The Graduate

Somehow, 5 years have already flown by and we watched Matthew graduate from preschool last night. Matt had a great last year at Hyde Park. There were a total of 4 kids in his class. The preschool went down to 2 days/week from the previous years' 3 days/week program and it caused a great deal of families to leave the program. It's unfortunate for them, but for us it couldn't have been better. Matt got a lot of individual attention, and his teacher, Ms. Daphne, was able to teach Matt how to write--a skill that he had zero interest in at the beginning of the year. Ms. Daphne is perfectly suited to be a preschool teacher; I just love her. She was so patient and loving with Matthew and always gave me great feedback on him on what they had done during the day. We couldn't have asked for a better year. Matthew is totally ready for Kindergarten.

The program last night was really cute. The kids filed in (Matt was first!) and stood on the risers and sang 3 songs, my favorite of which was "Happy Trails". The youth minister from our church gave a brief message, and then they put on a slide show with pictures from the whole year. Oh my. So cute. Then they received their diplomas. When it was Matt's turn he walked up there and his teacher bragged on him for a minute dubbing him the "scholar" of her class. It was funny. All the children were asked what they wanted to be when they grow up and Matt's answer was a grocery store manager. It's something he's been excited about for a good while now. It makes sense because he loves food, he loves the grocery store, he loves to line things up, and it involves numbers. The other day he made a grocery store at home and organized all the play foods into produce, meats, dairy---and then he lined up his candy piece by piece on the table. To top it off he then went and used his magnetic numbers to put a price on everything. He's serious. But after I shopped at his store and had a basket full of items the total was only 25 cents. Score! When he first told me about his future career he enthusiastically said, "then Momma, I can sell you food and see you at the store!!!" Love that boy.

Matt had the best support group/fan club there, too. The Reners, Morans, and Grandma were all there to cheer him on. He was SO excited to see all our faces in the crowd.

I love this hug from Ava. The love between those two is thick I'm telling you.

After the program we had some cookies and punch. It was a great evening. I must admit that I got choked up watching him up there. My baby boy is growing up before my very eyes, and I am so proud of what a sweet, talented, good-natured kid he is. I'm excited for him because I know he will love kindergarten and will thrive there; I will just really miss him. He's my buddy, my helper, my level-headed child, and a constant playmate of Will's. I know the years are only going to continue to fly by. But, when he's all grown up at least I'll see him at my local HEB, right?