Cruz's Last Day Of Preschool 2014

Friday was Cruz's last day of preschool.  To celebrate I made him a sunshine pancake for breakfast.  He loved it!

I added the whipped cream a little too early and the hot banana pancake melted it a bit.

breakfast on his last day of preschool

Of course I had to take a few pictures...

and do a little comparison.  Oh my how he has grown and changed over the last 4 months.

Ben wanted in the pictures too.

It says "English preschool" because that is what Cruz called it. 

me and Cruz on his last day of school

I am going to miss driving him there everyday and our sweet conversations in the car.  We began each  morning with prayer (sometimes I would pray and sometimes he would pray).   We also sang a song ("This is the day the Lord has made") every morning as we drove there.  Those are some sweet memories and I'll miss it.

Here is Cruz with Mrs. Linda.  She is the Director.  This was her last year at the preschool.  She is retiring after 35 years of working there.  She has been a great blessing to many families over the years and definitely a blessing to us these last few months.

Normally I take Cruz to school and David picks him up.  But on his last day we all three went to get him.  I thought he would like that and he did.  As a special surprise we stopped by Janie's Bakery and let him pick out a treat to eat after lunch.  He chose a chocolate covered donut with sprinkles.  He ate all of his lunch and then every single bite of that donut.  He loved it!

who doesn't love donuts!

He has already asked if it was a school day today.  I sadly had to tell him no.  He really enjoyed his time there and that makes my heart happy.

Egg Hunts 2014

This is the first year our boys have been able to participate in Easter egg hunts.  Cruz did not know much at about them but quickly learned because we had one a day for four straight days.   When I was growing up everybody did real eggs but now it's all about the candy filled plastic eggs.  He loves candy so that thrills his soul.   He would find a few and then want to stop and see what was inside. ha  He had fun!  Here are photos from three of those hunts.

 

His first official egg hunt was at his preschool on Thursday.  All three 3 year old classes hunted eggs together and then everyone went back to their classrooms for their Easter party. 

ready, set, GO!!! 

They had someone dress up as a rabbit to take photos with the kids.   

Cruz's plate at his preschool Easter party 

 Cruz's preschool class with their teacher, Mrs. Lisa

 

On Good Friday we were invited to an egg hunt in Jackson, MS by my friend Malinda and her daughter Sara Madalin.  It was put on by their church First Baptist Jackson.  It was held at a beautiful home of one of their members.  

Sara Madalin, Cruz, Malinda, and me

Cruz when we arrived.  He loved wearing his bucket on his head.

After a time of letting the kids play we all snacked on the finger food buffet that was set up out back.  Look at all that food!!!  It was delicious.

The kids then all sat down on the front lawn to hear the Easter story. 

There was a funny drama that went along with it between this rabbit and the chicken.  The kids loved it.

They then hunted eggs. 

Cruz checking to see how much candy he got. 

On the way out Cruz stopped to say hello to the chicken.  Look at that face.  That chicken was his favorite part of the day.

 

On Saturday morning the boys and I dyed a few eggs at home.  It was their first time to do that also.

On Saturday afternoon our neighbors invited us to an egg hunt at their church, Nola Baptist, outside of Brookhaven.  They grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for everyone and then the kids hunted eggs.  It was a really fun evening.

Saturday egg hunt at Nola Baptist Church

 When that basket wasn't filled with eggs it was usually found on his head. 

This was Ben's first Easter egg hunt.  I love this picture of him and David headed off to find some.

 Here is our neighbor Annie helping Ben.

Comparing their buckets to see what they got. 

Ben, Maggie, Cruz, Annie, me, and Christy

These are our mission house neighbors.  Our boys love these girls and they play together almost every afternoon.  I am certain they are going to all miss each other when we move from here.

 

I'll pick back up tomorrow and share about Easter Sunday.

Back To School

Monday was our last free day before school began. I wanted to get out and do something fun with Cruz but it was just too cold. It's been record breaking temps around here this week and we are definitely not used to living in cold weather anymore.  So instead we just spent the day inside.  That morning I decided to bake some "back to school" themed cookies for the boys.  I had some dough in the freezer left over from our Christmas cookies so I thawed it out the night before.    The boys had a lot of fun rolling the dough out, playing in the flour, and using the cutters.   

We made star shaped cookies.

Ben would eat all of the dough I gave him.  He had no cookies to show for his work, ha.

While they baked the boys played.  They are really enjoying this new tent and tunnel they got for Christmas.  I am enjoying (not really) cleaning it out at the end of every day and finding all sorts of interesting things that they have hidden in there throughout the day.

 

I also decorated the cookies while they played.  I used primary color icing and drew "A, B, C's" and "1, 2, 3's" on them.  When Cruz sat down at the table to eat some he jumped right back up, ran over to me, gave me a huge kiss on the cheek, and said, "OH thank you mama!  You always made us special treats".  It just completely melted my whole heart. 

That night after they were in bed I did a little decorating for the next morning.  I hung streamers and balloons in the boys doorway and also the doorway of the hall leading into the kitchen.  I made a banner to hang over Cruz's chair at the table for him to enjoy at breakfast.

1st Day of Preschool banner

We had banana pancakes and bacon for breakfast.  I made Cruz's pancake in the shape of a number 3.

first day of preschool morning

ready for breakfast

You can tell I don't have a printer because I had to hand make him a sign.  I added the word "English" to it because the thing he has been most excited about was going to school where everyone speaks English.  Bless his heart I know it was hard on him last year in Spanish preschool but he did learn a lot. 

a photo with my big boy before leaving home

Little brother didn't want to be left out so we took another picture with him in it.

 

It was 12 degrees when I left to take Cruz to school!  YIKES!  It was way too cold to take any photos outside of the school and I was so distracted once we got inside that I didn't take any there either.  Bummer.

 

He only goes for 3 hours (8:30 - 11:30).  He had a great first day.  On Tuesday's they have a gymnastics class.  I didn't think they would do it the first day back but they did.  I think he really enjoyed that!  He will have a music class on Thursdays that I am certain he will love too.  I am just thankful that he is getting to go and be a part of it.  I pray that it will be a positive experience for him and that he will love it very much.

 

As you can imagine I was quite eager to get back to pick him up.  I asked a million questions about his morning.  We all went to get him with plans to take him out for lunch.  We were thinking a hamburger but he wanted a cheese quesadilla.  We ended up going to Taco Bell.  He was happy with that. 

Cruz at Taco Bell celebrating his first day of preschool.

 

After lunch we made a stop by The Sweet Tooth frozen yogurt shop.  It was a first visit for us.  Cruz loves ice cream and frozen yogurt so we thought it would be fun to take him there.  He squealed when he got inside!

Yes it was freezing cold outside but who can resist ice cream???

 

We let him pick what flavor he wanted and I knew he would pick strawberry.   David and I got a mixture of a few different flavors.  Some of our toppings included strawberries, blueberries, chocolate chips, gummy bears, Reece's pieces, chocolate syrup... doesn't that sound fun!

Happy 1st day of school, Cruz!

Ben enjoyed himself also

yummy, yummy treats

 our family celebrating Cruz's 1st day of preschool

I just love special days!!!

 

I took my camera inside the second day of school and snapped a photo of Cruz with his teacher, Mrs. Lisa.  Would you pray for her over the next few months?  Lord knows she is going to need it, HA.

 Cruz with his new teacher

 

We are getting back into school mode and I am loving it!