Unbelievably the day has come where my first born has successfully and with tons of knowledge and pride graduates Kindergarten.  It feels like she just started kinder yesterday and already she is done and moving onto the FIRST GRADE.

Sydney amazes me with what she accomplished this year and I know that her excitement for learning was sparked this year and will continue for the rest of her academic career.  She received awards for academic achievement in reading (takes after me here) and math (definitely takes after her daddy here!!).  

We are so very proud of Sydney today (and everyday) and look forward to many more years of success from our wonderful little girl!!

Sydney "walking the stage" to receive her certificate!

Tonight Sydney had a little performance at school and luckily we were all home and able to attend. We got MUCH better seats than the Christmas program so we got to see everything. We loved watching her and look forward to many more years of her AND Casey doing it.

Casey was extremely happy about waiting for Sydney and the amazing possibility that she would not be the center of attention for a few minutes...

She is very focused here - this is the best picture I got the rest were a blurry mess.

But I did get a short video of Sydney singing her heart out!  It's definitely not Stephen Speilberg caliber but you get the idea...

In school Sydney's class is discussing Spring and all the wonderful things that come with it to include FLOWERS!!!  So of course there was a project associated and it was to create a flower to be hung in the hallway for everyone to see using a dessert paper plate as the center.

Sydney and I thought about it and this is what we came up with...

Sydney is studying "Texas" in school and had to do an art project about why our family likes Texas...

This time I made her do the majority of the work and I think it turned out GREAT!

Sorry the pictures kind of stink but you get the idea!

Sydney (and Casey) doing well in school is extremely important to us.  So when she received her report card today we thought it only appropriate to celebrate her outstanding "grades" and conduct with an ice cream cake.

Grandma is here so she grabbed a little cake at Baskin Robins and we surprised Sydney.

She was so excited and has committed to keep getting good report cards if it means she can have an ice cream cake every time (I'm sure it's only a matter of time until the request shifts to cash!)

It all started around 5:30 this morning when I woke up the girls to get them ready for school. Sydney had a story book character parade at school today. They were to pick a book they liked and dress up like a character in that book. She decided to be Splat the Cat - in this book is a black cat that just started his first year of school.

They wanted simple costumes that wouldn't interfere with class later in the day!

Then this afternoon Sydney brought home her VERY FIRST report card.

She is doing so great and her report card reflects that!! There was one thing that made me smile quite a bit - in kindergarten they all take this test at the beginning and end of the year to find out where they stand. We were shown samples of the test and were shocked at the difficulty level on some of the exercises. The children are graded with a "still developing" or a "developed". During our Parent/Teacher conference it was explained to us that so early in the year most kindergartners receive a "Still Developing". Well time for me to brag a little - Sydney received a Developed!!! She is off on the right track for the rest of her years in school.

We couldn't be more proud of our little girl.

This was Fire Prevention week at school for Sydney. Of course this is a favorite event of ours also. Her school was visited by the city FD this week and Sydney was SO heartbroken that her daddy's FD couldn't be there but she did enjoy seeing other fire fighters and got to "brag" that her father is a fire fighter also - which made her the "cool" kid.

This is one of the many projects that they made that was associated and she couldn't wait to show Daniel.

Sydney was assigned her VERY first project for school this past week.  It was to complete a Family Tree with input and help from the entire family in whatever way we wanted using the tree template Mrs. Busch sent home!

After talking about it Sydney we had some great ideas and we went to work this afternoon - here is what we came up with...

Sydney wrote almost all the "nametags" (except for the ones with a lot to write!)

She wanted grass, flowers and a squirrel so she got them...

Very proud of Sydney - she was so focused on doing a great job and it shows!

I had fun doing this with her and look forward to more activities this year!

 

and it was a GREAT day!  

Up early for a special breakfast that Sydney requested - eggs, bacon and biscuits.

She wanted a full belly so she would "learn better".

After breakfast she was ready to get into her carefully planned out outfit.  

Disclaimer:  Please don't mind the dirty fridge in the background Casey had her breakfast all over her hands and transferred it.  It has been cleaned off since this picture was taken!  How Embarrassing!!!!

We double checked her lunch, got her backpack and then out the door we went...

In line for the BumbleBee class...

I still see a baby when I look at her sweet face!

Walking out the door - this is when you could hear nothing but all the mom's sniffling.  Our babies were leaving us!!!

and finally in class...

We were SO excited to pick Sydney up today  - we were like the little kids.  We had a million questions and she was excited to share.   She loved every minute and can't wait to go back and start "really learning and having so much fun".  She was most thrilled to report that she made a brand new best friend and that it will make kindergarten so much better.

Here is to a great year and an excellent start to Sydney's education!

That is a name we will be VERY familiar with over the next year because that is Sydney's Kindergarten teacher.