Last Day of Preschool and The End of an Era

John Grayson is officially a Kindergartener!  We registered for school in mid-April (he'll be attending Twin Hickory ES in our neighborhood), but he still had a few weeks of preschool left.  The last few weeks of school were happily busy, filled with parties and planning for summer vacation.  On Thursday, JGray had his End of Year Program at preschool where he "graduated" and received a Pre-K certificate (or "diploma").  The 4 year old and Pre-K students (there were almost 100 of them!) also sang some of their favorite songs from the year and there was a slideshow with pictures from the entire year.  I did my best to hold it together and only teared up briefly when his class came forward to receive their certificates. JGray has had the most wonderful year and we've loved his teacher, Mrs. Mary.   She's given him exactly what he needed and we're confident in his ability to thrive next year in Kindergarten.

Here are some pictures from the big day:

Our big boy has grown by 2 inches and 2 pounds since the beginning of the school year!

Now this is a boy who is SO EXCITED for Kindergarten!!

 We made these shirts at JGray's End of Year Party on Wednesday.  They turned out even cuter than I hoped!  Each child put his/her handprint on the shirt and we wrote the names underneath.  A fun memory of a fun year!

 JGray's class lined up at the program to receive their certificates.  Sniff sniff..

 They let the Pre-K kids sing a song in front since all of them are headed to Kindergarten in the fall.  

JGray and the amazing, Mrs. Mary!

JGray and his good buddy, Hunter.  These two have been playmates since they were 18 months old!

JGray and Daddy after graduation

All of us after graduation

JGray and his friend, Jack

My sweet boy and I after graduation

 And not be left out, here's our big girl Delia who just finished the 2.5 year old program at Mount Vernon!  She has grown up so much during the school year.  She was quite shy at first (a total shock to me!) but has blossomed and loved her teachers, Mrs. Sarah and Ms. Anna.  We are very excited to see how much she develops next year in the 3 year old program!

Happy Mother's Day!

Wishing all of the moms we know a very Happy Mother's Day!  We had a wonderful day filled with strawberry picking, an afternoon nap (for Mommy, not the kids) and dinner at Maggiano's. 

Introducing...

Baby Schmitt #3 who is due on 9/22/12!

Everyone (especially the kids) is very excited about this little peanut.  Delia calls it "my baby" and John Grayson loves to rub my belly.  They are going to be an amazing big brother-big sister team this fall.  I had a rough first 12 weeks (LOTS of nausea and fatigue), but things have been smooth sailing since then.  We had the big 20 week ultrasound yesterday, and the baby looked perfect!  No cyst drama like with Delia, no short legs like with John Grayson.  I'm hoping this means Baby #3 is going to be low-key and drama-free once he/she arrives!  We decided to keep the gender a surprise until the birth, so no announcements on pink or blue.  The kids go back and forth as to whether they think it's a brother or a sister.  Luckily they seem happy either way, just like Mommy and Daddy :-)

Day 2 - Epcot

Even with a late night the previous day, the kids were up and raring to go early the next morning.  One of the benefits of having the kids share a room is that nobody slept in ;)

The highlight of the day was most definitely meeting lots of characters.  In particular, princesses.  One little girl was giddy to meet some of her favorite princesses.  JGray did a good job of keeping a smile on his face, even though he did get a little embarrassed when the princesses would call him a handsome prince or knight :)  We had one of our two character meals at Akerhaus (in Norway) and it was surprisingly fun!  The princesses walked from table to table, giving photo ops to every child.  Delia was in heaven and mastered her "princess smile".  We're convinced she thought those were the "real" princesses and it her awe-struck expressions were priceless.

Day 1 - Animal Kingdom

We started the first day bright and early, waiting for the first bus of the day shortly after 8am.  We packed the stroller with snacks/drinks and a few other things we thought we might need.  Okay, who am I kidding, we (meaning me) packed way too much in the stroller, from hats and sunscreen (useful things) to ponchos (also somewhat useful) to notebooks and other distractions for waiting in line (not so useful because we lucked out with minimal lines during our trip).

I won't do a play by play, but will just talk about the highlights of the day.

Best ride of the day had to be the Kilamanjaro Safari!  Now, John and I have been on a real African safari (in our pre-kid days), and we were very surprised by how amazing this "ride" was.  We joked that these animals hit the safari animal jackpot landing spots at Disney World :)  Giraffes, lions, hippos, we saw them all!  John Grayson had a blast at the Boneyard Play Area, digging for dinosaur bones.  Both kids really enjoyed the Triceratops Spin ride, which is the Animal Kingdom version of the Dumbo ride.

The low point had to be when the big boys went on the Dinosaur ride.  I'd heard that it was scary, but JGray is such a dinosaur fan so we figured that he'd be okay.  NOT SO MUCH.  He came out in tears, poor guy.  Next time we'll be sure to listen to the advice of others.

The highlight of the day (and possibly of the entire trip) was evening boat ride to watch the Epcot fireworks.  A huge THANK YOU to Pop for arranging everything.  The kids (big and little) had an amazing time.  Words like mesmerizing, enchanted and magical come to mind.  It was definitely a very very late night for the kids (we got back to the hotel after 10pm) and Delia cracked us up with her crazy, hyper, hysterical behavior.  I put my photography class to good use and managed to take pretty respectable pictures of the fireworks.  Having an unobstructed view of the fireworks was definitely an evening that none of us will ever forget!

Starting things off right

We couldn't think of a better way to start our Disney vacation than with a character dinner!  We went to Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary hotel.  It's a buffet dinner and the characters walk around to each table, ensuring that the kids got to meet their favorite Disney (non-princess) characters.