Hishtatfoot Day

This morning Sydney had preschool.  She has four more classes and then she is finished for the year, her first year of preschool will be behind her.  I feel excited and wistful all in the same moment.  While I am so looking forward to having a little time to myself in September when she returns to preschool five mornings a week, I will also so miss our special time together in the mornings after Daddy has left for work and it's just she and I at home, hanging out, spending time.

This morning Sydney decided that she wanted to paint instead of eating breakfast.  As with so many mornings before, I obliged, dragged out her art supplies and let her set off creating some masterpieces while her breakfast sat on the counter getting cold!  This is a sampling of her creations from this morning:

Today was my Hishtatfoot, or parent participation, day at preschool.  I always enjoy the chance to get to see what the kids are up to in school and how much they have changed and grown over the months.  This morning the whole class was done up in an ocean theme, everything from sea creatures to playdough with shells!  The water table even had bright blue water like the ocean, it was so cool!

One of the jobs of the volunteer parent is to cut up all of the fruit that the kids bring to share for their snack.  Sydney was so keen to help me get all of the fruit organized this morning.  She carried this huge fruit basket all the way across the classroom to me so that she could help!

I'm not sure if it is this unusually lousy weather, or if the kids were just full of beans this morning, but it was a  gong show in class today!  At any given time there were scuffles, tears, misbehaving and general un-cooperativeness.  It was all that I and the the two teachers could do to keep the kids under control for the hour and a half!  At the end of the morning, I looked at Helen, Syd's teacher, and said: "I'm going home to have a drink!"  What a morning!!

After school Syd and I went to our friend Sarah and Emma's house to play.  It was so nice to have a visit with the girls and for Sarah and I to catch up!  Sarah and I have managed to get our girls into both music and swimming lessons together this fall!  We are so excited to be doing some activities together.  It's always so much more fun having a friend in the class!

Sydney's preschool teachers sent out the very last newsletter for the year the other day.  At the end of the newsletter they printed the words to a song that we are going to sing on the last day of class.  Not one of the Moms had dry eyes after we read it!  Our babies are growing up!

Mmm, mmm, I’d like to linger,
Mmm, mmm, a little longer,
Mmm, mmm, a little longer here with you.
Mmm, mmm, this is the last day,
Mmm, mmm, that we will sing and play,
Mmm, mmm, that we will sing and play with you.
Mmm, mmm, we’ll go our separate ways
Mmm, mmm, we’ve had such special days
Mmm, mmm, we’ve had such special days with you.
Mmm, mmm, as the years go by,
Mmm, mmm, we’ll think of you and sigh,
Mmm, mmm, this is Shalom and not goodbye…
Mmm, mmm, this is Shalom and not goodbye.