Pre-K Graduation!!

We are done! Our first year of school is finished*, and graduation was so fun. The kids danced down the aisle to the Jackson Five singing, "ABC's". Delilah was the last to go down the aisle because her teachers knew she would dance her booty off. And she did. I have a video, but since I turn this blog into yearly books, I'm not posting it because videos don't transfer well to the page. :)
Okay, this first picture isn't from graduation, but I realized I had forgotten to post it. The school had a "decades day" where the kids were allowed to skip their uniforms and wear something representing a past decade. I looked at pictures of different decades with Delilah, and she LOVED the 80's...so here we are. :)

Rocking the side ponytail!

 Okay, back to graduation! The pics aren't the greatest, but Delilah was SO into singing all the class songs and school anthems. So proud of our little peanut.

Medal from the principal

With her teachers, Ms. Marcoccia and Ms. Torres. For most of the year, Delilah's main teacher was Mrs. King, but she was pregnant with twins and had to go on bed rest 3 weeks before the school year ended. Ms. Marcoccia did a fantastic job filling in, but Mrs. King was so missed!!!



Delilah with one of her best friends, Junessa

*Funniest thing about this graduation is that it wasn't the last day, like I thought it was. I mean, during the entire ceremony, the principal kept talking about what to do over the summer to keep the kids up to speed, and how great they would be in kindergarten next year, so I just figured it was the last day. Two days later, I received a call from Mrs. Torres saying that there were actually 5 more days of school left. Oops!!! Let's just say that I already have next year's final day firmly marked on my calendar. :)
Congratulations, Delilah...we hope you always love learning as much as you do now!
This also seems like an appropriate time to talk about Delilah's gifted and talented testing. In January, she took a test with all the other pre-K students. She scored in the 95th percentile, which qualified her to apply for a handful of select schools around the borough. We decided we were happy with where she was, so we didn't apply anywhere. Then a couple months later, I got a call that there had been a scoring mistake and she actually was in the 97th percentile, which qualified her for 5 prestigious schools. It took a lot of thought and analysis, but we finally decided not to apply to any of them. We are 99% sure that we will not be here after kindergarten, so we didn't want Delilah to attend 3 schools in 3 years. Her school was actually the very top ranking public school in New York City this year, so we figured we can't do demonstrably better than that.  So happy for you, Red. We would love you the same no matter how "smart" or "gifted" you are, but if I am being completely honest I must say that life is so much EASIER when you are smart. It doesn't make you a better person or a happier person or anything of that nature...but it does take a significant worry off your plate...and for that, I am so happy.
Hooray for learning!!!

Rivers and Pianos

I was completely DONE with NYC this week. The rain, the constant walking everywhere, the lack of a backyard, the 900 sq feet, the 2000 miles to get to the nearest relative, the lack of time with my husband. DONE. The only prayer I could muster last night was, "help". And today was glorious. The girls and I woke up early and walked 10 minutes to get to nearby Randall's Island while Chris was at school. They chased butterflies and blew bubbles and we ate a picnic. Later that day, after Noelle's nap, we went to a park that we rarely go to and found a piano. There is an art exhibit going on in NYC where pianos have been placed randomly around the city and no one knows where they will be. The girls have been wanting to find one for weeks and all of us were so excited to happen upon one!!!

Chasing butterflies

We found a piano!!

 

 

It was such a wonderful day...my friend Kurt put it best, "Simple prayer; simple pleasure". Thanks, God.

What a Difference a School Year makes

Here is our oldest angel on the first day of school, and in her school pic, taken 1 month before the last day. Unbelievable.