Kindergarten Graduation

As much as I head been dreading it, May 24th came upon us. As the end of the school year approached, I was getting really, really sad. I absolutely loved Parkway and loved his teachers, the curriculum, the atmosphere, etc, etc, etc. I saw Tyler grow in leaps and bounds over the year and I knew that we made the best choice by putting him in school there. And the sadness came from knowing that he had to go to a different school after this, since the program was just a Kindergarten program. But all that aside, it was still very worth it for him to go there and I love what he learned and the atmosphere he was in. He ended the year reading and writing so well, we were so proud of him!

So for the big graduation (which I always thought Kindergarten graduations were kind of funny and totally unnecessary, but I must say I thought his was super sweet and I loved it!), his class had prepared a program of many songs they had learned throughout the year. Since he was attending a Presbyterian school, many of the songs were religious based. And I kind of laughed at the program looking at some of the song names, since they were so different than the ones we are used to. But once they started singing them, I totally loved them all. I also love that he was attending a religious school and they didn't have to avoid talking about it.

Here is the class singing some songs...

saying the Pledge of Allegience, and singing the Star Spangled Banner.

And finally, diploma time!

The after party. :)

A cute frog cookie for each member of the Kermit Class.

For his graduation, they sent home a star with each of the kids and had us put pictures in each point of the star for each year of his life. So I went through pictures from birth to 5 years...as if that wasn't emotional! Sheesh! I was wanting to pick up that squishy little baby and kiss his cheeks and love on him. He just seemed so grown up after looking at all those pictures!

Tyler & Ms. Jane...aka, the queen of reading. This lady has a gift and it is teaching kids how to read. She is amazing!!!

Hayden, Jonathan, and Tyler...buddies.

And look how lucky we were! Grandma & Grandpa Thalgott were able to come spend a week with us and be there for Tyler's graduation. It was SO great to have them there! (And you can see just how happy Sam was to have some pictures taken!)

Tyler and Ms. Janelle. She was responsible for keeping him in line, helping him remember the ins & outs of the daily grind. She is awesome!

And then, it was time for us all to sneak a picture with our favorite Kindergarten graduate!

As cheesy as I once thought Kindergarten graduations were, I was very proud of my graduate that night. He's a great kid!!

Merry Christmas!

I'll quickly break from my big push to blog this past year's events and jump ahead to today. We hope you've all had a very Merry Christmas! It has been a wonderful day at our house, and I hope to be able to recap it here on the blog soon, but for now I'll share just a couple of pictures. It seems a rare occurrence that we are all in a picture together, so I'm pleased as punch that we've been able to have a few recently that we've all been in! We talked some friends into helping us out for a Christmas card photo, which many of you have probably already seen (above).

And last night we headed to Gramercy, LA for yet another Christmas Eve, Cajun style. We saw the bonfire lighting events, which included the most insane fireworks we have EVER witnessed. Ever. And I mean it, no exaggeration! It's impossible to describe, but definitely going to leave a permanent memory (and possible permanent hearing loss too!).
And I figure if we're all going to get dressed up for church on Christmas day, we'd better document it. Thankfully, I had a tripod handy! It's a rare occurrence that we are showered and dressed and out of our PJ's at all on Christmas, let alone by 9 am! It was a wonderful way to celebrate Christmas and I'm really glad we were able to go to church today. We hope you've all experienced a wonderful Christmas and have made some great memories. More updating soon!

End of Year Events

With all of the things that May brought, it also brought the end of the school year. As the school year approached, I started to get very sad. I absolutely loved Tyler's kindergarten program and his teachers and everything about it. I couldn't have imagined him being at a better place. But the sad part about it was that the program ends at kindergarten so we had to start looking into other schools. And to make a long story short, that came with a lot of stress and it made me so sad. I just wanted him to stay at Parkway! Parkway was perfect! But amidst it all, we still enjoyed some of the events that came at the end of the year. First off was the big field trip to the Destrehan Plantation. I was able to fine someone to watch Sam so I could drive and chaperone. I hadn't been able to spend a whole ton of time in Tyler's classroom throughout the year, so this was a fun opportunity for me to watch him with his class. The plantation was beautiful too. We learned a lot about life back then and I admired anybody who could live in the South and wear a big huge dress and cook all day...all without a bit of air conditioning. The thought of it makes me nauseous. Blech!

Our tour guide was wonderful. She used to be a kindergarten teacher herself, so of course she was fabulous with the kids!

She was demonstrating how they put the candles out every night.

The outhouse...another thing I can't imagine!

This was Tyler's favorite part. They were able to shell the corn and make cornmeal. They used the old contraption to do it and ground it by hand.

Tyler also took the laundry washing very seriously, apparently!

We had a good time and I was glad I had the chance to go with him!

Next up on the events list was his motor development program. Since his school also had a pre-school, they had a little motor development program that they went to once a week. It's kind of like a PE program for really young kids. They would work on a specific skill each time, like jumping and bouncing a ball, etc. So at the end of the year, the kindergarten put on a "circus" and performed their skills. The boys were all part of a basketball team and the girls were the cheerleaders and they put on a cute little production. I actually do think this little program helped Tyler a lot with his coordination. He wasn't born with a lot of it and so he's had to learn it as he goes and he has improved so much this last year and a half!

I just loved his cute little class!

The best brothers in the whole world!

And with these events out of the way, that can only mean one thing was left--graduation!!