Pre-K Graduation

Ace absolutely loved Pre-K this year!  He made some great friends, there were many play dates,  there was lots of things learned during school.  He had a blast throughout the year and I think we were all sad to say goodbye to this chapter in his life.    Ace is now primary school bound! 

On graduation day, Ace again chose to be a fireman!
At school when asked a week or two prior he said he wanted to be an electrician.

 Another great year of theme days, fun times, and adventures! 

He was always excited to go to school, missed it when it wasn't a school day, and was always asking when he could see his friends again.     It was a great experience for him and for all of us!   We were so proud of his what he learned and how he grew this year!

So proud of my boy!!
Dad was sad to have missed graduation, but he was away on a mission.

 

Pop Pop was able to come and Ace was so excited to see him!

Some of Ace's BFFs from his class!

He met Lu on Day One and they were inseparable from the start!

Congrats, Ace!  Here is to a whole new world of adventure waiting for you in just a few short weeks when you begin kindergarten!!!

2012 in Pictures

A Christmas Program

I was so glad that Ace was able to attend his school program at school after he had missed his class party from being sick.    He made an adorable shepherd even if he wasn't terribly keen in participating in the songs or actions after that much was complete.   I still loved to see him in the program and I caught a few glimpses of excitement here and there.  :)    Regardless, this mama was proud to see the boy in a nativity play.



 

It's surreal to think that this was his first and only Christmas program in preschool.   Our little man is growing up and will be in kindergarten next year!   Gasp!

Pre-K

Oh right - way back in the day in the month called September - our littlest man adventured to his first day of Pre-K.   We started our morning out with pancakes and a Skyped call with Grammie.   Loving Husband had to get to work early and so sadly wasn't able to hang back to enjoy the first day of school this time around.   Ace was super excited about school (and the pancakes!)

After we finished up breakfast he got dressed in his school clothes and headed out to take his First Day of School pictures and and Mae was excited to participate as well.    Then off we headed to school!

He was so excited to go to school and ran right in and put his folder where it's supposed to go and he was off playing without a second look back then.  Bye then!  :) 

After school we went to pick him up and he was happy to see us.  Mae really wanted to wear the backpack and so Ace let her and upon getting back to the car I had lunch awaiting him and he was quite excited about it.  :)   Let the new school year begin!  

Fast forward to today - Ace continues to love school - has made one new best friend - and misses his old ones from last year.    He loves his teacher, he's learning all sorts of things and is very close to reading!   We're very proud of him!

Our Graduate!

Last Day of School!  Ace decided he wanted to be a fireman...
although the day before it was a policeman.

Ace had a great first 'year' of preschool!  Yes, our time has drawn to a close on our first school experience!   He loved it!  There were many MANY theme days and he enjoyed participating in almost all of them.  

The big day arrived and it was just as big of a production as his mother's day program.  Loving Husband echoed the sentiment stated by the dad in The Incredibles about celebrating mediocrity and merely moving from one grade to another - and while yes, it's true, it's still something to be proud of.  It was his first (half) year of school completed and he is fully done with preschool (technically!)   Next year he begins Pre-K at the same school site. 

The ceremony began with them all walking in to graduation pomp and circumstance.  It was cute as they all filed in with their teacher and their borrowed hats on.  

After class pictures were taken, the hats were collected and the program of 10 songs began.   Ace was less enthused to participate in these as he was the Mother's Day program but he still enjoyed some of them.    Particularly he loved "Apples and Bananas"  song (you know the one where you change the vowels)   and especially enjoyed the props.  :)

Ace and his friend ... and other kid who I didn't get permission to put his face on the interwebs, so I won't. :)

After the program was over they received their diplomas and buckets.  Pictures were taken with his teacher and then we enjoyed some cookies and chatting with his teacher and classmates.  

 Ace will really miss his favorite friend from school. They no longer will be in the same class come the fall. Ace is moving on to Pre-K and his friend who won't start kindergarten in 2013 will remain in the preschool class for an extra year. Ultimately they'll still see each other for playdates, but it won't be the same and I know Ace is a little sad.

