Downtown Clarkston TenderCare Children's Center -Infant/Toddler Site-

Downtown Clarkston TenderCare Children's Center -Infant/Toddler Site- TenderCare Children's Center TenderCare Children's Centers provides quality child care at 3 Downtown Clarkston locations.

We provide a loving stimulating environment for children from infancy through three years of age. All teachers are trained and educated in the latest developmentally appropriate practices. All sites are licensed and every teacher has a current CPR and First Aid Certification. Each classroom has specifically designed curriculum to encourage a love for learning and the desire to discover the world around us!

-Infants, ages 4 weeks-12 months are cared for on each child's individual schedule. Our Infant Awareness Program helps each child use their large and small muscles as well as their cognitive skills during the very important time of learning and growth!

-Toddlers, ages 12-36 months are encouraged in the development of their social and verbal skills. Typical daily schedule for a toddler here at TC includes circle time, reading, outdoor exploration, music and movement and so much more! TenderCare Childrens Center participates in the USDA food program providing healthy meals (Breakfast, Lunch and PM Snack) every day! As a participating entity of this program, we are required to post our USDA Non-Discrimination Statement:

In accordance with federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, s*x (including gender identity and s*xual orientation), disability, age, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity. Program information may be made available in languages other than English. Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication to obtain program information (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, American Sign Language), should contact the responsible state or local agency that administers the program or USDA’s TARGET Center at 202-720-2600 (voice and TTY) or contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at 800-877-8339. To file a program discrimination complaint, a Complainant should complete Form AD-3027, USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form, from any USDA office, by calling 866-632-9992 or by writing a letter addressed to USDA. The letter must contain the complainant’s name, address, telephone number, and a written description of the alleged discriminatory action in sufficient detail to inform the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (ASCR) about the nature and date of an alleged civil rights violation. The completed AD-3027 form or letter must be submitted to USDA by:

Mail:
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights
1400 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20250-9410; or
Fax:833-256-1665 or 202-690-7442; or
Email: [email protected]

This institution is an equal opportunity provider.

❤️ Day 20 of 30: Senior Sunday, The Toddler YearsWe are officially at my favorite age for Senior Sunday. I have said thi...
09/20/2026

❤️ Day 20 of 30: Senior Sunday, The Toddler Years

We are officially at my favorite age for Senior Sunday.

I have said this for YEARS, and after spending most of my adult life in childcare, I stand firmly behind it: one-year-olds are my absolute favorite. Babies will always have my heart becauset that is where I started here.

Twos are awesome too. I think the “terrible twos” have been falsely accused for generations because everyone knows THREE is where things really get interesting. Threenagers are real. I will die on this hill.

But the ONES. Give me all the one-year-olds. The squishy cheeks, the first little baby words, the toddling and waddling everywhere with their arms slightly out for balance, the big belly laughs and the HUGE expressions on those tiny faces. Their heads are still a bit too big for their body which creates its own set of comedy, and believe we, we laugh at the cuteness together.

They are still babies in so many ways, but suddenly this entire little personality starts showing up, and begins to truly form. They’re learning that words actually mean things, figuring out how their bodies work, becoming more independent by the day, and discovering so many new things before lunch.

It takes almost nothing to impress them. Finding their own belly button can make their whole day. Someone turns on music, and they immediately start bouncing. They clap for themselves when they accomplish something. They wave at everyone, blow kisses, point at EVERYTHING, and expect you to tell them what it is. They can spend forever putting something into a container, taking it back out, and putting it in again. They’ll carry around a completely random object for three hours like it’s a family heirloom. And there is nothing better than watching a newly walking one-year-old decide they can run. They cannot run. They can waddle faster with significantly more confidence.

Then, as the 2nd birthday arrives, they have more words, more independence, more imagination, and somehow even bigger personalities. They’re starting to really play with their friends instead of mostly just existing next to them. They’re funny on purpose. They’re affectionate. They’re curious about EVERYTHING. They want to do everything themselves and are ridiculously proud when they actually can. Sure, they have big feelings and some very strong opinions, but I’ve never thought the twos deserved the reputation they got.

