July 18, 2008

Well that's it then! Charlie has left playschool for the final time! He's had a really fab week and his 'Special Morning' on Tuesday was so lovely. He and all his friends sang and danced for the parents, then he was presented with his 'Special Book'. The only photo we've got is blurry (Pete took it!) so I'll try to upload a bit of the video when I get five minutes.
The Pirate Party today was another triumph - Charlie really looked the part in his new outfit (although he wasn't too taken with the eye-patch... I knew I should have drawn one on with eyeliner or something!) The children all had a party lunch (yes, yet again I had to produce several dozen ham sandwiches and a mountain of little sausages!) and were all given a big bag of sweeties and a beautiful storybook, which Charlie has earmarked for bedtime tonight.
When I went to pick him up at the end of the day, we all had to wait in the back garden as the children came out one by one to a big round of applause, filing past all the teachers and walking through a big cloud of bubbles. It was so nicely done by the teachers, and was a pretty emotional moment - for the mums and the teachers, if not the kids.
I grabbed a chance to thank the teachers for everything they've done over the past two years, and for how brilliant they have been with Charlie. We couldn't have asked for more. They have managed him perfectly and I've never been worried to leave him with them.
The teachers were pretty emotional as well, talking about Charlie 'graduating' from playschool - it really is another amazing milestone. We were so overwhelmingly delighted to see him START playschool two years ago. It's even more wonderful to see him finish his time there - and to see him still in such good health.
We have so much to be thankful for.
Well, I'm sneaking a night out with the other mums and the teachers from playschool tonight - there's a lovely restaurant just down the road, so we're all going for a meal and to sniffle into our tissues about our babies growing up too fast!
And tomorrow, Charlie has a date with WALL.E - the new Disney film about a little robot. He's been asking to see it for ages, but it only came out today so we promised we'd take him this weekend.
Charlie was a little sad today as we walked out of playschool for the last time, but by the time we got home he was already counting the days until he starts Big School. I know that will be another emotional day, but we really can't wait.

(PS I'm attaching a few pics of the last couple of days in another post below because for some reason the slide show won't open if I post it with the text!)