Team Hames: School's Out For Summer!

May 18th was Ella Rae’s last day of preschool or Mommy's Morning Out for the 2009/2010 school year. I can’t believe it! I remember that first day dropping her off, how bizarre it felt…not worried – it was just SOOO quiet after they got her out of the car and she had never really been away from me at that point. My first car-pool experience was wonderful especially with Alden in the car! And it was easier on Ella Rae too! She was a little nervous that first day so since she still took a pacifier or a “Pappy” as she called it and since her lovey or her “YaYa” provided so much comfort, they too went to school everyday for a while. Sometimes when I picked her up they would be nicely tucked away in her school bag and then sometimes she was sucking away, holding YaYa with tears in her eyes. It was a bit of an adjustment for her at first BUT THEN after a couple of times she was BEGGING me to “go school today?”

A typical day looked like this:

9am arrival (usually reading stories or playing with friends)
9:30 chapel (Tues) or music with Ms. Laura (Thurs)
9:50 snack
10 diaper check/playtime
10:20 craft (Tues) or table time (Thurs)
10:40 outside
11 lunch
11:35 diaper/playtime or craft
12pm table time
12:15 music with Ms. Laura (Tues) or coloring sheet/story time (Thurs)
12:40 Pack up and get ready for carpool
12:50 Mommy and Alden are waiting for our girl!!

Ella Rae has learned a lot this past year! She knows the colors – blue, red, yellow, and green and can count to ten (but gets stuck at 7 often!). She knows the shapes of square, star, triangle, heart, and circles. She loved her music class and teacher, Ms. Laura! Every month they learned a new bible verse.

Sept: God Made Us. Psalm 100:3
Oct/Nov: God Made All Things. John 1:3
Dec/Jan: Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Matthew 2:1
Feb: Love one another. 1 John 4:7
March: God is good to us. Psalm 73:1
April: God made the animals. Genesis 1:25
May: God is good to us. Psalm 73:1

We had a fun party to celebrate the end of the year – Chick-Fil-A and pool time outside with all her friends. At the end of the day Ms. Rachel and Ms. Janna gave the Mommies a very special gift – a wonderful scrapbook filled with pictures and artwork projects from each month of the school year, a CD with all of their favorite songs, and their school shirts which had each of the friends’ hand prints on the back. Such a special keepsake! In the fall Ella Rae will return to Celebration Academy where she will enter the 2 year old class! I can hardly believe it! Oh and for Christmas we got Ella Rae a little MP3 radio which we loaded with all the songs from the CD and she LOVES it! She walks around with her little radio and does all the hand motions – even telling us, “Like This!” (showing us how to do the motions CORRECTLY.)

Since Ella Rae was very little we’ve always said her prayers at bedtime. It’s the same prayer I grew up praying.

Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray thee Lord Ella Rae to sleep
Thy love guard her through the night
And wake her with the morning light
God bless Mommy, Daddy, Alden, Beau, Jackson
And all my family and all my friends.
In Jesus name…AMEN!

She’s now beginning to say parts of it all by herself and it will bring tears to your eyes! She does her little hands together in prayer position (which she learned at school) and says, “Like this”…to show us how. Before meals we’ll bless our food and we say the one she learned at school, which is so cute!

Oh the Lord is good to me
And so I thank the Lord
For giving me the things I need,
like the sun and the moon and the apple tree.
The Lord is good to me. AMEN!!

It’s been nice having her home with me on Tues/Thurs lately – I do miss the “monkey” when she’s gone. On Monday’s we attended Mommy & Me with Ms. Nancy and friends and had a lot of fun. That will begin again this fall. Let summer begin!!

2009/2010 Mommy's Morning Out (Tues/Thurs Class)

(back: Brianna, Ms. Janna, Hope, Lillie, Ella Rae, Ms. Rachel. front: Alex, Christian, Caleb)