{ image by Aimée Lowry and Bettijo B. Hirschi }

Do you celebrate graduations? Looking back over my childhood, I remember a big picnic and awards ceremony at the end of sixth grade, a special church ceremony for eighth grade graduation (I went to parochial school for middle school and high school), and, of course, a big ceremony and open houses for high school graduation. For my kids, the big graduation events have taken place after preschool and kindergarten, and then really nothing else until high school graduation.

If you have a little one graduating from preschool or kindergarten, you might like these graduation party ideas from One Charming Party. And, really, your older kids might get a kick out of these “diplomas,” too. I mean, who doesn’t like a fruit roll-up? You can go here for a more generic free printable for graduates of any age.

I think it would be fun to print out one of the signs to hang on the door to greet the kids when they come home from school on the last day. You could then present each child with a diploma while recounting some of their finest moments from the school year. And then send them outside to run off all the sugar!