They were learning some of their first words in our classrooms. Learning to walk and then run. Sitting at tiny tables, making giant messes out of very small amounts of food, sleeping on nap mats, dancing to music, doing art, playing outside, and beginning to figure out how to have actual little friendships. Their teachers knew who needed an extra snuggle at drop-off, who needed their back rubbed to fall asleep, who would eat absolutely anything, who would eat almost nothing, who was going to climb something the second you looked away, and exactly which stuffed animal or blanket better NOT accidentally get left at home. 😂

Now they’re 17 and 18. They drive. They work. They play sports. They have relationships and jobs and plans and entire lives that are so much bigger than the little worlds they had when these pictures were taken. They’re getting senior pictures taken and deciding what comes after high school, and here I am looking at pictures from when some of them were still mastering the spoon and toilet training.

Gosh, they are so unbelievably cute.

Happy Senior Sunday! Day 20 of 30❤️

❤️ Day 19 of 30: Christmas PartiesI’ve heard a rumor that WAY back in the day, instead of a TenderCare Christmas party, ...
09/19/2026

❤️ Day 19 of 30: Christmas Parties

I’ve heard a rumor that WAY back in the day, instead of a TenderCare Christmas party, staff would get together and decorate a float for the Christmas parade. I actually have ONE single picture of Dale from what I’m guessing was sometime in the late 80s or early 90s that may support this story.

I am not going to lie… a Christmas parade float sounds festive and fun, but it also sounds COLD. Everybody who knows me knows I don’t do cold well, so I’m very thankful I entered the TenderCare timeline during the indoor Christmas party era.

I started in December 2008, so outside of that one Dale picture, I have no photographic evidence of Christmas parties before my time. I don’t have anything from that first one I attended either because I hadn’t become the official self-appointed TenderCare historian yet.

I do remember it. We had a casino night where everyone fake gambled with fake money and then used their winnings to bid on real prizes. The prize I won was a digital camera, and that became the camera I started taking all of my TenderCare pictures with, until I eventually upgraded down the line. (Thanks, Ken and Dale!) So really, we can partially blame them for the thousands and thousands of TenderCare pictures I have today.

Our Christmas parties evolved a lot from there. For a while, they were pretty fancy. We picked a different theme each year, decorated, catered dinner, hired DJs, played embarrassing and funny games and got dressed to the nines. Some years we had food drives under the Christmas trees. Some years, slideshows were made. One year we got kicked out of the establishment, which was absolutely mortifying and deserves its own post, but will not be getting one.

The pictures don’t lie. We knew how to have a good time. We are the good time.

I can’t remember exactly when I got the crazy idea that became one of our most current TenderCare traditions: The Nightmare Before Christmas Party.

I really don’t remember how it came to fruition, but c’mon… we work with kids! We love Halloween. We love Christmas. The Nightmare Before Christmas is literally a kids’ movie. On trend, yeah? Clever. But, I tell everyone… I always have a good reason, and I promise you, the timing actually made a ton of sense too.

December is INSANE when you work in childcare. We had Christmas happening in every classroom, our huge Christmas Program production the second week of December, Secret Santa exchange at work, our own kids’ school concerts and activities, holiday shopping, decorating, our own family Christmas stuff AND significant others’ work parties. Money was tighter in December, but it seems that our calendars were even tighter. Nobody needed one more thing to do, and work didn’t need to be another obligation, when this was always meant to be fun.

So we moved our Christmas party to RIGHT after Halloween. The Saturday RIGHT after Halloween.

People have ALWAYS been confused by this. Is it a Halloween party? Is it a Christmas party? Why are you having a Halloween party when Halloween is over? Why are you having a Christmas party at the beginning of November? But every time I explained it, people got it. We got one night to focus on us before the Thanksgiving and Christmas craziness started, and then we could focus on making the holidays special for our TenderCare kids and our own families.

