Last day of kindergarten!!!

I've seen so many comparison photos of kids on their first day of school and their last day of school.  Here's Izzy's for kindergarten.  I think the only difference I can see are the two missing teeth :)

Kindergarten Christmas Party

I love that my job affords me the opportunity to participate in some of Izzy's school activities. I wish I could do more (of course :) but I'm thankful for what I can do.  I was really involved in the Halloween party, so I didn't feel as guilty about taking a back seat on the Christmas party.  Since I'm the "official" class photographer for Izzy's class, I decided that's how I would volunteer for this one.  But first, I had to post at the photo booth with Izzy (I think that I had a santa hat on a stick, but the glare from the light kinda made that impossible to see :)

This is one of Izzy's best friends, Seyenna.  These two are lie little peas in a pod :)

The little boy that's standing to the right of Izzy is Brooks, who is actually our neighbor!  He's such a sweet boy, and I think he may have a teeny little crush on Izzy :)  He's not in Izzy's class, but rather in the other kindergarten classroom, but the party is for the whole grade.

SELFIE!!!

Look at this adorable little elf that they all made!  I LOVE this, and we took it home and hung it on our kitchen on the pantry door.  So creative!

We have a kindergartener!!!!

I think I've spent 5 years working up to this day, yet I was still amazed at how incredibly emotional it became for me.  Five years of raising this little wonder, and now ready to turn her over to the world.  Okay, maybe it sounds like I'm being a tad bit dramatic, and maybe I am, but it WAS dramatic and wonderful all at the same time.

I wanted a little keepsake for Izzy on this day, so I found this little printout...so cute!

And we kept the same morning routine.

It was a lovely, WARM first day of school.

And, of course, I had to get the memorable photo.  You can see that she was more interested in what was going on next door though :)

But I WAS able to get a photo of her looking at me.  She looks so BIG!!!

This was going on next door.  The bus stops here, and all of the other kids were outside waiting for the bus.  I thought about letting Izzy ride the bus, but decided that I wanted to take her on the first day.

Once we got to school, she got shy, but thankfully her teacher is incredible and clearly great at getting the kids to warm up.  Izzy's picking out her nametag in the above photo.

shy Izzy....

Izzy LOVES her new teacher, Mrs. Langan :)

And the Jonathan Jaguar made an appearance as well :)

There goes my little girl!!!

Izzy had a fantastic first day of school.  She was excited to tell us all about it, and even more excited to go again the next day.  Success!!!

The next day was my birthday, and there's nothing better than getting that hug first thing :)

Since it was Friday and we were both home, Joacim and I decided to let Izzy ride the bus.  I had a conference call, so the pleasure fell to Joacim.  It was a bit chillier this particular morning, but Izzy insisted on wearing this, so who's gonna argure with her?

Look at how excited she is seeing the bus?

BIG girl!!!  The little boy next to her is our neighbor who's also in kindergarten.

The same night we headed out to a high-school football game.  Our neighbor was playing, and a bunch of us went to see him play.

Izzy did a great job throughout the game, but towards the end we were both a bit stir crazy.  It was VERY warm that night, and a lot of the boys were cramping during the game, which made it a bit longer than normal.  But in the end, the home team (and the one we were rooting for) won!

Preschool graduate!

Sad as it was, I wasn't able to make it to Izzy's preschool graduation due to a work commitment.  Thankfully Joacim was able to go and snap this cute photo of our little graduate.

We've decided to send Izzy to kindergarten in the fall.  We weren't really sure what the right thing was to do, but after talking to a colleague, and seeing Izzy's capabilities in preschool, we both think it's time.  So, with that decision officially made, we have to register her for kindergarten.  We haven't done that yet as we're still trying to figure out if we're going to do half-day or full-day (full-day isn't mandatory here yet).  But before we can register her, we needed to do kindergarten screening to see if she's mentally ready and to screen for any behavioral issues.

I'm happy to report that my child is a genius.  Yes, a genius.  I was absolutely beaming when she was interacting with the testers and ace-ing everything.  Yes, I'm being ridiculous, I know...but I don't care.  She performed like a champ, and is 100% ready for school!!!  This is absolutely wonderful news, yet makes me so sad at the same time because it's another milestone indicating how far we are away from this:

OMG.....LOOK AT THAT FACE!!!!!  Glad she's still got her dimple :)