Our Little Graduate

Emily's preschool graduation was this morning, and we had a great time! And yes, Mommy and Papa cried. :) Here's Madilynn showing her support with her "I Love My Big Sister" bib!

There was a performance from some of the UCP kids along with Emily's musical therapist.

The director from Emily's preschool, Marife, spoke to me a few weeks ago about the graduation ceremony. She knew that there would be balloons everywhere, and she was concerned that Emily was going to get upset if she wasn't allowed to have a balloon. I told her that if she was fine with Emily having a balloon, then so was I. It wasn't going to ruin my pictures or anything--I made sure she knew my family would find it funny and very typical Emily! So while Emily waited for her turn to "walk," she sat in Marife's lap in the front row and played with the bunch of balloons!

Marife had cut the ribbon of one of the balloons so Emily could take it with her. It was tied around her wrist, but since she was still sitting near the bouquet of balloons, it got tangled with the others. When Marife was ready to pass her up to Miss Megan on the stage, she was stuck! :) After trying to untangle her, they finally just broke the ribbon. Unfortunately, that meant if Emily let go, she was going to lose the balloon. And of course, that's what happened! But she didn't get too upset, and they lured her across the stage with another balloon. She was probably the tinest graduate there, and the crowd loved it. When they called her name (and how appropriate that they said "MISS Emily Rouse" instead of just her name!), the crowd went "Awwwwww!" and I heard "She's so tiny!" from people sitting around us. :)

There were 110 graduates from all of the Central Florida UCP locations. All of those kids probably would have cast aside or given up on a few decades ago...and now look at them! We are really going to miss that place in August!

There are videos in this post, so if you are reading this from your e-mail update, please make sure you visit the actual blog site to see them!