And we had FUN with it. And when I say that, I don’t mean I threw some Halloween decorations around the room and called it good. If you know me, you know better. Over the course of years and years, we accumulated SO many cool decorations and basically transformed the Chapman Room into its own Halloween-Christmas world. If you know the Chapman Room, you know how huge it is and how ridiculously tall those ceilings are. We had giant characters that nearly reached them, huge inflatables, Nightmare Before Christmas characters everywhere, creepy Christmas trees, giant spiders, skeletons, pumpkins, fake body parts, zombie babies, lights, lasers, dance lights and projections covering the walls with ghosts and characters.

Once the regular lights went off, it was a completely different room. Everything glowed, moved, flashed or projected somewhere. One year we even used fog, which I was later told maybe wasn’t the greatest idea with a sprinkler system. Don’t ask me. I’m not a scientist. I don’t even know if that’s a thing. Nothing happened, thank goodness.

I’ve always loved creating an experience. If I’m decorating, I’m DECORATING. One of my favorite things was watching a new employee show up to their first Nightmare Before Christmas Party having absolutely no idea what kind of party they were walking into. The people who had been around knew. The new ones learned pretty quickly. I wanted you to walk through those doors and feel completely immersed in it. It wasn’t just dinner with Halloween decorations. We made a PARTY.

We dressed up in costumes, ate, played games, had some adult juice for those legally able to partake, and DANCED. I loved making the playlists. Maybe it’s the millennial in me. Blame Napster. Then I discovered DJ song mashups and those became my new thing. Whether that was actually a good idea is still up for debate with the younger ones.

And we fully committed to the Halloween-Christmas confusion. Was it Halloween? Was it Christmas? I don’t know. Let the upside-down black Christmas tree and zombie babies wearing Santa hats answer that question.

Childcare is HARD. We spent all year taking care of everybody else, and the holidays meant working even harder to make everything fun and special for our TenderCare kids while doing the same thing at home. We needed a night to dress up, laugh, let loose, be ridiculous and dance our Tooty-Ta’s off before the holiday chaos started.

So we did. ❤️

Day 18 of 30: The People Behind It AllI have spent hours going through old TenderCare pictures for this post, and for on...
09/19/2026

Day 18 of 30: The People Behind It All

I have spent hours going through old TenderCare pictures for this post, and for once I wasn’t really looking for the kids. I was looking for the people standing behind them.

It hits different when you have hundreds upon hundreds of pictures to select from. How do I choose only 80? How do you take almost 40 years of people who poured so much of themselves into this place and somehow narrow it down to 80 pictures?

Many of these pictures show the fun stuff. What they don’t show is what happened five minutes before the picture... or five minutes after it.

They don’t show the teacher who had already been puked on twice that morning. The one sitting on the floor trying to comfort a screaming baby while another baby was also screaming because screaming is contagious. The preschool teacher cleaning up an accident while answering 67 questions at once. The school-age teacher loading kids into a van in the pouring rain, checking names, counting heads, then counting them AGAIN because you never trust the first count. They don’t show somebody hauling garbage, scrubbing tables, dragging playground equipment around, cleaning up bodily fluids they absolutely did not create, or finally sitting down for the first time all day only to hear, “TEACHER!”

This work is physical. You spend years on the floor. You carry babies until your arms ache. You lift toddlers, haul cribs, move tables, buckle car seats, push swings, chase kids, clean classrooms, and spend an alarming percentage of your life bent over at an angle your back will eventually remind you was a terrible idea.

But the physical part isn’t even the hardest part. These people carried things home with them too. They worried about kids. They talked about them after work. They celebrated their progress. They cried over them. They advocated for them. They loved some of the hardest kids even harder because they knew those were usually the ones who needed it most.

And teachers are human. They came to work with things happening in their own lives too, and still walked into a classroom where little people needed them to be patient, happy, safe, and present. Teacher Dale always told us, “Leave your problems in the flower pot.” And somehow, people did. They walked through those doors, left whatever they could outside, and gave the kids what they needed from them that day.

And through all of the challenges, there were these never-ending little rewards that somehow made it absolutely worth it.

