Our Little Graduate!

May 12 - Our cute Rylee had her BIG Joy school graduation in May. I have been looking through my posts and realized I never really did much journaling of her joy school experience, so I am going to do one big post of the whole year one of these days. Anyway, she had a great time doing Joy School. It was the perfect answer to my dilemma of whether to do 2 years of preschool for Rylee. It was free and only one day a week and Rylee loved it! It was great for me, too. It gave me a chance to be involved with Rylee and her friends, and also gave Rylee and I an occasional break from each other. I loved doing it!

Rylee was SO excited for the Graduation. The kids practiced their songs a few weeks before and were so excited for their cute little program. Ry ready for the Graduation to start! She couldn't wait for everyone to get here. It was at our house and she had so much fun helping me decorate!
Just for fun, here is a flash back to her FIRST day of Joy School, which was in September.
Can you tell she is excited?
Rylee's cute little class. Before the program, we had one last short class and practiced the program a little bit. This is right before we sang the song we sing to start class. It goes "Rylee (or whoever's name...) will you stand up and let us see you smile? We're glad you're here today. Won't you stay awhile?" The kids love it! They always point to their smiles when they sing. It makes me laugh!
Will their cute little graduation caps - Arita, Rylee, Jake and Andrew
Getting ready to start our program...
Rylee loved her cute friend, Arita. They were the only girls and they got along so good together and had fun this year.
CHEESE!
They sang 2 songs for their program. One was called, "Oh, Boy! I've got Joy!" and the other was a cute School Spirit song! The words were something about "our school is the best!" and the kids got really into it and loved using their pom poms!
After the songs, we watched a cute photo slide show that one of the moms made. It was so fun to look back on the year and all the memories. I got a little teary!
Then, the graduates each got a turn to come up and the moms said some nice things about them and they got their little diplomas and a report card.
Presenting Rylee with her little diploma and report card
Mom and the new Joy School graduate
Not sure what is going on with this face... She pulls it a lot though.
Afterwards, we had some special treats. One of the other moms made these adorable graduation cap cupcakes. They loved them!
Enjoying the treats - Unfortunately, we couldn't work out a time that ALL the dads could be there. Since we didn't want any one to feel bad that their dad was gone, we did the program with just moms and the siblings not in school. All of us have a kindergartener who goes in the afternoon, so it works out pretty good for them to all play together. There were also a few babies running around. It was a little crazy, but it was a good time!

Avery really liked her cupcake, too! Logan had a hard time with this day. He even told the car pool that day that he wasn't having a good day and he told me on several occasions that he felt left out and was pretty upset. He loved when we had Joy School here and always wanted to "help", although sometimes he wanted to take over. Once the graduation was going, he really wanted to do all the things the other kids were doing and it was hard for him to realize that this program was just for Ry and he needed to support her. I tried to explain, but I guess it is hard at that age! He hates when the attention isn't on him!
Rylee with her graduation goods - All the kids got a cute balloon that Rylee picked out and a report card, diploma and cap. And they each got their own copy of the fun DVD of the year. Rylee loves to watch it!
Daddy came home shortly after the graduation finished up. Rylee couldn't wait to tell him all about it and show him the DVD.
Mom and Rylee - She is growing up into such a little lady! I can't believe it!
Since Daddy missed the graduation, we took Rylee for a special lunch. With just her and Mom and Dad! That rarely happens at our house and Rylee was so excited about it! She picked Winger's. I think mostly because she likes the popcorn they bring out. She even got a special dessert! She loved having us all to herself and talked nonstop. It was so cute! We love our sassy little Princess. Way to go Rylee! She is VERY excited for REAL Preschool. I kept telling her it was after Joy School, so she was ready to go there the day after her graduation. She can't wait!