Toni's Kindergarten Graduation

Toni had such a great time all year in Kindergarten. She is loved by all her classmates and her teacher simply adored her. I am one proud mommy! I knew graduation was coming and I was looking forward to summer and swimming all the time... but I did not even stop and think about how fast the year went by. My mom is such a trooper when it comes to my kiddo's and let me tell you why. I am 31 and the youngest of three so that makes my mom... 29 right? Well you would think so after this. My mom works crazy long hours. She gets up at like 4:30 in the a.m. and works a 12 hour shift...then drives an hour home before crashing early just to do it again. I called mom and told her that Toni's kinder graduation was on her first day off and I would understand if she could not make it....HA. My wonderful mom worked 4 days in a row...12 hour shifts and in order to make it here for my daughter she drove strait from work all the way to Austin. That's right got up at 4:30....worked all day...left work that evening and drove into the night to be here. She did not come into the door till 11PM. The next morning my little Toni girl was up getting ready for school hugging on her grandma and was as happy as could be. John, Mikey, Kaelyn, Grandma, and myself headed to school for the 8:30 in the morning graduation. I did not expect much as I have never been to a Kinder graduation. It was fun! They had slide shows of all the kiddo's through out the year. Toni made the slide show a few times and it was fun to see all what they did in a years time. My husband even made the slide show! When we went on the field trip they captured him and Toni together and flipped it on the big screen. Then all the kids sang songs together...walked the stage and received there Kinder certificates...so cute. I know my kids are taken care of at school and you can tell because all the kids love the teachers and the principal. The principal got up to make her speech and could not get through it with out crying, she loves ALL these kids and was truly amazed at how smart this particular class was. Toni's teacher got up and talked about her class and how in the years past the lesson plans have worked just fine to keep the kids busy all day and learning...well not this year. She said that she had to come up with more stuff and lessons to do because this year the kids picked up everything so fast. She was giving our kindergartners 1st and 2nd grade work to challenge them. I kept it together for the most part only fighting tears every now and then and then feeling silly for tearing because it is not like she is graduating high school or college. Over all it was wonderful to watch all these kids shine and smile with life and love for there school. CC Mason rocks! ......ok so the last thing I need to share is when I did cry. It was the last day of school (5 school days after graduation...silly I know). Everything was normal, Toni was off to school, Mikey and I hung out for the day, the time came to go pick them up and I got sad. I took Mikey over to my neighbor's house and headed to go get my girl. I sat in the parking lot for about 50 min. waiting for Toni and the neighbor to come out and it hit me....My girl is not a kindergartner anymore...she is in school...real school. A school that is public, attendance matters, grades matter, everything matters and I don't have a baby...or a toddler....I have a grade school child. 1st grade. I teach 1st grade at church and have for 3 years....and now my daughter just turned into that big kid that I teach. WHAT?