A Graduation Hoedown

Well first, I’d like to send out lots of love and thanks for all the sweet, heartfelt comments on my previous post. Really, we so appreciated all the well wishes and concern. I especially wanted to thank those of you who shared your own personal experiences or similar experiences had by friends or family.

It was comforting for us to learn, through more shared stories than we would have expected, that this kind of thing, as unsettling as it was, is not as out of the ordinary as one might think. I’m also so happy to report that all continues to be normal with our little sprite. No more scary episodes, thank goodness!

Now, how’s about a hoedown?!

We kicked up our heels at The Farm’s annual pre-school graduation hoedown, to honor and celebrate the kids who will be moving on to Kindergarten come fall, including our own little one, can you believe it?!

The evening’s fun included circle dancing, tractor rides, and a yummy potluck dinner. I wore a vintage square dancing dress that Clover spotted on one of our thrift store outings awhile back. I knew the moment I saw the dress that it would be completely perfect for this occasion!

The swings have always been one of Clover’s favorite farm activities. Notice the trusty steed she rode in on leaning against the swingset. I wish I had a better shot of her adorable red and white cowgirl boots. The shoes tend to come off pretty quick here at the farm :)

With the kids seated on quilts in front of the small wooden stage (the very same stage our wedding band played on!), the little graduation ceremony began with sweet words and this lovely poem by Dylan Thomas, read aloud by their teacher, Liz.

Liz, along with Mary (these two women are an amazing team), has shared her wonderful home over the years, giving so many children such a fun and magical early childhood experience. We are so grateful that our little gal has been one of them!

Clover chews on her dresses when she's nervous. She was the first kid to get called up to receive her “goodbye book” filled with hand-pasted pictures of fun times on The Farm and hand-written quotes from friends and teachers:

“Oh Clover! You were just a little thing when you started at the farm. We will miss your arrival in the morning - never sure who you will be that day. We will miss pushing you on the swings and watching you play house with your good friends. Have wonderful adventures in kindergarten. Love, Liz and Mary”

Ha! The unexpected perils of being a nervous dress chewer.

With her book of memories, her graduation cape, and her dear goldfish (who dearly departed the very next day :/, thankfully she took it well, life lessons abound I suppose) our girl is officially (following a bit more summer fun at the farm) kindergarten bound, and pretty darn excited about it :)

So hey folks, it turns out when “real life” and “blog life” merge into one and the same glorious existence, as mine have a whole lot recently, I find it hard to keep up with the documentation of it all! Appologies for my sudden disappearance from this little corner. I've had the pleasure of hanging out with so many blog friends in person lately, that it hardly feels as though I've been away.

It does leave me with lots of fun stuff to report back on though. I’ve been keeping up as best I can with blog reading, however, I’ve not been doing so well in the commenting department! I’m hoping to get back into the swing of things here real quick though, now that things are falling back into a more normal routine. I'm missing that sense of conversation that comes along with commenting. Lots to share friends, lots to share!