Off she goes

Today was kindergarten day!

But first I had to take a picture last night of my baby girl when she wasn’t yet a kindergartener.

And here she is – on her first morning of being a kindergartener. Doesn’t she look so much bigger and different?

Here are my kids all dressed on their first day of school in 2011. My neat idea last year of having a chalkboard with their room/year on it was a really great one – right up until I hid the chalkboard so the kids wouldn’t ruin it and couldn’t find it. Enter a piece of paper and a sharpie. Not quite as cute.

Also in lieu of the chalkboard idea – I thought I should have Mallory write her teacher’s name and her grade and her name. I love her use of colors – but am hoping that Mrs Sellman can teach Mallory how to write her letters in a straight line.  :-)   She looks happy about starting kindergarten here, doesn’t she? For a few days now, I have been telling her that I am going to cry and she keeps telling me that she isn’t. Then last night she asked me “you are going to be sad and cry when I go to kindergarten, right?” while grinning like she thinks it’s soooo funny.

The family photo for this school year. Apparently my camera adds on 20 lbs if you are the photographer. Why do I look so huge? Note to self – don’t wear an oversized shirt and no makeup for pictures ever again.

Mallory & Nathan (and Addy) walking up the street to the bus stop. Mallory apparently thinks her backpack is a handpack. Addy isn’t going on the school bus, but she had all her stuff like she was going to join the bigger kids. Nathan is starting 1st grade today and is the friend who promised to help Mallory get to her class and back on the bus after school. We love Nathan.

I think Mallory is thinking here “Mom – you are EMBARASSING ME in front of the other kids. Can you PLEASE stop hugging me?”. I look less huge here but instead look like I have no neck. What is going on?

Mallsey and her daddy. Geez – can you say “you look just like your dad in this picture, Mallory”?

Duh, duh, duh…here it comes. (and this is where I started to tear up a little).

Mallory was the last one to get on the bus. She held my hand up the steps and turned around and gave me this look. I thought for sure she was going to start crying and refuse to go to school and then I’d quit my job and start homeschooling her.

But Nathan came back down the aisle to get her and off she went. The bus driver was appropriately welcoming but not overwhelmingly chipper – she was perfect. We love her.

And there she goes. (And this is where I really started to cry some more. Until I looked around and saw that all the other parents were basically giving each other high fives so then I stopped crying so the other parents wouldn’t tell their kids that the girl with the pink and white striped coat’s mom is a crybaby.)

I was doing OK for a while this morning – I took the day off because it’s a half day and we didn’t want to send Mallory to the aftercare thing on the first day. Then my cell phone rang and it was the school’s number and I started to panic wondering what happened – like were they calling to tell me that Mallory is totally not ready for kindergarten and to try again next year?

Luckily it was just that they had two different bus numbers down for her and wanted to confirm which bus she was supposed to be on.

But then the phone rang again, with the school’s number on it. I have to say that seeing the school’s number on the caller id on the first day of kindergarten is way more heart-stopping than seeing the daycare/preschool’s number on the caller id, and even that is pretty nerve-wracking to see. Anyway, they again wanted to confirm her bus (God love them for being thorough!) and I explained that maybe we were supposed to be on a different bus based on where we live but that we wanted to be on the same bus as our neighbor (remember, we love Nathan). The woman said that explained a lot and they would make sure she’s on the right bus. Phew.

So I’m here blogging about her first day and have my alarm set so I don’t miss the bus drop-off. I’ll check back later with a report of how much she loved school her first day!!!

Oh – Carson went to school too. He’s still in the toddler room.