thesellers.net

Father’s Day comes early at preschool. Since they’ll be out of school for the actual Father’s Day, they celebrate it in January and invite all the dads to join them for the day. Everyone in class had their dad along for a day of fun.

Leah’s job for the day was the calendar helper. It’s an important job, which included counting all the way to 30 since it was the 30th of January.

These kids really enjoy preschool.

Once it was time to move on to activities, Leah headed straight to the dress-up station to put on this dress. Then, we headed over to this station to make a sailboat.

Once the sailboat was created, Leah took it out for a sail in this tub of water. The straw made it easy to direct the wind for it.

Per tradition, we painted the bottom of our feet (one of Leah’s, one of mine) and made footprints on a piece of paper. Leah doesn’t look too sure about having the bottom of her foot painted.

We were also assigned to build a building of some sort. Leah opted to make it a tower of sorts.

Here we are with our creation.

Leah kept her first dress on for a while, but then opted to change into a wedding gown. She makes a beautiful bride.

Of course, after a wedding you need a reception. Leah opted for the fruit and potato plate.

I brought my guitar along, but we only got to sing one song at the end of the day as it was such a busy day. But it was very fun, and Leah certainly loves her school. I'm so glad I got to be there.

Today, Molly's starting an art class after school. Molly loves art, and goes through paints, colored pencils, and crayons like they're going out of style. And Leah loves art as well.

So, after returning home from Birmingham with some brand new paints, the girls were ready to get to it. After a bit, Molly decided to paint a picture of Leah. So, Leah posed as the model for Molly to paint. She did a good job posing for a long tie while Molly painted her. After Molly was done, they reversed roles.

Molly's school had a Turkey Trot - a short (about 1 mile) fun run for all the kids. They invited parents to join in as well. When I asked Molly about this, she said she wanted me to come but not to run. She wanted me to just take pictures of her running. I asked her several times in the days leading up to the run and she was quite sure that's what she wanted me to do. So, when the day arrived I walked over to school with my backpack full, including my camera and 5 lenses. Molly was excited and ready to run with her race bib.

Of course, then she told me she changed her mind and did want me to run with her. At least I was wearing sneakers with my jeans. So, I ran alongside her with my backpack bouncing around. I didn't get any pictures during the run for obvious reasons. After the run, we met up with the rest of her class. These girls don't look tired at all.

And here's the whole class.

I chaperoned Leah's first field trip at ECP to Tridelphia Farm. As we walked to the corn field, Leah's buddy observantly stated, "Ms. Jen, those corn stalks don't look so good." So true, but that's where the good stuff was hidden.

Leah had fun finding her hidden treasure too. Popcorn!

We took a short hay ride over to another field full of goodies.

Little pumpkins, perfect for the preschool types.

Leah's preschool had a Back-to-School picnic at a nearby park. The playground was packed the entire time, giving the kids lots of practice at taking turns.

La Pearl Waffles came to the picnic. While Chad waited for them to fix our waffles, Leah and I relaxed on the hillside.

Leah loves to give great hugs!

The girls had a lot of fun playing on this elephant. They said they were riding it to Alabama. Chad told them that this would not be a very speedy form of transportation, but they felt that the journey was just as important as the destination.

Back-to-School picnic #2 was Molly's, which included some outstanding face painting. Molly went for the full face look.

I think she likes it.

Leah opted to have her arm painted instead of her face.

It's now Leah's turn to attend East Columbia Preschool. She visited the classroom the Friday before school started. No surprise, she went straight to the dress-up and wore this Ariel dress the entire visit.

Leah was sweet to ask Miss Carol to take a picture with her.

We are excited to be back at ECP after a year hiatus. Miss Carol is thrilled to finally have Leah in her class.

I am the class coordinator for Leah's class, so we hosted a Back to School BBQ for the class at our house. To our surprise, we had about 60 people come (24 adults, 36 kids). The party was definitely a hit. The weather was great, which we were very thankful for as I don't think we could have fit everyone inside.

Then finally, last Tuesday was Leah's first day of school. She was ready!

When I asked how she wanted to decorate her duck bag, Leah said she wanted lots of jewels. Looks like she got her wish.

Molly enjoyed meeting her 1st grade teacher and seeing the classroom last Friday. Mrs. Seldon is new to the school this year, so she was especially welcoming to Molly as a new student to the school too.

Monday was the first day of school. Molly's ready to go to her first day of first grade. New year, new school - can't wait.

Molly is now a walker, as we live right by the school. She was excited, so she ended up walking in front of us - backwards.

A bunch of the neighborhood kids met up on the walk to school to take a neighborhood picture. There are so many kids in our neighborhood. Amazingly, 4 of these girls are even in the same class - Molly, the girls on either side of her, and the girl on the end with the polka-dot skirt. They all live within a few houses of one another.

Molly's school held a kindergarten promotion ceremony last week. Molly was selected as one of three kindergartners to introduce the whole program. All the classes performed on stage.

After the ceremony, we headed to Molly's classroom to pick her up and take a picture or two. Leah went right to the carpet with the kids to be with her sister.

Ms. Colella made it official. Kindergarten - check! We have loved Molly's teacher and we'll be sad to be leaving her.

To complete the year, here's a picture of Molly waiting for the bus on her last day of kindergarten. This was also her last day to ride the bus to school for five years, as she'll be a walker when we move into our new house.

And just for fun, here's a comparison picture of her first and last day of kindergarten. I'm amazed at how much she's grown over the school year, physically as well as making huge strides in her reading, writing, and math skills.

Molly had a kindergarten promotion ceremony at school to show everyone how much they learned this year. Molly was selected to be one of the three kids to introduce the ceremony, which she was very excited about. The classes sang a couple songs each, and then all five classed joined together for the grand finale. The house was packed, and the kids did great.

Chad chaperoned a field trip with Molly's kindergarten class to nearby Centennial park. Howard County Recreation and Parks put on a very good nature program for the kids. They started by passing around some animal things, such as this fox fur.

Molly's favorite thing was this turtle shell.

The kids then headed out to a field to catch some bugs. Molly and Alia found a small beetle. Chad was impressed that all the kids got into it and no one was scared of the bugs.

It was nice to have a little father-daughter lunch.

They then walked down to the lake to look at all the birds there. They saw ducks, geese, blue herons, and many other birds.

There was also some time where all the kids made their own butterfly craft. Alia seems impressed with Molly's.

After the program was over, all the kids flew to the playground. It's quite a site to see 80 or so kindergartners in tie-dye shirts attack a playground with full force.

Molly was all over the place, having lots of fun.

Molly's class, hot and sweaty, ready to head back to school.