Elise's Preschool Graduation

When school transitioned to distance learning for the remainder of the school year, Elise's preschool graduation didn't even register in my mind. Every weekend I sit down and fill in my agenda for the week using the events listed for the week in my phone's calendar. It helps me remember any events we have coming up. It has been pretty pointless through all of this as everything has been cancelled, but I saw Elise's Preschool Graduation listed for May 12th and I remembered she would have had a sweet little graduation program like Carter had when he moved from the church preschool to kindergarten at the public school. Read about Carter's graduation here. Obviously I was totally fine with her not having a graduation but I hated that she wouldn't have preschool graduation photos like Carter did. So I decided we'd do a little graduation for her at home so I could get some pictures of her. At first I planned to just make her a little mortar board hat and diploma to take some pictures. But then I decided to make her a slideshow of pictures her teachers took with her in them throughout the year. Then I looked online for ideas on how to make a mortar board and found a post not just showing how to make a mortar board but also how to make a gown out of a trash bag. It was too cute to pass up! I used poster board to cut out the pieces of the mortar board and had Elise paint them black to make her hat.

Making her gown out of a trash bag.

Elise painting the pieces to make her hat.

We got doughnuts that morning to make it a special day for her. I was really careful, going through the drive through, thoroughly washing my hands after touching the packaging, and reheating the doughnuts at home. Elise cracked me up because she asked for a bacon doughnut. Then when we got home and I gave her the plate with her doughnut on it, she said, "Why does it have bacon on it, I don't want bacon!" I told her it had bacon on it because she had asked for a bacon doughnut but if she didn't want the bacon, she could give it to Carter. She took the bacon off and later when I told Ty the story he said she probably just wanted a long john and had only ever seen them with bacon on them. After breakfast I decided we'd do a little graduation when Ty came home for lunch. I knew my mom would be available but the rest of the grandparents wouldn't be so we FaceTimed my mom who even dressed up for the ceremony. We took a video for the rest of the grandparents. Elise was super excited and kept yelling, "It's my gradulations day!" I told her she'd walk down the hallway to me and I'd hand her a diploma. I started the music and walked down the hallway. She followed me and when I told her to wait and I'd call her to come, she got upset that she hadn't done it quite right and then was upset. I felt bad and realized we should've done a run through before we took a video and did FaceTime because that made her feel embarrassed about not doing things exactly right.

Enjoying their doughnut breakfast.

Ready for her "gradulation".

Oma took some pictures of Elise's graduation during FaceTime.

After her "graduation" she was excited to pick a special lunch. No one will be surprised when I say she chose Easy Mac. She asked if she could also pick dinner and I told her she'd picked lunch and couldn't have mac and cheese twice. She decided she wanted to have spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. She enjoyed her special day even though it was just at home. She's excited to go to the same school as Carter. Her "graduation" was on Tuesday and Wednesday we had a Zoom Kindergarten Welcome Meeting for her. I'm so glad that this has happened as Elise is transitioning to kindergarten instead of Carter. The Kindergarten Welcome Night was the first time Carter had been inside the school. Elise, on the other hand, has been up to the school so many times. She volunteered in the library weekly with me, helped with the book fair, volunteered in Carter's classroom with me, and ate lunch with Carter in the cafeteria. So she's very familiar with the school, knows the librarian, the principal, and some of the teachers. This transition will be easier for her as the school is familiar and I don't feel like she needs the welcome night to get to see the school like Carter did. That's a huge plus! I'm excited for her to start her immersion program and her public school journey, but I will miss having her with me a couple days a week, just the 2 of us! It will be a big transition for both of us. It wasn't until she was sick at home with Ty one day that I realized next school year I'll drive to work by myself and will get ready for the school day without her in my room with me. I sure will miss her! That's one reason why I think school is so important, it helps gradually lead children to be independent from their parents, and forces us parents to allow that to happen!