A baby taking their first steps toward you. A toddler finally saying the word you’d been working on. A preschooler writing their name for the first time. A school-age kid running through the door because they couldn’t wait to tell you what happened at school. A parent quietly telling you that their child talks about you constantly at home.

Those little moments carried people through a job that asked an awful lot from them.

That’s what I see when I look at these pictures. I see the blood, sweat, and tears that aren’t actually IN the pictures.

I see early mornings and late nights. Sore backs and tired feet. Messy classrooms and missed breaks. Staff meetings, trainings, lesson plans, licensing visits, ratios, paperwork, and days when everyone was running on caffeine and sheer determination. I see people who gave pieces of themselves to children who may not even remember their names someday.

And I see YEARS.

Some of these people gave TenderCare a few months. Some gave us a few years. Some gave us ten, fifteen, twenty, or more. That’s a significant piece of somebody’s LIFE spent holding babies, teaching toddlers, loving preschoolers, and helping raise generations of kids in this valley.

That deserves to be seen.

Because when people look back at TenderCare, they’ll remember the classrooms and playgrounds and vans and field trips and all the fun things we did. I look at these pictures and see the people who made all of that possible. Every party had people who stayed late to decorate it. Every field trip had someone counting heads. Every classroom had somebody cleaning it after the kids went home. Every baby picture had somebody just outside the frame making that baby smile. Every tradition people remember required people who showed up and did the work.

For almost 40 years, hundreds of people did.

Different people. Different generations. Different reasons for being here. Some made careers out of early childhood education and some eventually found completely different paths. But for however long they were here, they gave something to this work.

Their time. Their patience. Their backs. Their hearts. Their energy. And on certain days, probably their last damn nerve. 😂

NONE of this was possible without all of these wonderful souls. when I look at all of these faces together, THAT is what I want remembered.

Not just that TenderCare existed. Look at all the people who made it happen.

Day 18 of 30 ❤️

❤️ Day 17 of 30: 17 Years of FriendshipDay 17, September 17th, and two 17-year-olds who have known each other for 17 yea...
09/17/2026

❤️ Day 17 of 30: 17 Years of Friendship

Day 17, September 17th, and two 17-year-olds who have known each other for 17 years.

Meet Chaz and Myles. These two handsome young men go all the way back to our baby room. Teacher Alaine, Teacher Marina, Teacher Candyce, and I had them when they were babies.

Teacher Calla helped Myles learn to walk while I took pictures and video. We watched these two learn to sit up, crawl, walk, and talk. They learned to roll over together before they learned to drive together.

Myles also wasn’t his Mama's first TC kid. His two much older siblings were TenderCare alumni, so when Myles came along, Melissa already knew us. She had already trusted us with two of her children and had a great experience, and she trusted us again with another one. Somewhere in all of that, baby Myles ended up meeting baby Chaz, and a friendship started that none of us could possibly have known would still be such a huge part of their lives years and years later.

They grew up together at TC for years, but what I didn’t know until I started working on this post is that Chaz and Myles have NEVER been in the same school district. It's typical to assume that school had helped keep them together after their daycare days were over, but that isn't the case. They’re still fishing buddies and have done A LOT of fishing together. They go to games, have traveled for Triple Play, gone camping and sledding, and continued making memories together long after there was a place bringing them together.

And their friendship didn’t stay between just the two of them either. Their families became connected too. Melissa told me that Chaz feels like family to them and always will, and how much she loves Emily and Cody and appreciates them sharing Chaz with their family all these years. I think that says so much about what this friendship actually became.

But while this post is about Chaz and Myles, I know their story isn’t unique to only them. I know there are other kids out there who met in one of our classrooms when they were little and are still part of each other’s lives today. There are probably even more that I don’t know about. Kids who met here and became best friends, who grew up together, stood beside each other through different seasons of life, and built friendships that lasted far beyond the years when TenderCare had anything to do with keeping them in the same place.

