Elyse's School Christmas Party

Today Anastasia and I attended Elyse's school Christmas party. It began with some songs:

 Then there was craft time. Here Elyse is making her Jesus box. It is to be opened on Christmas to remind us that Jesus is our greatest gift.

 Then we ate:

Next Mrs. Young did a demonstration of how Jesus washed away our sins using a cake.

Then it was the kid's turn to decorate a cupcake. Elyse went a little crazy with the red sprinkles, but it sure tasted good.

Another fun kindergarten party.

Christmas Performances

 A couple weeks ago Elyse's School put on a Christmas Concert. Almost the whole school participated. The Kindergarteners got to sing 2 songs. If you want to hear the songs and try and to find Elyse (bottom row 4th from the right) you can click on this link and go to the 20 min mark.

 Elyse seemed to do all the actions and follow along well.

 playing the fiddle

 and the guitar

 Then, last weekend the kids performed at church. Anastasia decided she didn't want to. Elyse seems so serious throughout the whole performance. Probably because she wasn't really expecting to sing, we thought it was just A's class and when we got there it was her class too, put she jumped right in.

 Check out the look Elyse is giving the kid throwing his Christmas Tree:

 At the end the kids sang Elyse's favorite song, One Thing Remains. She smiled a bit more, but was still very serious.

It is so much fun watching Elyse sing. I know we will get to see this for years to come.

The First Day of Kindergarten

On the first day of school we were all up early and ready to go. Toby decided to go into work late so he could see Elyse off for her first day of Kindergarten. I am so glad he was there to drive since I was nervous about getting to school on time and then navigating the parking lot.

I love this picture:

Here we go...

Elyse looks sad in this picture, but she's not. I'm not sure what's going on. Anyway...

We got to school early and brought Elyse to the gym where we waiting for her teacher to bring her to class.

 Elyse and Mrs. Young off to class.

We helped Elyse figure out where to put her lunch and her back pack and then she found her desk.

Elyse's class. There are only 14 kids in her class right now. This small class size is one reason I wanted to send her to Cypress Christian.

After the kids were settled we said all the pledges and prayed for our kids. The kids started the day and the parents were invited to a "boo-boo" blueberry muffin party to meet other kindergarten parents and cry if need be. ;)

After school I picked up Elyse and asked how school was. She said she had a good day and loves school. We celebrated the first day of school with ice cream sundaes. When I put chocolate sauce on her ice cream Elyse said something to the effect of "Oh, I think I've seen this before..." poor deprived child seeing chocolate sauce for the first time at home at the age of 5 ;)

Since the first day, Elyse continues to like school. She is very tired at night, but I think it's getting a little better.

Here are a few pictures I took yesterday after being in school for a week. (I think the plaid skirt is so cute.)

The Day Before...

The day before Elyse's first day of Kindergarten (at Cypress Christian School) was very eventful. It began by visiting the Willertons and meeting their brand new baby Isaac. We then headed to lunch at one of Elyse's favorite places- KFC and then went to meet her teacher. When we arrived to Elyse's classroom we were the first ones there which gave us an opportunity to talk to her teacher one-on-one and get a picture.

Elyse's teacher is Mrs. Young and has been teaching kindergarten for a few years at CCS.

Elyse was not one bit nervous and found her desk easily. On her desk were some Starburst which was a nice bonus. After taking in the scene, I had Elyse practice finding her classroom from the front of the school. She had no problem.

After visiting school we headed home. Anastasia fell asleep in the car so I took this opportunity to get a treat with Elyse while A slept. We went to Sonic and had some ice cream.

Once A woke up we were home and I told Elyse she could watch a movie. She chose Madagascar 2. Prior to the movie Elyse received some flowers from Aunt Pat and Uncle Don for her first day of Kindergarten.

This is Elyse's flower pose

And of course Anastasia had to do it too.

The movie was followed by a rousing game of Hide-and-seek.

It was quite a busy day. Tomorrow our lives change. I realized that I will only see Elyse about 4 or 5 hours each day counting travel to and from school. That may sound like a lot but if you factor in driving and dinner and baths and homework and everything else it's not much time at all :(

I am excited for Elyse and I know she will do great, I am going to just have to adjust and then celebrate the fact that Elyse is bringing us into the next phase of our lives.

Until tomorrow...