Daaag, daycare!

That's it, the end of an era. Little Cub's last day at daycare was today, and I have to admit, it made me a little teary. This is the place where he's been socializing with other children 1-2 times a week since he was 9 months old, this is the place where he's been immersed in (and speaking) Dutch for 9-10 hours a day, this is the place where he's painted, played musical intruments, spent hours face-down in the sandbox, come home with dirt crusted in corners I didn't even know he had, the place that's seen him go from not being able to walk to not being able to stop running.

And yes, I admit, it's also been the place that's given me Mommy-free days and 9 blissful un-child-interrupted hours......but let's just pretend I was teary for all the enlightened reasons, ok?

Daddy Big Chief and I spent hours making the hot-air-balloon going-away presents for the other kids. Did they turn out cool, or what?! Fine, I'll also admit this idea is one I stole, but the effort was all mine/ours. And for €10 (that's about £8 or $15) I got goodie-bags for 18 kids. Genius!





























When I dropped him off this morning, one of the leaders volunteered to keep my camera throughout the day she could take pictures of his going-away party for me. Yea! As should be will all kids' celebrations, he got to wear a special hat (they even wrote on it in English for us---sweet), have songs sung for him, got a present......and then the ungrateful little toad proceeded to refuse to pass out his balloons to the other kids. (Grandma White Dove, I swear, if you make one smart comment about a certain someone else pulling the same sort of act at a 6th birthday party involving a clown, I will throw something at you, all the way from across the pond!)

































I also made these sugar-cookie-lollipop-flowers for the two leaders. I swear, if you only need a couple gifts, these are such winners. They take very little effort, everyone's always impressed by them, and other than maybe the icing, you probably already have all the ingredients in your kitchen anyway. Easy, easy, easy! Besides, look at the sweet faces of these two girls....who could resist making them something fun?






































So to this establishment that's been a big part of our lives for over two years, I say Hartstikke bedankt en tot ziens. Jullie waren heel belangrijk voor ons levens, en we zullen jullie echte missen!