Ashley's Preschool Program and Graduation

 This was in the auditorium of one of the larger schools in our neighborhood, during program practice on Saturday morning-last week.  Above is Ashley's class and below is the toddler class-2 year olds, who were not all happy to be on the stage!

 Ashley's class practicing their dance

 Their class picture

Below is the afternoon program itself

 

 Had to share the pictures of the other classes to show off all the cool costumes!

 Ashley would probably have liked the below costumes the best-the hot pink outer skirts came off with a short, gold, sparkly skirt underneath!

 All the children changed clothes for the graduation part

 The children came to the microphone to introduce themselves and tell what they want to be when they grow up.  They had been practicing this for weeks at school.  Ashley started out telling me that she wanted to be a fairy and when I told her those weren't real she said she wanted to be a tooth fairy.  I think this was prompted by the fact that Ryan has recently lost 2 more teeth but I couldn't persuade her to change her mind.  I suggested several other things she could choose but when it was her turn with the microphone she said she wanted to be a tooth fairy and keep money for people until their teeth come out-got a good chuckle from the audience!

 They asked me to make a goodbye speech so I got up and told the audience how much we had loved our time at Little Apprentice and how we always recommended them to friends looking for preschools.

At the end all the children came back out to sing one last song
-it was a very sweet program and all the kids did a great job!  Ashley was so excited about it and afterward she got to choose where we went out for dinner to celebrate-TGI Fridays!

 The kids wanted to have their pictures made with the jeepney and calessa cut-outs in the school's courtyard!

Then and Now-Ryan

3 1/2 pounds and only 12 days in the NICU-what a miracle worker our God is!  I wish I had more pictures with other points of reference to illustrate better how small he really was.

 

 The bottle Greg was feeding him from was less than 6 inches long

 He really was extremely healthy-wires for monitoring and his nasal feeding tube

 Big progress-an open bed, meaning he could keep his own body temperature up with still several blankets and a hat that he wore ALL the time for a while after coming home. 

Coming home day wearing the outfit I would have worn if I had been a boy

 

 They are not supposed to look this teeny in the carseat-Below meeting Grammy and GG

 

 On his special "Aunt Todd" blanket!

 Our baby announcement picture

 One of my all time favorite pictures!

 Scott was enthralled!  Quite often he would call out "need to go check on baby brubber!"  and he was off.  I was usually running behind to make sure that checking on was all Scott was doing!

Fall of 2005

 
Here is in 2007

Here is 2008-age almost 4

2009-age 4

Fall of 2010-1st day of Kindergarten-age 5

Ashley at ballet

2nd post for the day

Her first recital that she is participating in is March 19 and to say she is excited is a GROSS understatement!

Here are pictures-only from my phone sorry-from the picture day in costume and recital practice.

 Above is called ballet pose

 I think her favorite thing is the poufy sparkly skirt!  She could hardly stand still while wearing this.

 She was WAY too excited for an almost 5 year old getting to wear make-up for the pictures

 Here is her group of recitalists-Ashley is front left.  Another way we stick out, the teacher said "no colored hair accessories"  I interpreted that to mean black bun covers.  The one Ashley always wears to class is pink and no matter which one she uses it will be seen in her hair-oh well.  I told her that since the costume is red she would wear a black one for the recital!

 Her teacher is in the front in the pink shirt and black pants.  Ashley is in the middle, blue sash and pink bun cover.  She has been promoted to the next level in their most recent evaluations though and will get a fuschia uniform when class resumes in April-like the girls in the hot pink tops with white skirts near the mirror.

 Part of their dance is sliding around in a circle and doing in and out-very cute

Ashley calls these "the blue girls".  They are an even more advanced level and their class meets after Ashley's.  I cannot wait to see the recital-know that it will be fun!

Ryan and the dinosaurs

 Ryan's class has been studying dinosaurs in science and I was trying to come up with a snack for them to enjoy when I went to read a book.  They loved the t rex cheese and crackers!

 

 I picked Ashley up from school and we went straight to Ryan's class.  She pulled out a few books while she was waiting for the class to finish up. 

 Ryan's teacher is SO creative and done some really fun things to get them into learning about dinosaurs-he had a game going teaching them facts about dinosaurs, the class was divided into teams and each team had their own nest and he wore a t rex hat and went around stealing their eggs from the nests! 

 They have done a ton of research in their groups and made these posters about theories about what happened to the dinosaurs

 Posters and maps about the periods of dinosaurs

 Ashley having her t rex cheese and me getting to wear the special t rex hat-Ashley had played with it until it was crooked and can't tell what I am wearing-oh well!

 Their last unit in Science was 5 sense and these are Ryan's clay models

 The eye (left) connected to the brain (right) by the optic nerve (blue and red in the middle)

 last one is a cross section of skin-Ryan has had such a terrific year in 2nd grade and done a TON of really neat things!