Pomp and Circumstance

One of my earliest memories is of me graduating from "play-school".  I wore a lovely white cap with my name in glitter on it, a white sheet, and when I was reunited with my parents they told me that next time I shouldn't pick my nose when I'm standing in front of so many people.  The first piece of advice I took rather seriously.

Yesterday we attended the equivalent graduation of our oldest.  When I heard that they would actually have a graduation ceremony I was touched by the fact that Miles made the cut and will be going on to P1 (a.k.a. preschool).  Then reality knocked some sense into me and I realized that he was actually just receiving a diploma for playing, eating snacks, and not peeing his pants.  I made the executive decision to still be proud of his accomplishments, because friends, I'm not a picky mama and I'll take 'em where I can get 'em.  So this morning we braved the severe rain and wind (shocking, I know) and ventured into the Naiscoil (Irish for "nursery") to watch our oldest son graduate with honors (okay, I made that up, but if they awarded "honors" for eating potato chips and building big jets out of duplos, then I have not a smidgin of doubt that he most definitely would have received such accolades). 
First they started out by singing a series of songs that we, idiot non-Irish speakers that we are, didn't understand a word of.  However, it was really nice to hear how close Miles has been in singing these all along when he performs them for us at home.

With his struggles in speech, I've never been quite sure whether he was pronouncing them correctly, but it turns out he is pretty darn close.  If I was a pro-active mom that wasn't about to have her third child, I would totally look up the songs and figure out what they're saying, but I would rather wonder in silence and take wild guesses.

After the "ceremony" they had a little party for the kids, which basically just consisted of them devouring a table of snacks like it was the end of the world as we know it, and then running around pushing each other.  Great fun for all.

These two found friendship over a bowl of chips....make that three bowls of chips that they kept snatching out from under the noses of their peers.

And just in case you have a few minutes to watch cute little kids sing songs you don't understand.... while my son only sparingly chooses to participate....a video for you. :)  No one can ever accuse this boy of not dancing to the beat of his own drum... almost literally.