Preschool graduation/ party!

So this post goes very much against the chronological freak that I am. I still have a lot to share of what we did this last month, but right now, I want to share what we did yesterday.

As you know, the co-op preschool group I started here with 3 other fabulous, awesome moms from church has been a big part of my life. Since September, twice a week we met, taking turns teaching in our homes. The kids learned about so many different topics including different animals, plants, the world, culture, music, science, outer space, families, being children of God, etc. They also learned their alphabet and numbers up to 100. It's amazing to see kids who didn't even recognize their letters now able to recognize both lower and upper case letters, and know the sounds that they make. They went from only being able to count to 10 to counting to 100 by 10s and by 1s (though sometimes needing a little bit of help.) They went from kind of knowing each other at church, to becoming the best of friends. It has been an amazing year teaching these sweet preschoolers, and I will really miss them and their moms.

We thought it would be fun to have a little graduation/ party for them at the end of the school year (which is a little early, but since we are moving back to the states on Monday, it had to end early.) I am up to my eyeballs in preparing for moving, but thankfully, the other three moms took charge and put together an awesome party for our sweet kids. It was a perfect, sunny, spring day with a high around 79. Woo hoo! Alexandra loves to prepare food and prepared ALL of the food for the party. She must be a pinterest queen. Check out how beautiful this food looked!

Just in case you can't tell, the cheese and pineapple are in the shape of stars! 

Adorable ho ho diplomas

The kids were ready to eat!

The cutest little graduation hat cupcakes were a huge hit! (The hats were made of  mini Reese's peanut butter cups, with a piece of a Hershey's chocolate bar on top. On top of that is a peanut m&m with a piece of licorice for the tassle. So cute! And tasty!)

Also not picture were chicken wings, watermelon, and drinks including water bottles that had a paper that said class of 2013 on it. Alexandra is a rock star!

Most of the time, the kids just had a great time playing together at the park. Alisha prepared some activities for them though. She printed out a whole bunch of pictures that were taken during preschool throughout the year. We had them glue the pictures onto some construction paper (which they got bored of so the moms finished for them.) Then I took them home and laminated them to turn them into a little yearbook/ memory book of their year in preschool.

Alisha also prepared a little slideshow of pictures on her computer to a graduation song she had when she graduated. The kids all sat together and watched that. They were excited to point out who's house they were at in the pictures.

Later, we had them put on their little graduation hats that Lyn made for them. They were adorable and had the kids' names on them. The kids LOVED their hats. We took some pictures of the kids together and of course, let them throw their hats in the air!

They just LOVE each other (though poor Lily wasn't feeling well.)

Alexandra with Sarah, Lyn with Lily, Alisha with Tommy, and me with Claire. 

I just adore these mamas!

Throwing their caps up in the air!

Afterwards, instead of diplomas, we gave them gifts. Alexandra prepared little gift bags with crayons and other crafty things for the kids. She also got the book "Oh, the Places You'll Go" by Dr. Seuss for each of them. Each of us wrote in each of the books a little note to the child. Hopefully, future teachers can do the same, and it can be a special book for them.

We had such a great time together to celebrate all the kids had learned, all the hard work we put into teaching, and our friendships we established. What a perfect afternoon!

Finally, a few cute Maddie pictures.

Relaxing, enjoying a snack.

That mischievous look I adore.