VPK Graduation

It is so hard to believe that the boys' first school year has already come to an end. It was a long school year in some aspects but it also flew by. The boys have grown & learned so much over the past 9 months. They loved school, their teachers & their friends but drop off was hard every single day until about 6 weeks ago or so. They started VPK knowing their shapes, colors, letters & numbers (up to 10) & finished knowing so SO much more. I'm usually entertained in the car by them coming with compound words or doing math equations. Caden loves to show us how high he can count, I think he's up to 160+. They know lots of sight words & are sounding out words beginning to read. They know their months, seasons, & how many days are in a year. They learned about the planets, fruits vs vegetables, all about their teeth & lots of other stuff. They are all social butterflies & think everyone they meet is their friend. 

Kellan, Caden, & Garren, the last day of school.

Their classmates

Caden, Garren & Kellan with their teacher, Mrs Inez.

Caden, Garren, & Kellan with their beloved asst teacher, Ms Justine.

The boys' graduation was the very next day. They were so excited leading up to it! They each learned a line for graduation & a dance routine to the song What I Am. They also sang a song in Spanish.

Here they are walking in to receive their diplomas...

Kellan

Caden

Garren

Walking across the stage...

Kellan

Caden

Garren

All Graduated!

Caden, Garren, & Kellan with Mrs Inez

(We didn't get an after picture with Ms Justine because her oldest graduated too & she was busy with him)

 From NICU Grads to VPK Grads, here's the best photo of the whole year!

Kellan, Garren, Caden

VPK Spring Pictures

I wasn't expecting spring school pictures but I guess those photo companies take every chance they get to make money, so when they came in to do graduation pics, we got spring photos too.

It's amazing how much they have changed just since the beginning of the school year. I'll be on the verge of tears for the next week or so leading up to the last day of school & graduation, just fyi...

Caden

Garren

Kellan

We'll go ahead & call these their 5 year old pics too. I think we've spent more on school photos this year than we ever have with any of the photographers we've used.

St Patrick's Day 2016

This is pretty much how any request for a photo goes these days...

Garren, Kellan, & Caden

The boys' school had their Easter party on St Patricks Day since the kids would be on Spring Break the week of Easter. The boys loved it! They told me they had an easter egg hunt & that Christopher found the golden egg. They weren't allowed to open their eggs though, the plastic eggs were sealed shut with a sticker which I thought was pretty genius since the boys are usually distracted by what is in the first egg they find instead of continuing their hunt for more eggs. We may try this at home!

The day before they decorated buckets with cotton balls & made them into bunnies. 

A couple days before the party their teacher told me they forgot to hang a sign up sheet for Easter Basket fillers in addition to the party food sign up they did hang. I told her I had some stuff stocked up for such occasions, so I donated plastic eggs, candy, trinkets, peeps, & a small dollar spot gift for the Easter Baskets. The boys and I also made 'peep rice crispy treats' & a fruit salad for the party.

December...

I am so far behind!!!
So here is a quick recap of the boys Christmas activities throughout December...

Santa came to Lowes' Build & Grow workshop!

The boys gave hugs, got candy & build a wooden Choo Choo Train.

They love these workshops & are really getting the hang of building themselves with just a little instruction from us :)

Kellan (in swim goggles) Garren (wearing paper reindeer antlers) Caden & MomMom

Our town had a Holiday Festival complete with parade (that we missed) so we took the boys to have some fun. There were arts & crafts & of course food but the only thing that REALLY mattered was the Bounce House Fun Zone! The boys ran into some friends & bounced to their little hearts content!

Our neighborhood had a Christmas party complete with train rides! The boys & their friends & even some of the parents rode a couple times. The line was long! We checked out the party in the clubhouse but it was pretty crowded so we took the party, along with some friends back to our house.

MomMom & the boys

The boys & friends

I don't think the last 2 weeks of school before Christmas break consisted of anything but Christmas projects, food, caroling, candy & parties! In fact, I know it didn't because the boys didn't even have homework those 2 weeks, lol...

They built Gingerbread houses

Kellan's house (above) was the only one in the whole class that stayed standing,

apparently there was a tornado that blew thru & took out the rest ;)

There was a lot of Santa hat wearing...

& even a pajama day before Christmas break.

We went to Zoo Lights...

Darren started the evening a little rowdy & had a run in with the pavement,

he used his injury to woo girls the rest of the night.

It worked like a charm!

Kellan, Caden, Canan, Eric & Garren enjoying some glow in the dark cotton candy

Chillin'

Airboat... I mean sleigh ride.

We baked cookies!

We crashed my sisters cookie baking day but she enjoyed the extra help!

Chandler

Caden

Kellan

Garren

Nadia

All the cookie baker/decorators 

And that is a glimpse of our Pre-Christmas activities.

Soccer

The boys started soccer again, this time it's with a non competitive group that meets right at their school. They're focus is on teaching the skills of the game & their coach says they are naturals. If they are loving it & want to, we'll sign them up with the county team in the spring.