Mae wanted in on the picture action as well. :)

We are so proud of our boy!  It was a great first year of school for Ace.   Can't wait to see the adventures he has in the fall!

Our graduate!

My First Mother's Day Program

The Tuesday before Mother's Day was Ace's Mother's Day Program at his preschool.   He was so excited, he told us he had been practicing his songs forEVER and that they had lots of movements that made his eyes hurt to watch the teachers do.    Loving Husband and Mae joined me in attendance (LH was the only dad, but I was glad he was there to help with Mae and video tape every now and again!!) 

We arrived and sat down at the tables and then the kids arrived to put on their chef hats and serve us cookies and enjoy them with us.

After we enjoyed our cookies - it was time to dance.  The kids had learned a dance that they then taught to all the moms and then after we practiced we did the dance together.   It was a lot of fun.  Hopping, dancing, clapping... lots of multiple action commands for their little preschool selves to keep track of.  :)

After our dance it was time for their program to begin and let me say that it was not just a small affair.  No the kids had over ten songs that they sang.  Most of them had actions, sign language, or instruments that they used during the various songs.    Ace covered his ears a few times, had a lot of wiggles, some ignoring of instructions, and some spot on participation!  It was plain adorable!!  Although the loudest I cracked up was during "Hickory Dickory Dock.. the mouse ran up the clock... the clock struck three.. the mouse said WEEE (Ace grabbed his butt with a face of great amusement!) Hickory Dickory Dock!"

Waiting to begin...

Ace and his friend had a lot of fun standing next to each other. 

When the program was over it was time to be presented with artwork that Ace had made for me.  He again was very proud to give me his drawings and hand/feet prints and I was very happy to have them.  It was a special performance and quite impressive amount of time for 3-4 year olds to sing that many songs!  

A Manly Rainbow...

Tomorrow is 'Rainbow Day' at preschool - typically on Color Days you wear the color.   This month's color is 'rainbow' -  yes he could have chosen his favorite color - or he could have worn several different colored clothing (although honestly, I am pretty sure I fail to collect the whole rainbow in an Ace fitting wardrobe)  so I went to the masses for suggestions.   My friend Rachel had the idea that I let him color on a shirt with markers.   There were other good suggestions, all of them involving the need to go to the store for supplies.  I had no desire to go shopping today.   So I decided to 'make it work' and went on the hunt.

First, I had to find a shirt that he could color on that was light in color and didn't have anything else on it.   That was pretty much impossible.  So next I went on the hunt and found a shirt that he had long since outgrown and flipped it over and created a canvas for him to draw on.    Next up was trying to figure out how to keep the shirt with the piece of cardstock I had put in it from sliding around too much.  So I decided some painters tape on their floor mural (butcher paper from the day before they colored on) would do just fine.  

I handed Ace the sharpies and gave him the instructions.   He was very excited (after he had scolded me for making the square in the first place "You don't draw on clothes, mom!") and decided he wanted to write his name.   Mae decided she wanted to help too - which we allowed with the cap on!   Ace was very patient with her poking in her artistic imagined drawings in between his own and she was happy with her results so it was good fun  had by all.   Eventually Ace deemed his project complete and we moved into the next round.

I grabbed the pinking shears and found a plain long sleeve shirt that we had in a size that fit.   Pinned it and sewed it in place.    However, it was a big enough square that it needed some extra pinning down.  So I took the same zig zag setting and made some various zig zags throughout the shirt in an artsy fashion.

Wala!  Now the boy has a creative and manly rainbow-ish shirt to wear for Rainbow Day.   :)   He was pretty excited by this project and aside for the time it took to hunt down what I was going to use the whole thing took about 20 minutes.   Time well spent.  It's far from perfect and I think if I did it again I probably wouldn't use the pinking shears as it kind of makes a 'ruffle' effect that isn't so manly. ;-)  But overall for wearable art it's not too bad.   I used sharpies so for the most part it should even hold up somewhat in the wash. 

