Ryan's Last Days of Preschool

Does he look different? Grown? 

First day of school...

Last day of school...

I'm sad to say, for many reasons, that last Wednesday was the last day for Ryan in his preschool classroom. I will seriously miss his lovely teacher, Mrs. Meyer. She is caring and gracious, and provided Ryan with a perfect, gentle transition to school life. I can only hope and pray that he'll have many teachers like her in his career as a student. I look forward to popping in to visit her a couple times next year (She said we could!). And I am so glad that Evan will be able to [officially] be in her class the year after that.

One last read aloud. 

(Ryan's in stripes on the right hand side.)

The read aloud pictured above was part of informal chapel that the preschoolers and kindergartners do together. After the story, they sang this song. 

How cute was Evan in that video? Catching on to the song speedy quick. 

Mrs. Meyer had arranged one last field trip for last Thursday. The class went to The Discovery Zone in St. Joe and then took a spin on the carousel.

Ryan plays with classmates, Riley and Ami, at The Discovery Zone. 

Evan, Ryan, Levi and Hayden wait for their turn on the carousel. 

The carousel has a table of props that kids can wear as they ride. Ryan chose an Elmo hat. 

Happy end-of-preschool, Ryan. Next stop, Kindergarten. 

Evan's Antics

He plays rough and loud, a ball of energy. He's a picky eater, unless it's sweet. He's always asking "What?" He has an adorable smile. He is insanely ticklish. He's pretty hilarious. He loves nursery rhymes. His current favorite song is Joshua Giraffe by Raffi. He likes music and dancing. He is an athlete. He's really good at puzzles. I think he'd watch TV, play iPad and Wii all day, if we let him. He keeps careful track of his family and likes us all to be together. He's shy at times. He is becoming more articulate with his feelings and thoughts. He's one smart cookie too. He keeps up with his brother and does not back down, even when it would be easier to do so. 

Whether he's driving me crazy, making me laugh or somewhere in between... 

He's pure Evan. 

Our Little E

Our Baby

We love you Bugaboo!

Mother's Day Tea

Last Thursday, Ryan's class hosted a Mother's Day Tea. It was such a sweet event. When we arrived, all the tables were set up with tissue paper flowers in water bottle vases that the kids had made, along with other little gifts. There was a plate set up for me with different food items arranged to make the shape of a butterfly. So cute. 

Mrs. Meyer took this picture when I arrived and was greeting Ryan. He had just presented me with a little gift that he had wrapped himself. (It was a bookmark, which is now the only bookmark I'll use.)

The kids sang some songs for us. The first one they sang made me cry, cry, cry. I tell the boys they are "happy tears" and try to explain that I am so proud of them that I sometimes cry "happy tears." Here's a video. 

"Oh, what a miracle, every little part of me." 

Truly.

Then they sang a song about Walter the Waltzing Worm. The verses described how Walter wiggles around their bodies in different ways. I love these pictures of Ryan and his "worm." You can see on his face, he's immersed in the imagination of this song. 

After the songs, we ate our snacks and then played outside where we took this selfie. Me and my bug on a very memorable Mother's Day.

Ryan has precious few days left of preschool. I've been so happy with his teacher, Mrs. Meyer. As a friend of mine said, no one does Mother's Day better than preschool teachers. We are very lucky and thankful that Ryan had such a lovely lady to help his enter the world of school.

Weeding

Burke is getting the garden ready for the season with the help of Ryan and Evan. 

The day after the above picture was taken, Burke had a little more weeding to do. He told Evan he was going to go out and keep working on the garden, picking up where they left off the day before. Burke was relaxing after work and was taking his time heading outside. Evan got tired of waiting. Before I knew it, he had put on his own shoes and gloves and was in the garden, pulling weeds, all by himself. 

I ran out to take pictures of my Little E taking initiative with those weeds, while cajoling Burke to get outside and join him. Here Evan shows off a weed he just pulled. He was pretending he was pulling carrots. 

The next day, I had to go to the hardware store to get light bulbs. So, I also picked up these proper kid-sized gardening gloves for Evan, which he loves. He said he never wants to take them off. (Prior to this purchase, he had been wearing gloves that came with a toy tool set.)

Watching Evan really enjoy the dirt, tools, being outside and working with Burke, reminded me of this series of pictures I took in May 2011. Evan loved all these things already as a tiny 17 month old version of himself.

p.s. To see more of these pictures, type "Vegetable Garden" in the search box in the upper left corner. It's worth it!