First day of preschool and Surprise Day

Emily has been not so patiently waiting for preschool for 2 years now. She really wanted to go when Evan did since they did everything else together. Then she thought for sure she'd be going the next year since Evan was only 1 year older than her. But her birthday is 3 days after the deadline so every day for another year I heard her little munchkin voice asking if she can go to preschool yet. Yesterday her wish finally came true! She had a great time!
These are the first papers she brought home.
She was pretty worn out. I can't remember the last time she took a nap.

Then when the older kids got home, we had a Surprise Day. Every so often I'll just pick them up from school and take off somewhere without telling them where or why. Yesterday I had their swimsuits and towels all packed and we went to the Splash Park in Rexburg straight from the bus stop.
I think the very first Surprise Day was a few years ago when I actually got them out of school early. I had packed their bags and one for Justin too. I called his secretary a couple weeks in advance and had her put in a bunch of fake apointments for Friday. Then I picked him up from the office and the kids up and we went to Salt Lake City and stayed at The Little America Hotel in downtown. We went to the Children's museum and a few other places, and swam in the pool each night. I have found that if they know there will be a surprise, the anticipation is fun for some, but hard for others, so I usually don't tell them anything at all until we are there.