I think that’s one of the things these 30 days have made me understand differently. For all these years, we were so busy doing the actual work of childcare that we didn’t always get to see what became of the things happening right in front of us. When you work in early childhood education, you get the beginning. You plant the seed. You water it. You see the baby learning to roll over, the first steps, the toddler learning to share, the preschoolers figuring out friendship, the school-age kids growing into themselves. Then eventually they leave you, and you start all over again with another group of little people. We remember those moments because we were there for them, but most of the time we don’t get to know where all of those little beginnings eventually lead. We don't always get to see how that seed grew.

That’s why looking at Chaz and Myles at 17 means something different to me now than it probably would have even a year ago. I remember the beginning. I remember those babies. I remember those little boys. Now, I get to see what one of those tiny little things that started inside TenderCare looks like after it has had 17 years to grow.

So this one is for Chaz and Myles, but it’s also a little bit for every TenderCare kid who found one of their people here, too.

To Chaz and Myles:
I hope you’re still fishing together when you’re 40 years old, 67 years old, and even at 80 years old. It's been such a gift to watch you grow, and I am grateful to be a small part of your story, even if you don't remember because you were so little. Good luck in your future endeavors! You are both going to go far. Lean into each other when times get tough, and celebrate one another when you win... and continue to cherish this special friendship you have built. Thank you both for giving me permission to tell your story!
- Love, Teacher Jeni

Day 17 of 30 ❤️

❤️ Day 16 of 30: If a Staff Kid Could Tell You… Over the years, a whole lot of kids have had a mom or dad, or simply a f...
09/16/2026

❤️ Day 16 of 30: If a Staff Kid Could Tell You…

Over the years, a whole lot of kids have had a mom or dad, or simply a family member, who worked at TenderCare. That dubs you officially a “Staff Kid” and that’s a pretty awesome title.

So if we handed one of those kids the microphone at about five years old and asked what it’s actually like being a TenderCare staff kid, I think it might go something like this…

“My mom works at TenderCare. This is pretty cool because everybody knows my mom, and somehow everybody knows me too. I kinda feel famous! Sometimes people I don’t even know say, “I remember when you were a baby!” I don’t remember them. I also don’t remember being a baby, so I just believe them.

It takes us a REALLY long time to go anywhere, though. Mom comes to pick me up and starts talking to my teacher. They have a million things to talk about! Then sometimes we have to go to another center to get my brother or sister, and she starts talking to somebody there too. Then we go to the store to get dinner, and somehow there are TenderCare people THERE too. When I see one of my friends, that is exciting, but then my mom sees their mom, and they start talking. I say, “Can we go now?” Mom says, “Just a minute.” We are never going in just a minute. It’s like… 100 minutes.

I really love my teachers though. Like A LOT. They aren’t my mom, but sometimes they kind of act like her. They come to my birthday parties, and sometimes I go to their kids’ birthday parties. They know what makes me happy and what makes me sad. They know just the right way to push the swing so I can get really high. They give the really good hugs. They also know how to do the Mom look, and they can use the Mom voice on me, which I don’t really think is fair. I already have one mom. But Mom says all these people are our village, so I guess everybody in the village is allowed to tell me to put my shoes on or keep my hands to myself.

Teacher Patty also makes the food the right way, every time. Except she doesn’t even work at my school anymore because she was really TIRED… retired… last year. Teacher Marina makes lunch now, and hers is really good too. Then my mom or dad makes the SAME THING at home, and I don’t like it. YUCK! They say, “You eat this at school!” Yes. Because they know how to make it the right way! Maybe Mom and Dad should just ask Teacher Patty or Teacher Marina for the recipe. I don’t know why I have to keep explaining this.

TenderCare also has really cool toys that I would like to take home. I have asked if I can take them to my house. They said no. I promised I would bring them back when I’m bigger. Still no. Sometimes I ask again on a different day because maybe the rule changed. It did not.

I always thought maybe when I got big I could work at TenderCare too. Teacher Gavin did! His dad was Teacher Nate, and Teacher Nate worked here when Gavin was a kid. I wasn’t here then because that was a REALLY REALLY REALLY long time ago, but everybody says Teacher Nate was really nice and funny. Teacher Gavin is really nice and funny too. Then Gavin got big and came back to work at TenderCare. So I thought maybe someday I could do that too.

