the end of an era ~ last day of preschool

Last Wednesday was the girls' last day of preschool.

Talk about bittersweet.

Zoe's final walk in from recess as a preschooler ....

.... Ella's final walk in from recess as a preschooler.

The girls and I had a good time putting together gifts for all of their teachers.  They gave this fun idea to Mrs. Charly (and to their ballet teacher Miss Zachari):

And this was for Miss Yvonne:

Both girls also wanted to give each of their classmates a little gift.  Ella came up with the idea of painting rocks --- and they both had a great time coming up with creative ideas.  Some rocks were polka-dots, some were random colors that looked like chocolate treats, some had happy faces and some were brightly colored flowers:

Wednesday was a very busy day, and it was the beginning of my mess of emotions.  I am so excited for Zoe and Ella, and all of the incredible adventures that are part of their future.  But I am also feeling selfishly sad.  These past five years seem almost dream-like to me in many ways, and I know our days are going to be really different in the fall when they are in Kindergarten and I'm back teaching full-time.  Different in a good way, but different.  Silly as this sounds, it's hard for me to picture not eating lunch with them every day, or being able to stay in our pajamas and read books for most of the morning just because we feel like it, or going for a walk to the lake and winding up playing at the playground for the afternoon --- just having all the time in the world to just be together.

So my main Summer Goal:  Soak up every minute with my preschool graduates!!