Ethel's graduation

There's our little graduate.  Graduated?  Wait, how old is she?  

Yes, these days kids are getting caps and gowns and pseudo diplomas as young as four years old (perhaps some earlier?).  Ethel graduated from Pre-K last year, and from Accelerated Pre-K (for the misfit kids who miss the first grade cut-off) at the beginning of this month.  She will enter kindergarten this fall, and will probably have a graduation again next spring  She's going to have a collection of square hats and polyester gowns before she hits first grade!

All that aside, this year's pomp and circumstance was really quite cute.  The kids did some song and dance stuff, demonstrating some of what they learned during the school year, and received little diplomas at the end.  Very sweet, to say the least.  Some of them were excited, some nervous, and a couple just enjoyed singing the fun songs and dancing around the room.

Ethel did much better this year than last year, by actually moving, smiling, and I think she even sang this year!  Yes, ours was that kid who stood with a stone face last year, not doing any of the choreographed moves to the songs being sung.  I even had a woman (someone's "dear" grandmother) turn to me last year and say something to the effect of, "Wow, she's going to be a star".  Let me just say that the written word does not convey properly the level of sarcasm and criticism that resonated in this statement from this "dear" woman.  Had we not been surrounded by a room full of families and young children, I would have most certainly let her know exactly what I was thinking.  Instead, I let her continue on in her little world of ignorance and smiled and said, "Oh, for sure".  Again, you can't hear the "kill 'em with kindness" tone that resonated from my response.  But I digress.

I leave you now with one of the last shots of the evening.  Fred was so excited to see his sister at the end of the 'ceremony', and he couldn't wait to just give Ethel a big hug.  And that's just what he did.