. I thought she did a really good job. I included a picture of her with her cake for reference ;)

^^ Isla could have written out what she did for her birthday herself, but she included a lot of detail and I knew there was no way she could write small enough to include it all, so I wrote it for her. But she wrote both her name and the date. 

It felt like the week of Isla's birthday was crazy, but I know she really enjoyed every single thing. I know it meant a lot for her to get the "i" vest, so I am glad she got it. Now I am looking forward to a break in school projects for a bit, haha!

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All About Isla

I am sure all kids are different. I totally get that. But some of the differences between boys and girls still shock me, and make me smile. Isla was so excited when she got to bring home her all about me poster to decorate. She wanted to waste no time and start working on it as soon as we got home. Her one request was that it was colorful. She was so into picking the different colors, coloring and drawing little pictures. I'm pretty sure her enthusiasm was much greater than Connor's two years prior. Also, she cares about coloring in the lines and completely much more than Connor did. 

Here is what it said on the poster, since it's kind of hard to read:

My favorite...

Color: pink, blue and purple

Animal: cat

Food: tomatoes and miso soup

Book: Fancy Nancy

Sport: swimmung and ballet

Thing to do at school: learn

Thing to do at home: spend time having fun with my family

I totally did NOT school her on those answers and those last two totally caught me off guard. Sweet girl. 

I am a star because: I'm really good at ballet (also, really humble)

I show others I care by: helping them in any way

Three supercool facts about me:

1. My big brother had the same kindergarten teacher as me

2. I do ballet

3. I'm like to swim

Let us take a moment to enjoy Isla writing her name in all caps, because it will probably be a last, given that they are now making her write it "properly". I will miss seeing that all caps name with the "S" that has changed and improved so much over the past two years that she has been writing. 

I always try to not sway the kids answers on these types of things. I love hearing about their true likes and dislikes. Also, I love hearing about the things that they are proud of. It's really cute and such a good snapshot of their lives at this exact moment. It won't be for much longer that Isla identifies our house as "the green house on Sycamore" or wants to be so many things that it's hard to decide. 

But kindergarten man, it's such a cute age and precious little moment in time.

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The First Day of School

I can kind of hardly believe it's been three years since my kids were last at the same school and had the same start date. But, now that Isla is in elementary school, they will be together again for the next several years. Yesterday was the beginning of the school year, second grade for Connor and kindergarten for Isla. 

For the third year in a row, Connor chose to wear a school shirt the first day of school. He wasn't nervous about the first day of school. He was excited to see some friends he hadn't seen all summer. After I got Isla from kindergarten, Connor's class was going to lunch just as we were walking by, so we yelled at him and waved. He waved back, so isn't too cool for his mom and sister yet...that's a good thing.  

^^ In full disclosure, when I asked Connor what he wanted to be when he grew up, he said "I don't know". I told him to just pick something and flight attendant is what he came up with...actually, he said "the person that gives you drinks on an airplane".

Isla seemed unfazed about starting kindergarten. Then again, she watched Connor go through it with the exact same teachers. But, the morning of school, she said she was nervous that there wouldn't be enough craft time. 

^^ These were Isla's top three choices as she said she wanted to be "a lot of things" so I told her to give me her top three. 

The first morning of school, the parents line the main hall and all the kids walk through for high fives. Ian went in the hall and I stayed outside with Callum. Connor walked through, but Isla didn't want to. We met Ian and Connor on the other side and walked Connor to his classroom, then watched him run off to the playground before walking Isla to her playground/classroom. After we watched Isla play for a bit, we left.

^^ On our way out, we waved at Connor going in his classroom for the first time. His class is right beside a side fence. 

It was a good day. One that apparently tired the kids out and helped all three of them fall asleep easy last night. 

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Connor's Kindergarten Graduation

You guys, I am over here all "How is Connor done with kindergarten?! Didn't he just start yesterday?" Seriously, this year has flown by. It doesn't feel like a whole school year ago that I was dropping him off for his first day. I'm going to miss all the adorableness and innocence that came with kindergarten. It truly was a special, special year.

^^ Literally running to line up after getting his diploma from his teacher…which, it was a fake diploma (just a white piece of paper rolled up and tied with a string). Connor couldn't get over the fact that they would give him a fake diploma during the ceremony and his real one after it.

^^ Connor and his amazing teacher. Connor loves her oh so much and I definitely feel the same. Connor actually said about this picture in a sad, sad voice, "This is the last known photo of me and Mrs. Pippin." Oh, that kid. 

They did the kindergarten graduation ceremony on the last day of school, during school hours. It was outside on the front lawn. One of my favorite parts may have been when all the kids came marching out of their classroom to pomp and circumstance. The kids then sung a few songs before getting their (fake) diplomas. After the ceremony was a little reception. All the kids got yearbooks (the school gave them out for free). I tried getting Connor to get some of his classmates to sign it, but he refused…in fact said in a voice that I wish I could bottle it up because I hear it from him far too often, "Do I have to?"

And just like that, kindergarten is behind us. I am excited for first grade for Connor. But I will definitely miss the adorableness of kindergarten. The colorful rugs, the tables down the center of the room, parents coming in to help with "centers", the kids having their own playground, study buddies. It really was a good year.

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Connor's Kindergarten Open House

 

^^ This is Connor's drawing of a fish and here is what he had to say about fish, "Some fish are creepy, some fish are fierce, some fish are dangerous." It would appear he isn't too fond of fish! 

Connor's school open house was this past week, on my birthday. A couple days before, they brought home an invite to the open house that they wrote the information on and drew a picture of what they were most excited to show us. Connor drew a butterfly. His class is watching caterpillars turn into butterflies, so I thought that's what he meant. Turns out that he meant the butterfly craft where he is the butterfly…and, I'm not biased or anything, but I think that's a cuter butterfly anyway!

Connor acted oddly shy about his open house. Turns out he does have a bit of my personality! He didn't want any of his grandparents to come. And when his study buddy Matt (the kindergartners each have a 6th grader they meet with once a week) came in his class to say hi, he just stared at the ground refusing to talk.

The classroom was crazy busy, so after finding all of Connor's work (some was even hanging from the ceiling!) and letting Connor show us some of the stuff his teacher uses to teach with, we took off. I did try to get Connor to go look at the first grade classrooms before we left, but he got all shy about it. I did peek my head in, so I would have more of an idea on what to expect for him for next year. I can't believe Connor's first year of elementary school is already almost over. Time really does fly.

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