Ethan's Last Day of Preschool

I can't believe Ethan's last day of preschool was last week. The year flew by so quickly!! It's funny how you don't really notice the changes in your kids since you see them every day...but without a doubt, Ethan really grew up this year!

Here he is on his last day of preschool for the 2012-13 year.

Now, a look back at what he looked like on his first day, compared to now...

WOW! What a difference those 10 months made! I dressed him in the same outfit to hopefully see the difference in his size better. :) The shirt is nearly too small for him now, which is evident in the picture! Haha! It's funny how I thought he looked so grown up when I posted at the beginning of the year. Looking back now, he still kind of had that innocent toddler look to him, but it's definitely gone now! He's officially a preschooler!

Ethan had a great year this year. He enjoyed making lots of new friends and learning all kinds of new things! Science and engineering activities were his favorite, according to his teacher, Ms. Susan. No big surprise there! ;) I felt like he made great strides at interacting with others his age, and his teacher said that he was a great kid - popular with the other kids, very intelligent, and meeting or exceeding developmental goals for a child his age. She feels that he will do great in the pre-K class next year. He'll be attending every morning this coming fall, to get him ready for kindergarten (an all day affair here in TN!) the following year. Little brother Noah will also be attending this fall, for 2 mornings a week. I think he'll really benefit from the interaction with other kids his age, since he's used to only playing with his big brother. It will also be nice for me to get a little break with the new baby! :)

For his last day, Ethan took gifts for his teachers to thank them for all they did this year. When I was young, I always brought irises from our garden for my teachers on the last day. They always bloomed at the perfect time for it! I was so excited when the roses from our garden bloomed in time this year for Ethan to be able to take those to his teachers. :) For presentation, I dressed up some mason jars with a band of burlap and a ribbon bow. Aren't the roses gorgeous in so many different colors?

I also wanted to give them some gift cards, and I had found a cute card on Pinterest for a Starbucks gift card. I loved the wording they used, so I came up with an idea using that wording. :)

I took a picture of a Starbucks coffee cup and gave it "poster edges" in Photoshop. Then I erased the original words on the checkboxes and replaced those with adjectives Ethan used to describe his teachers. :) I added their names, just like the barista does when they write your name on your drink. Next, I took some heavy-duty brown construction paper, and printed the wording (thanks a "latte") that I loved on there, to act as the sleeve for the cup. I wrapped it around the cup and glued it on at the bottom, so that I was able to tuck the Starbucks and Target gift cards into the top! Perfect! For a finishing touch, I pasted Ethan's "signature" on the bottom. :)

I was so happy with how everything turned out! They were so cute that I may have to make those an annual gift for all of their teachers. :)

His preschool is offering a "Science of Art" camp this summer for one morning a week for 6 weeks, starting next week, so we decided to sign Ethan up for that. His teachers from this year, Ms. Susan and Ms. Ruth, will be leading it and they will be having all kinds of fun getting dirty/messy with art and science projects. I'm sure Ethan will love that! He's already been asking when he goes back to preschool, so hopefully the camp will help keep him entertained until they start back up in August.