Kindergarten!!

Elaina started her first day of kindergarten this morning. She was so cute about it. Her teacher is Mrs. Nelson and we got to meet her last Thursday at Meet The Teacher Night. We hear that she is a great teacher. Elaina picked out a cubby where she'll keep all her school supplies and got to see her classroom, the library, the art room, music room, and cafeteria. She's excited about starting off each morning with story time in the library with the school librarian. My Nana was an Elementary School Librarian, so I know she'll be excited that the school library was a big hit :)

I love that she's giving two thumbs up:

Showing off her backpack from Aunt Ashley & Uncle Steve last Christmas and a cute new outfit from Grandma:
I'm going to drive Elaina to school most days - today I got to drop her off, show her where to put her school supplies, and hang up her backpack. She found a seat at a table and started coloring at a table with other students. All the kids were playing it cool a bit. Elaina did too, but I saw through it knew how ecstatic she was! She let me take a picture of her at her desk and then said to me: "ok Mom, you can go now." And so it begins...I am no longer #1 in her life...or at least she will pretend that that is the case :) Oh well, I still walked over and kissed her on the cheek when I said goodbye...and yes, I did it in front of her new friends. At least she can't refuse me that yet :) One of the office staff saw my watery eyes as I was leaving the building and said to me, "oh, we've got a kindergartener?" Yup, I'm way too emotional, but at least I held it together until after I left! :)



I know this is going to have a big impact on Erin since the two girls are super close. Erin is such a sweetheart and has been SO excited for Elaina. She keeps encouraging Elaina and reminding her how many days until school starts, and hyping it up. But of course she has no idea what this means for her. I'm trying to make this week a special week for Erin - we'll be doing lots of bonding, lots of time with friends, and lots of activities to keep her distracted and feeling special herself. After Elaina had been gone just 15 minutes Erin asked me, "how long until Elaina comes home?" Made me so sad. She kept saying things today like, "I want to show Elaina that" and "I'm going to tell Elaina." I'm so grateful that they are so close. It'll be hard for Erin, but right now I'm just so grateful for how strong their friendship is and how well they treat each other. Here's Erin seeing her big sister off to her first day of school:
I got to meet Elaina for lunch as well. Many other kids had one or both of their parents there, so it was nice to meet some of the other parents, and especially to hear all about her day...or, well the first three hours since lunch is at 10:45 (weird, yes). Note to self: teach Elaina how most people open milk cartons - she tore the entire thing open, as you can tell. Doesn't she look cute/happy/grown up?:


In the afternoon she'll take the bus home. We're the second stop on the way home, so she's home in just 5 minutes after school, and I don't have to wait in the long line outside the school, which is great. She was so cute walking off the bus today, and Erin, Millie, and I were so so excited to hear all about her day. First thing she said after she got off the bus was "I want to go back tomorrow!!" OK, that's a good sign! :) I'm glad it was a great day.

Sharing an "after school snack," and Elaina colored a picture for Erin at school today. Erin was so excited! Ignore the fake smiles, they were super excited to see each other :)

At dinner Elaina taught us the "Thumbkin" song that she thinks she learned at kindergarten. She really learned it when she was probably around 2 or so, and used to LOVE this song. We haven't sung it with her in so long that she's completely forgotten it over the years, but at dinner tonight Mike and I were remembering when she used to sing:

where's a pumpkin?
where's a pumpkin
he yum yum
he yum yum....

Wow she's grown up since then! Yay for a great day at kindergarten and I'm glad that this lame emotional Mom survived the day too :)