My goodness, I could just weep for days over how much she's changed. Stella did amazingly well at preschool. There wasn't a single tear over going to school once. A few times we had tears because I'd gotten there before she did her show-and-tell or just too early for her liking, but never any issues over going. She was always excited. Towards the end she got a bit more clingy, making it difficult to just drop off and leave, but we both always left happy. I also never got a single phone call or letter about her behavior. Mrs. Melissa always reported she was helpful and happy. And Miss Aja always commented on how funny she was and how much she loved her personality. Hearing that makes me one happy and proud mama!
Stella's class size dropped from nine to six by the end of the year. Owen moved over Christmas break, Caleb changed schools around the same time and Aaryn went back to India in March/April. The other moms and I decided on a Target gift card as a joint end-of-year gift to Mrs. Melissa and Miss Aja. I threw in a few essential oil rollers and room spray and Andrew's mom included Chick Fil-A gift cards. I wanted to give the teachers some sort of memento from the class so I made the children's finger prints into flowers.
For an end-of-the-year gift to her friends, Stella helped me make Citrus Fresh EO scented play-doh one afternoon and I made explorer bags out of recycled produce bags and duct tape.
Not only did she hand-select each explorer bag for each friend, we also personalized recycled bottle caps that we put the kid's first initial on. We washi-taped them to a hand-written card from Stella and then tied them on with ribbon.
Now, the fun part-Field Day!
Me and Leslie, Maddy's mom, volunteered for the bean bag toss game. We were in the shade and bean bag toss/corn hole is simple so it seemed like a no-brainer for us.
Here's Stella's class, minus Dikshan.
I just adore these pictures of Andrew and Stella....AKA boyfriend and girlfriend (Andrew proclaimed Stella was his girlfriend back in April after Annika's party at X-drenaline. Stella confirmed this the following Monday).
Egg Race with Charlotte
The class: Charlotte, Stella, Mila, Annika, Andrew and Dikshan enjoying popsicles after fun and games.
Mrs. Melissa and Stella
How cute is this crew?!
Yay! Because the kids played under the tree for a while and we had one last final car playdate, they did get to say "Goodbye" to Miss Aja! Miss Aja got moved downstairs to the 2's classroom to help with them after Stella's class dropped in size. Miss Aja still helped on Friday's but because the last day of school was on a Wednesday, she didn't get to thank them or say goodbye until here, in the parking lot.
Then group hugs....Stella's arm is out, trying to pull Charlotte in.
I love how close Stella's class was at the end, especially these four-Charlotte, Stella, Mila and Andrew.
We had such a wonderful set of moms in this class. Not only did the kids become friends, the moms did too. We were constantly hanging around after school or directly after drop off chatting about our family and weekends and just what was going on in our lives. No other parents did that. We truly enjoyed each other's company. I mean, we had a car play-date at least once, if not twice a week. What? Your kid doesn't request to play in someone else's car or invite half of the class to play in your car after school? Well y'all are weird!
Stella thoroughly enjoyed her first year in preschool and I enjoyed it too. I cannot believe how quickly the school year went. Wow. So fast. I enjoyed being room mom and being there for those special moments and events at school. As fun as school was, we are definitely both looking forward to the slow-down of summer and some time at the beach. I just hope I can handle her attitude and growing personality.