But now TenderCare is closing.

So I guess I can’t be a TenderCare teacher when I grow up.

I’m only five, so growing up is still going to take a REALLY long time. But I think I already know some stuff my teachers taught me. I know you should help your friends. I know everybody gets a turn. I know how to give a really good hug when somebody is sad. I know babies need lots of love. I know you have to say sorry when you hurt somebody. I know there is usually room for one more friend. I know grown-ups can love kids that aren’t even their own kids. And I know sometimes your teachers turn into people you love so much that you forget they were ever JUST your teachers.

So I know I won’t get to work at TenderCare when I’m big. But I still get to keep my TenderCare people. I get to keep my friends. I get to keep all the things my teachers taught me. I get to remember the parties and the playground and the toys they STILL wouldn’t let me take home (hmm… maybe now…). I get to remember Teacher Patty’s spaghetti and Teacher Marina’s chicken and rice and all the people who knew me when I was little.

Mom says TenderCare is closing, but that doesn’t mean all of that goes away. I think it just means we have to take it with us.

So that’s what I’m gonna do…. and maybe someday when I’m really big, I’ll use my Mom voice on somebody too."

Love,
A TenderCare Staff Kid

Day 16 of 30 ❤️

(I wish it would allow more than 80 photos a post because I probably have thousands more...)

❤️ Day 15 of 30: Golden BirthdayToday is Day 15, September 15th, and my Dane turns 15 today. His GOLDEN birthday!He grew...
09/15/2026

❤️ Day 15 of 30: Golden Birthday

Today is Day 15, September 15th, and my Dane turns 15 today. His GOLDEN birthday!

He grew up at TenderCare, and when I say that, I REALLY mean it. His TenderCare story actually started before he was even born.

I became the director of the infant/toddler center the year I became pregnant with him. He made himself known one day when I was in the baby room, I think covering or giving someone a potty break, when something kicked me so hard it literally brought me to my knees. Marina came over asking what was wrong, and that’s when I realized I had just felt Dane kick for the very first time. And apparently he wanted to make sure there was absolutely NO question about it.

He started coming to work with Mom at two weeks old and was lucky enough to grow up here alongside his cousin. His Grandma Marina and his Auntie Calla got to be his teachers. Later on, his Papa Steve became our maintenance man. His mom went from director to eventually owner. TenderCare wasn’t just where Dane went to daycare. His whole family was wrapped up in it.

And he definitely got the full experience of being my kid. He spent plenty of late nights hanging around TenderCare while Mom worked in classrooms or on the schedule. The weekends were always full of TC project shenanigans. He’s been forced to pull weeds and do random chores. He’s even hitched a ride to school on the TC van LONG after his actual daycare years were over. When your mom owns the daycare, apparently you never fully age out.

But he also got all the good stuff. The parties, field trips, summers, holidays, friends and just regular everyday life. Going through all these old TenderCare pictures, there’s little Dane everywhere. I basically have a photo album of him growing up hidden inside years of TenderCare pictures.

And I’ve been really, really lucky too. I wasn’t a stay-at-home mom, but TenderCare gave me the next best thing. I got to work, make a living, develop my own career, and still be there in all the ways a mom tries to be. I got to watch him grow up, have a hand in all of it, pop into his classroom, know his friends and his teachers, and just be close. I got the opportunity to grow professionally without completely missing all those little everyday moments with my kids.

And now somehow the teeny tiny baby who started TenderCare at two weeks old is 15 years old and 6’2”.

Happy GOLDEN birthday, Dane. I love you with all of my heart. You’ve been along for this ride literally since before you were born, whether you wanted to be or not. When I look back at all these years, I’m so thankful that so much of your childhood is mixed right in with them.

Today, Day 15 belongs to you. Happy Birthday, Buddy.

