Kindergarten Graduation!

Hello there!

How are you?  We are all fine here.  I've been MIA for the last week, but we've been busy with end of the school year activities!  Last Wednesday, June 1, Abby and Emma had their kindergarten graduation ceremony.  It was so cute!

All of the kids were assembled on one side of the room, watching their parents come in.  There were chairs on the other side of the room, for the guests.  If you look carefully, in the back row, you'll see our girls.  Abby is directly in front of the yellow flowers, and Emma is 2 seats to the right.

Abby, volunteering for something, their classmate N, and Emma.

Once the guests got settled (and it was a PACKED house!), the kindergarteners sang a selection of some of the songs they had learned this year, some complete with hand motions.

They were really cute, and finished with The Star Spangled Banner.

They all put on their caps, which had been stowed under their chairs.  The boys wore blue and the girls wore red, which are the school colors.  The teacher read a poem that she had written, about how special they were as a class, and how much she was hating to say goodbye to them.  She got really choked up, and started to cry, which I think undid most of the moms in the room!

This is Mrs. Blanch.  The girls really loved her, and Katie is hoping to have her next year!

Each child was called up, and when they got to the front of the room, Mrs. Blanch gave them each a hug.  They were also given promotion certificates, but those had been placed at their chairs.  The certificates are really nice:  they are in a folder, with the certificate in the left hand side, and a graduation picture in the right side.
Here is Abby:

And here is Emma:

After the ceremony, it was time to mingle with the graduates, and share some refreshments.  They had pizza, cookies, cupcakes, and punch, but I steered the girls away, as I had a surprise planned for them after school.  Here are pictures of the people that were there from our family:

Katie, Brianna, Maddie, Dick, and Mom.  Brianna's boyfriend was there too.



Brittany's boyfriend, Brittany, and I.  Don and I each had a camera, that's how I managed to get in there.  I'm horrible though, I didn't take a picture of him!



Don's mom, Rita.  She came up the night before, and stayed for the rest of the week.

Becky was able to get the time off from work.

Unfortunately, Dad and Ann couldn't make it, as they were getting ready to fly to NJ for a family wedding.

After school, I loaded everyone in the cars and we went to Chuck E. Cheese's to celebrate.  I don't have any pictures from there, as it is crazy enough keeping track of the kids, without trying to take pictures of them too.  We were there for 3 hours, so suffice it to say that all of the adults were exhausted!

When we came home, I made a cake to have after dinner.  The kids got a kick out of it!

Here is Maddie, practicing for her turn in 4 years:

And here are our graduates, class of 2023 (yikes!):

Abby

Emma

Tomorrow, pictures from the last day of school!