It's been a pretty busy time for us the last couple of weeks, with all sorts of preparations for Connor's party, going to school and his graduation from Playcentre. Two of his Playcentre friends turn 5 at the same time as Connor, so this week we have three children graduating to school, which means three of our five sessions this week will be parties. We try to make it really special for each child, and they each get to choose a theme for their graduation. We then decorate the centre in their theme, decorate a special chair, have a leaving poster up and present them with a special leaving book (which each family puts a farewell page into) and a leaving box. We share out the jobs, but with three in a row it's been rather a lot of work, but totally worth it. Connor had his graduation today, the first of the week, and it was brilliant. Thankfully he wanted a pirate theme for this as well as his birthday, which meant we had lots of decorations over from his party to give to those decorating, and they used Bruce's fantastic chair. Here are some photos from the day:

Connor's leaving poster - handprints from all the children. I haven't taken a photo of his leaving book and box yet.
















Connor and Byron absolutely love the programme 'wipeout' at the moment, and everything they do seems to relate to it. The obstacle course has been his favourite for weeks now.















A special morning tea and another cake made by me, he is presented with it as we sing 'happy school days' to the tune of happy birthday. The purple 'graduation gown' he's wearing was made for us by a wonderful Fijian lady who is volunteering at our Playcentre at the moment. She decided she would like to make a special gown for the graduating children to wear, and Connor was the first to wear it.



































Connor had a brilliant time running around with his friends the whole session, and by the end most of them had stripped down to their undies and were running through a hose, and squirting each other, they had so much fun.















Connor's best friend Angus (to Connor's left) took the day off school to come to Connor's party, then came to our house for the afternoon and dinner afterwards. Connor is going to the same school as Angus, and although they won't be in the same class (because Angus' is now full and they have started a new class), the new entrants classes all get together at playtime and lunchtime and to do group activities, so they will still be able to play together. Connor seems reasonably happy at the propect of going, probably because Angus is there, and another good friend of his from Playcentre is starting with Connor on the same day in his class. We had a visit last week and will be doing another one next week the day before he starts. I can't believe Connor won't be at Playcentre with us anymore after next week, it seems so strange, but at the same time I am so pleased and proud to have been so involved with his preschool education, the time has gone so quickly and is so precious, I'm glad I've been there to enjoy every part of it!




















To top off all the excitement of a birthday, graduation and being about to start school, Connor lost his first tooth last week! It has been wobbly for a while, and eventually came out while he was eating his dinner. Unfortunately he swallowed it, but it had broken and a tiny bit remained, which he managed to salvage for the tooth fairy. The tooth next to it is starting to get wobbly now, wow he's growing up so fast!

CONNOR'S 5TH BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!

Connor will be 5 on the 1st of November, and we had his party last weekend to celebrate. We seem to be sticking with the pirate theme once again, these guys really love pirates! We had his party at Playcentre and everyone had a fantastic time, as you can see from the photos...

The birthday boy




















Bruce preparing Connor's 'pirate captain chair' the day before. We had rather a few late nights preparing chairs, cakes, treasure maps etc leading up to the day.




















Connor in his chair








































The treasure hunt worked really well. We gave each of the children a photo clue, and they had to find the place in the photo and bring back the envelope they found there. Each envelope contained a piece of a treasure map, which they then took back to Bruce, pieced the map together and went off in search of the 'treasure'.















Putting together the map




















Found the treasure!















My pirate ship cake (from two angles as I was quite proud of it :-))






























After his party, Granddad and Uncy Paul came back to our place and gave him his present, a radio controlled car which he loves! Three days later we have already replaced the batteries once, this could be rather an expensive present!!!