Last day of preschool (this year)

Although the girls are going back to the same preschool next year that they attended this year (with the same teachers, many of the same kids, and the same time of day) today was the last day of their FIRST year of preschool.  We offer for you a "then and now" shot of their first day and last day.

There are a lot of things they will miss over the summer, but nothing more than the people who taught them this year.  Here the girls are literally not letting Miss Kelsey, their favorite teacher, get away from them.

We had about 100 people at the party, and as Christina is on the party-planning committee the girls had a pretty heavy hand in buying and setting up for it.  Here they sat down for a quick lemonade and fruit snack before the party got into full swing.

As the other children showed up, though, it got much harder to focus on food!  Here Kylie leads Elena away to the play area (where she stayed most of the rest of the party!).

At least, until she started angling for the cake.  She had helped pick them (do you KNOW how many options Costco has for cakes?? Lots more than we thought!) so she was very invested in eating them, too.

We found out that Miss Mandy, another huge favorite (especially of Clara), won't be back next year.  She is, however, very interested in coming to babysit the girls in the next year, and we are so happy we can help both girls keep their connection with her.

Ah - finally, cake time!

Clara took a break from cake to bury Talon.  Talon is definitely her best friend at school - she and Elena and Talon tend to move from center to center at school in a cluster, and spend a lot of free time together.  We met up with them before the party for a bit, and Clara immediately grabbed his hand.  He asked: "Why are you holding my hand?" and she said: "Because I love you!"  He replied, "Okay, then."  Elena took up his free hand on the other side, and they walked across campus as a happy trio.

Soon, Clara needed the cake and she left Talon buried in the sand to go get some.

Then, Talon's mom handed her an almost finished bag of Doritos.  She was in heaven!  You can't quite get the full effect of her orange lips/teeth here, but let us just say that she REALLY enjoyed those chips.

Goodbyes for Miss Kelsey as the party drew to a close:

And goodbyes for Miss Karen, too.

(their friend Zoe is definitely not shy about hopping into pictures!).

We feel so lucky that Clara and Elena got into this preschool.  They grew so much this year, and learned so many different things.  We are glad to get a summer to hang out together, but will be excited to see all they learn next year.