Day 15 of 30 ❤️

❤️ Day 14 of 30: To the ParentsYou guys trusted us with your kids. You handed us your babies before they could even tell...
09/14/2026

❤️ Day 14 of 30: To the Parents

You guys trusted us with your kids. You handed us your babies before they could even tell you what happened during their day. You left us with toddlers who might have been completely devastated because you peeled their banana wrong that morning, preschoolers navigating the very serious politics of who was whose best friend that day, and big kids who still needed us even though they were getting pretty good at pretending they didn’t.

Some of you brought us one. Some of you brought us every single child you had. We watched families grow, waited for new babies right along with you, knew which grandma was picking up, who rode which bus, and whose sweatshirt had been sitting in the lost and found since approximately 2017.

And then the really crazy thing started happening. These kids grew up and started bringing us their own kids. I don’t think I’ll ever get over that one, AND it still boggles my mind I am old enough to experience it myself.

Somewhere along the way, you weren’t just “parents” anymore either. We knew you. We knew your families and your stories. We celebrated new babies, new jobs, marriages, houses, graduations and all the good stuff with you. We also saw you through hard seasons, chaotic mornings, late pickups, forgotten lunches and plenty of days when everybody involved was just doing their best to make it to bedtime.

That’s what happens when you spend years raising little humans together. You trusted us with the most important people in your world, and there really isn’t a bigger compliment than that.

So today is for you. Thank you for choosing us, for sticking with us, for telling your friends about us, for bringing us the next sibling and, sometimes years later, the next generation.

And thank you for always being willing to join in on our shenanigans. You showed up for Moms & Muffins, Dads & Donuts, Christmas programs, graduations, Family Fun Nights, parties, dress-up days, and whatever else we dreamed up and convinced you to participate in. You didn’t just drop your kids off at TenderCare. You showed up and made the memories right alongside us, and some of those are still my very favorite ones.

We wouldn’t have made it all of these wonderful years without the thousands of families who walked through our doors.

You weren’t just part of TenderCare. You ARE TenderCare. ❤️

So parents, consider this your roll call. Tell me when your family started with us, which TenderCare your kids went to, and how many TenderCare kids you had.

Day 14 of 30 ❤️

❤️ Day 13 of 30: Senior Sunday, The Preschool YearsLast Sunday, I shared the Class of 2027 standing in their tiny caps a...
09/13/2026

❤️ Day 13 of 30: Senior Sunday, The Preschool Years

Last Sunday, I shared the Class of 2027 standing in their tiny caps and gowns at their Pre-K graduation in 2014.

Before they were Pre-K graduates, they were our preschoolers.

Isn't it crazy to think that none of us knew who these little people were going to become... and in the blink of an eye it'd be their senior year of high school?

We could accurately guess which kiddos would become athletes, artists, musicians, the funny kid, the quiet one, the social butterfly, or the brave soul who couldn't wait to get out into the world. We didn't know what they would love, what would challenge them, what they would accomplish, or what their plans would be after high school.

And let's be real, at three and four years old, THEY didn't even know what they wanted for lunch half the time. They were just little.

Some of these little preschool friendships lasted. Some of these kids still know each other. Some probably haven't seen each other in years. Their lives went in a hundred different directions after they left these classrooms, and now somehow they've all arrived at the same milestone. They're seniors!!!

And in just a few months, some of these same kids will put on caps and gowns again, and Moms will grab those tissues while Dads choke back the tears. Only this time, they'll be walking across a high school graduation stage with entire childhoods behind them and whole lives waiting in front of them.

Parents, you know the drill! Find your preschooler in these pictures and show us the senior they became. Tell us what they're doing now, what they love, what they're involved in, and what they're dreaming about doing next.

And next Sunday, we're turning the clock back even further.
Because before they were preschoolers, they were our toddlers.

Day 13 of 30 ❤️

Address

1499 Fair Street
Clarkston, WA
99403

Opening Hours

Monday 5:30am - 6:30pm
Tuesday 5:30am - 6:30pm
Wednesday 5:30am - 6:30pm
Thursday 5:30am - 6:30pm
Friday 5:30am - 6:30pm

Telephone

(509) 758-1779

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