Kindergarten...here we come!

Last week, Nolan celebrated his graduation from Preschool! 

We prepared simple Thank You cards for his teachers for the big day. 

I wrote a personal note to each of them. Then Nolan signed his name, stuffed a Target gift card inside, licked and sealed the envelopes and addressed them! He loves to give gifts and we enjoy working on projects together.  

When he woke up the morning of his graduation, there was a special treat waiting for him! He loved it! 

After a good breakfast we headed over to school. 

The celebration was held outside at the playground. It was a beautiful day and the weather was perfect! 

 The Preschoolers had a small celebration first and then it was time for the Pre-K kids to graduate.

His teacher said some touching words about how this was a hard year to send your child to school with all of the tragedies that have happened involving schools this year. But that she was so blessed by us parents entrusting our children to her. 

Then as each child was called up, she described each child personally, and was very thoughtful with her words. As a parent, that was so special! She knew Nolan so well and had such kind things to say about him. 

 Then she handed him his diploma and announced that he was now a KINDERGARTENER! 

And down the slide he went! 

They had a little bubble machine blowing too! 

It was super simple, but super cute! And I LOVED their little graduation caps too! 

After the ceremony, we had a picnic to celebrate with all of our friends and families! 

This is Nolan, Allison, and Lennon. They are all in the same class! Quite different sizes though. Nolan and Allison will be moving on to Kindergarten next year. Lennon will do one more year of Preschool. All of the classes at Douglas County Preschools are mixed ages- from 3 to 5 years old. They do a lot of ability grouping and differentiation to meet the diverse needs of the students in each class. Nolan was always engaged and challenged. And he always had fun! He loves school! 

Opa and Oma came to celebrate our big guy! 

These three guys are good buddies. Nolan, Sam, and Evan. They both came to his birthday party this year too. His teacher always tells me that Sam and Evan race to see who can sit by Nolan on the carpet. They are both such sweet boys. And I've enjoyed getting to know their parents as well. Sam and Nolan have been in the same class for the past two years. They sure will miss each other as they are going to different schools next year. But we are going to try to stay in touch and do some play dates this summer as well. 

Here are Nolan and Evan with Mrs. Blake. Or Miss Deborah as the kids call her. She was such a blessing this year. Encouraging, gentle, loving...just what Nolan needs! We sure will miss her! But we are already praying for the perfect match in his Kindergarten teacher. I know God has big things in store for Nolan next year at Mammoth Heights! 

We ate and played and played and ate and all of us Mom's had to drag our children off the playground 2 hours later! It was such a fun way to end a great year! 

 Mark and I both took the day off of work so that we could spend the day as a family, celebrating Nolan's school success! 

I love all of these pictures that we snapped when we got home! 

Nolan is so proud of his accomplishments! And we are too! 

Check out his diploma. It is so special! 

We can't believe that we have a child old enough to lose a tooth, and now old enough to go to KINDERGARTEN! We know that he is so ready. We know that he is super bright. We know he will learn so much! We know that he will share, and care, and make new friends. And we know that he will have so much fun doing it all! 

Nolan we love you to pieces and pieces! We are so proud of the kind and smart boy you are. We pray that God will continue to strengthen you, to challenge you, to build your confidence, and to deepen your love and understanding of Him! You amaze us each day!