Last year we attended a little graduation type ceremony for Kye when he completed k4. His school has the ceremony for both K4 and K5 since so many kids go on to kindergarten other places. Since Kye stayed for kindergarten, he attended both ceremonies. I was really prepared to be emotional! I got pretty emotional last year when the k5 kids walked in because I kept thinking about how it’d be Kye the following year. I’m pretty torn up about him going to a new school in the fall so I was ready for waterworks!
Zach and I personally are pretty anti-the whole “celebrate everything” philosophy of our culture today. Of course we went to his little graduation ceremony. We are proud of him and want to support him and honor his efforts. We looked at it more like a little concert than a full on graduation and we didn’t do anything special or get a gift or anything like that. We told him we’re proud of him and we enjoyed the morning as a family!
Mema was so sweet to keep Tess for us. I remembered last year telling Zach that FOR SURE we wouldn’t bring the baby and I def don’t regret that decision! We were both able to fully enjoy everything without worrying about her needing to eat or being fussy due to having to sit for so long!
So proud of this boy!
Kye lead the way in when it got started! As usual, I was in charge of taking pics and Zach handled video. Here’s the video of them walking in.
Kye was clearly coached up about what to do as he’s a mega strict rule follower. He smiled and looked straight ahead the entire time! He wouldn’t even look our way!!! Haha!
Kye only had 5 kids in his class by the end of the year (they started with like 12 I think?) and he was the only boy! It was precious to see them all up there together. From what I know now, they will actually be the last K5 class at the school. So it really was a special little ceremony for them and I’m glad they were recognized apart from the K4 kids!
They had an opening prayer, the pledges, and a Bible verse recited by K4. Then both classes recited “I don’t wanna grow up” together. Here’s the video!
Next they “sang” (I use the term loosely here as you can see in the video haha) “Big God Story”. Here’s the video
I’m the type of person that gets randomly emotional. I didn’t get tears at all until both classes sang “I am a Promise.” Part of the song the kids all do a little wiggle move and it just made me get so emotional! He’s so precious and little and he isn’t going to be that way for very long. VERY quickly he’ll be way too embarrassed to wiggle that way in front of people. Someone had to pass me some tissues for sure! Here’s the video
The K4 kids did their little diploma thing and then just the K5 sang a song. Kye had been practicing it at home with me and it’s a beautiful song. I’ve mentioned before that Kye has the Parker family “loud and proud” singing gene. This is proof of that 🙂 Every day when I’d pick him up from school the teaching staff would tell me how awesome he was at graduation practice and what a leader he was and how he truly did everything with excellence. When we practiced I tried to coach him up about singing (which is humorous if you know that I was in chorus all of middle school and just lip sang the whole time bahaha) and told him he didn’t have to try to hit the high notes 😉 Here’s the video
After the song his class recited Jeremiah 29:11 together and also each said their favorite memory. Kye may be serious like his mama, but he enjoys getting a good chuckle from the crowd too I think 🙂 Here’s the video!
During the presentation of diplomas his teacher spoke about each child and gave them each a Bible character that best represents them. Y’all. I about died when she spoke about Kye. I’m always, always proud of my children but hearing such wonderful words from someone who saw him daily is such a big compliment. Zach recorded a couple of the girls prior to Kye’s so I tried to set the video to start right before his, but if it didn’t work then he’s right at the 3 min mark. Here’s the video! Just watching that again totally makes me cry! And then I giggle when he almost falls down the stairs 😉
To finish it out both classes lead the group in “The Shrink Song” which is Kye’s favorite song. We all joined in and then were lead in a closing prayer. Here’s the video!
While I don’t regret not having Tess there, I hate having pictures without her in them! Kye knows his baby sister is proud too even if she’s not in the picture 🙂
Can not believe this day is already here!!!
We have such an awesome, supportive family. Carter joined Tess with Mema and Aunt Cheryl so Casey could come support. I love that her laugh is in every video Zach took 🙂 She’s def got the “fun aunt” status on lock!
Big Papa and G-Mama wouldn’t have missed it either!
Kye asked to get a picture with one of his friends which was so sweet. He has had an interesting year being the only boy. Especially at an age where girls really start to get “girly.” The drama starts up and Kye’s just not in that mix! I’ve been so thankful for his friendship with Lezley as she’s been a loyal, true friend to him all year.
Promoted to first grade! Whoop whoop!
Kye only attended school from 8:30-12:00 every day. That’s not much time to cover two curriculums. His teacher did a FABULOUS job getting it all in and Kye learned SO MUCH this year. Seeing him learn to read has truly been amazing and I know he’s more than prepared for first grade!
It feels like it was just yesterday that we were making the decision of which preschool to send him to and now we’ve prayed and prayed over where he’ll go next year. I am SO thankful for the 4 years he’s spent at CKP. It’s been an AMAZING experience. The staff is wonderful and they are all very God-centered people with a Godly focus on all aspects of their days at school. I’m so sad to see Kye leave but so thankful we have plenty of other kids coming through there 😉 I’m hoping they will add back in the K5 class when Britt is ready for it for sure!
We are SO proud of our Kye. We have done our best to prepare him for the world and he’ll be experiencing a lot of it this coming year. I will continue to pray that we’ve made the best choice for him and will savor every precious second of him home with me this summer!
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