Ace's Valentines

With Ace in school it means that he gets to participate in a Valentine's Day party which means making Valentines for all of his classmates and passing them out.   Which also means for this mommy one more creative outlet!    Ace really has been into pirates lately.  He loves Jake and the Neverland Pirates,  he loves to dress up like a pirate, and let's not forget the 3rd birthday party that was pirate themed!    So when I came across Mer Mag's post with such cute little pirate themed Valentines I couldn't resist (she's got super cute girl pirates too!)  
I printed them out, cut them out, and then put Ace to work writing the "A" in his name.  I didn't want to force him to write his whole name.   After all this is his first exposure to Valentine's of this nature and I didn't want it to seem like work - I wanted it to be fun.   So without hesitation Ace sat down and wrote his "A" over and over 12 times.   He did a great job.  It honestly was the first time he has sat down and done something like this.  Although I school him regularly on various things - we haven't really started practicing writing his letters - so now that he's got the A pretty well down - I think we might start to practice with some of his other letters.

After he finished his portion of the Valentines I got started doing the rest.  I sewed on the little felt heart eye patch, wrote "You're GRRReat!" on all of them, finished writing out his name and eventually sewed a bag of M&Ms (Ace's choice) to the back of each one using a nice wave pattern.   

His Valentines were a hit (and the only 'homemade' ones)  He was very excited to tell me all about how they walked around with their Valentines and put one in each of the kids folders that were attached to their chairs.  I was glad he was so excited to share his treats.  :)   

Now for a side note... I don't seem to recall candy being as so much of a Valentine's Day thing - I remember a lot of little cards with various characters - but not so much the candy... anyone else remember the same from 'our' childhood or was I just among an unpopular crowd of stingy candy givers?  ;-)

Ace's First Day

Last night I went to bed and set my alarm... for the first time in a long time. Since I quit work the only time that I officially needed an alarm was in the event that we had a doctor or dentist appointment.   It's been nice for the last 4 years, I must say.   Today dawned a new era of the return of the alarm clock (2 days a week!)   I got up at 7 and got myself ready to go, then went into Ace's room and he was mostly awake.     He asked "When is it time to get up?  Is it time for preschool?!"  He was sleepy, but excited!
I got him partially dressed, grabbed him some cereal and apples for breakfast, and grabbed the scissors do to a bit of maintenance on his hair that has gotten quite shaggy.  He was less of fan of that.   We grabbed his shirt and finished getting him dressed.  Got his coat and backpack on and he posed for his first morning of school picture in front of the door.  We left Mae with Mo who was still here visiting us, said goodbye and the three of us headed on to school.

We arrived at school and he was so excited to get out of the car, did great going in, and met his teacher Miss Megan.    After meeting Miss Megan he shied into his father's shoulder.    We met a new friend who also was having his first day and we all walked upstairs together with Miss Megan.    Ace and his new friend got to pick their cubbies to hang their coats and their backpacks.   Ace shied away and said "I don't want to do it."  I helped him get it all put in and as we're doing this he asks "When are you coming back to get me?" I assured him we would be back in a few hours and that he'd have a good time.

We went into his classroom and he got to look around and he and his new friend went over and checked out some toys with his teacher.   Us parents hung back and after a few minutes went over to say goodbye.   Which he barely acknowledged - so we headed out.

Fast forward a couple of hours in which time we had breakfast, Mae had a short nap, and I made Ace a lunch - it was time to go collect him.    Mae came this time and was having a lot of fun playing as I looked around for Ace.  Most of the kids were in the main play area and Ace was busy walking around in the classroom busy as can be.   He came out and smiled really big, and gave me a hug.  He went to grab his stuff and I talked to the teacher who gave a glowing review for his first day.

We hopped in the car and I gave him his lunch which he was VERY excited about and he scarfed.  In fact as I was driving home he was done and wanting more... so we swung through McD's where he consumed 4 nuggets and fries.  I drove us around as he told me about his day "I played for 'thirty hours!', did a project, sang about shapes, played with Matthew, and didn't go do the race (?) outside because it was too cold, and my teacher turned out the lights when she talked to us."

As soon as we got home he showed me his project and showed me his book fair flyer (and so it begins!)  so we looked through that before nap time (which he ultimately he did not take,...)  and marked the end of his first first day of school which he says he's excited to go to again on Thursday!