First Day of Kindergarten

August 20, 2013

It's official--we are the parents of a school-aged kid!

A proud sister

Photo by Maggie

I love that we only live two houses down from the school and have the privilege of walking every day.

Standing in line with her other classmates to be escorted into class.

Her very own cubby.

 Natalie's kindergarten is 70% which means that she gets to stay through lunch.  They find that kindergarteners transfer to full day in first grade better when they know the lunch routine.  There is less goofing around and more eating which means less kids bonking in the afternoon from empty bellies.  She goes to school for 5 hours and is doing great with it!

Her deskmates.

We have all been so excited for this day to come and there has been so much more joy and excitement filling up my heart for Natalie rather than sadness that I actually did not think that I would shed a tear.  However, I almost lost it as I was giving her my final kiss goodbye but I held it in and hurried out so that she would not see me cry.

Now it is just me and these two in the mornings.

Things have been going well for us.  The mom group I am a part of has started up for the fall and on Wednesday mornings we have started a backyard club in which five other moms and siblings come hang out at our place after drop off.  I feel like I'm in school again because of all the new friends I've been making too.  I can sense the void that Natalie fills in our home many days.  The two little ones have been playing well together but seem to be more needy and easily bored without the leadership and guidance of their big sister in play.  I know they will get the hang of it and I will hold on to that warm feeling inside of missing her each morning.

My favorite thing from the first day was the 30 minute play-by-play that Natalie gave me while we sipped iced chai together.

Below are the "2nd Day" pictures. : )  Natalie wanted to wear this dress on the first day but we knew she was having P.E. the first day and the teacher asks that the kids wear tennis shoes for that day.  So she picked her Hello Kitty shirt as her alternative.  When I asked her if she was sure she replied, "Yeah, Mom.  Hello Kitty is cool."  There you have it.

You are a shining star!