Preschool Program

Our preschool always has a year-end "Moving On and Moving Up" Program. They keep it short and to the point, which I appreciate, because my kids are only sitting still for the cookies afterwards :)

James, James, James. This boy is something else. The line order was arranged by the teachers and James just happened to be front and center this time. I was curious to see how he would cope with so many eyes on him.

True to third-kid fashion, this is the only picture we captured of the evening. James is in there, I promise.

Well, he turned into a goofball.

The kids sang a few of their favorite songs from the preschool year. I had heard James singing almost all of these to himself at some point over the year, so I knew he knew the words, but he opted for the gaping codfish approach. He did the hand gestures like the other kids, but instead of singing, he just gaped his mouth wide open and closed for each word. Total goof ball.

That is, until the song "The Fruit of the Spirit" which seems to be one of his favorites. Then he sang along swimmingly. Ms. Rohrer asked the kids to sing especially loud for that one, and James was ALL over that.

I dunno. I feel like once I get a pretty good idea of who James is, he changes a little and I can't predict what he'll do anymore. Maybe I just haven't really figured him out yet. Anyway, he likes to be silly. He likes to be sneaky. He likes a good practical joke. Just the other day, he and Matthew were playing near a patch of wild yellow flowers near the big garden. James told Matthew to hike up his really long shorts and walk right through the middle of the patch. It turns out, the plants have little pokey hairs all over them and James was trying to get Matthew to experience them for himself. Little stinker. I do hope James stops pulling those pranks before he loses Matthew's trust entirely.

After the singing, each of the kids was invited in turn to get a certificate and a prize while Ms. Rohrer announced where the child would be going next year and what he/she wanted to be as an adult. James will be returning to Wee Disciples for another year and he wants to grow up to be Batman.

James came to sit with us, certificate and prize in-hand. All smiles, all glee, all happy with himself. James is one of those kids whose eyes truly do "sparkle" with pure glee and/or the trickiest tricksterness. When Ms. Rohrer said we would be praying over the refreshments with the "Superman Prayer", James totally lit up...*sparkle*...let's see if I can remember it right...

Superman Prayer
(roughly to the theme of Superman)

Thank you God for giving us food.
Thank you God for giving us food.
For the food that we eat,
And the friends that we meet,
Thank you, thank you God...
For giving us food.
(dun dun dun duuun duuuun dun dun dun duuuuuuun dun)
Amen


Of course, James changed "meet" in the fourth line to "eat" and looked up at me with that big, pebble-toothed grin *sparkle*

*sigh*

Love this kid to bits. To bursting, actually. He's a mystifying little ball of prankster sometimes. A lot of the time. But his love and attachment to me is so, so deep and so, so real that I'm obviously biased. Perhaps if he didn't hold me in such high regard, I would have less patience for his shenanigans ;)