Emma graduated from kindergarten today.  Its hard to believe another milestone has been reached.  It  seems like yesterday that she nervously waited for the bus to arrive for her first real day of school.

She's grown much since then.  She has learned a lot at her new school - about God, life, and of course traditional educational topics like reading and math.  She received an award for reading the most books - 720 of them throughout the year.  Now since she is reading full chapter books, like Trixie Beldon, Magic Treehouse, and classics like Charlotte's web, the teachers agreed each chapter would be considered a book.  Am I bragging?  Am I proud?  You bet.  Apologies and gratitude go out to my friends and family for enduring our constant bragging about her strong points and apparent blindness to her.. weaker areas.  We are proud parents and can't help ourselves.  

Anyway the graduation ceremony was very nice and driven largely by the students recitals and songs.

Friends and family can view the full set of photos and video on my flickr page: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jduprey/5846229556/in/set-72157626866582157/ 

After graduation, we took Emma and one of her school friends and mom out to lunch.  I went to work, while the rest had a play date.

That evening I asked Emma what she thought of kindergarten and moving on to first grade.  She shrugged and said it was "OK", but she really wanted to go back to pre-school.  She liked to play, do artwork, and she loved the friendly teachers (the nuns are less friendly, I suppose).  I sympathized but told her there is no going back.  We can cheerish our memories, but we have to accept that change is inevitable - that we should look forward to the new adventures that life has for us.  She agreed, begrudgingly.  

As I dropped these sage words of wisdom, I secretly wished I could freeze time, even go back a bit, and savor the purity and sweetness of M's childhood just a little longer.  I selfishly considered that with each of her passing milestones, marks the decline and relevance of myself.

Well, we will all have our memories and there are spectacular adventures to be had yet.  If life is a journey, does it make any sense to regret the parts that have already passed and missing the parts that are happening right now or those that are soon to be?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jduprey/sets/72157626847900253

Last summer, Emma enjoyed a mini ant farm that Abby found somewhere.  This summer we got a bigger version and sent away for some "big" Red Harvester ants.  She's mesmerized by there tunneling and behavior.  Hey, maybe she'll be a scientist!?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jduprey/5838219680/in/set-72157626847876455/

Advice I'll be sure to pass on to M someday...