The End of the School year

This post has been a long time coming! I've been meaning to recap our end of the school year festivities, and well, the end of the school year was crazy busy! And then my camera card was broken and then we moved, so you're getting this post several weeks late!

Megan finished her last year at ILCAP. We have loved, loved, loved her school (it's the same preschool that Gretchen attended). Megan has just blossomed and grown in ways that I couldn't even imagine for her! And, it's 1,000% because of her teacher. I will sing her praises forever. She took my shy, timid, wild child and loved her. She brought her out of her shell and really taught her. At the beginning of the year, Megan couldn't count to 10 in order and was just okay with her shapes and colors. Now, she can not only count to 10, identify all of her shapes, and colors, but she also can identify all of the letters in the alphabet, name them, and write her name! She has grown by leaps and bounds, and I'm just crazy impressed and thrilled with her progress! 

It made me really sad to make the decision to take Megan out of ILCAP for her 4 year old year. I wavered on it and prayed about it for months. Finally, I decided that as a family, we needed Megan to attend a school closer to my work, and she's really excited about her new school for next year! 

At the end of the school year, ILCAP holds a "graduation" ceremony for the 3 and 4 year olds. Technically the 3 year olds just sing, but the 4 year olds get to walk with little caps on their heads, and it's the sweetest thing ever. I bawled when Gretchen had her graduation ceremony, and then I cried again thinking about how Megan won't get to experience this next year. 

I let her pick out her dress for her ceremony, and she chose her school bus dress (with shorts). She really wanted her cupcake dress up dress, but I told her she couldn't wear it, and we compromised with the school bus dress. 

Addy and Gretchen were great sisters to come and watch their Meggie. 

DJ and I were SHOCKED when Megan actually sang the songs and did all the motions! At her Christmas program, she stood there too shy to sing or move, but this time, she was a ham! I cried seeing her and realizing how much she had bloomed this year!

She was such a performer!

Megan adored her afternoon teacher Mr. Noah. He was the best with her! Mr. Noah didn't come in until this spring, and I was nervous about her having another new afternoon teacher (he was her third this year). But, he was amazing! He joked with her, played with her.... he was more than a teacher. 

This is Megan with her teacher Mrs. Rachel. I sang her praises above, but I'm so thankful for her and all that she did for Megan this year. 

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Gretchen had lots of fun activities at the end of the year too! It's great because she goes to the school I work at, and I'm able to be involved with all the fun! A few days before school ended, we received an email that Gretchen was getting an award at the end of the school year assembly. DJ was able to come watch, and we were really excited to see which award she would get. 

We went through the entire assembly and all the attendance awards, classroom awards, and we finally made it to specials (art, music, and pe). DJ and I started guessing that she would probably get an award for music, and then that group passed. So, I thought, it must be art..... nope. We were shocked (and excited) that her award was for PE!

This is her running up to get her award. 

And after the assembly with her award!

DJ was really proud of her! 

Bless this girl, but she has my athletic ability! We were really shocked that her award was for PE!

We've had a great year together!

The day before school ended, we had Super Kids Day. Typically it's held outside, but I think it rained every day in May and our playground was flooded. All of the games were brought inside, and the kids still had tons of fun. I had to sit through an all day IEP meeting, but I was able to sneak over for a bit, while Gretchen enjoyed some games and snow cones. 

She loved it!

Ready for games and fun! 

I loved being able to peek in on her!

Finally, the last day of school arrived!

It was the best feeling ever walking out of that building knowing that our summer could begin! We were crazy excited!!

The day after our school got out, the little girls went to their last day at ILCAP. 

Here they are before we headed to their last day of school!

And a little before and after- their first day of school and their last! I can't believe how much they've grown! Especially, Addy Pearl! 

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Addy wasn't left out on the fun at all! Her teacher had a last day of school party for all of the kids, and (I made) shirts for them that said "Caterpillar Court Alumni" with their names and the year on the back. Ms. Julie (her teacher) has had shirts for all her kids when they leave her classroom (we still have Megan's!) And I was glad that I could help out and make their shirts this year. 

Our little Caterpillar Court Alum eating her party snacks!

DJ managed to sneak out of work early so he could be at the party too!

This girl loved her cupcake! Ha!

She was a mess!

And all of her friends with her teachers!

We really have been blessed with the best teachers this year! Ms. Julie was Megan's teacher and Adalyn's teacher and I'm so thankful that she's been there through both of my girls' one year old year!  She puts up with my crazy and I love her for that! 

Adalyn was not having it taking her picture, but we tried. Someone took away her food that she wasn't finished with (we took it away because she had gotten up from the table several times) and that made her angry! From then on, she was a hot mess. 

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And finally, I wanted to share our teacher appreciation gifts from this year! I typically skip the week long teacher appreciation celebration and opt for a gift at the end of the year. 

Addy's teacher loves to bake. She's baked several times with the kiddos, so I thought a fun baking gift would be cute! I made her two hand towels, bought a baking rack and a cute spatula. 

Mrs. Rachel is our girly girl, so she ended up with nail polish remover, a coozie, a luggage tag, and a cute apple tote. 

Gretchen's teacher was gifted a monogrammed beach tote. She also had a monogrammed towel and coozie to match, but I'm not quite sure why they didn't make it in this picture! I think I deleted it off my phone too soon!

So, there you have it! All of our end of the year fun!