My Big Kindergartener

Yesterday Riley started KINDERGARTEN! Oh my goodness!  I can't believe how fast the time flies.  Thursday night was Meet the Teacher Night.  His teacher was of course, hand picked by me.  It is one of the few perks of working for the school system.  Here he is with Mrs. Adams.

Unfortunately the whole school has Meet the Teacher at the same time.  Then Randy had to work late, but thank goodness we have Nana & Gampa.  They met me up at school and took Riley down to his classroom.  He was pretty excited the whole time.  While Nana unpacked & labeled his supplies, Riley checked out his new classroom and "read" a book.  Afterward they came back up to my room to wait until I was finished and then we went out for a celebration dinner.  Our original plan was to head to Cheddar's, but apparantly the whole district had meet the teacher that night because everywhere was SOOOO crowded.  We ended up eating at Kincaid's. 
    The excitement continued to build.  Sunday morning we had Blessing of the Kindergartners at church.  They all looked so cute up there.  There was one really fun moment.  Our minister asked who was starting school tomorrow.  They all just sat there.  Then one little kid spoke up and said that she was starting school on Monday.  So Dr. Mike McKee explained that today was Sunday so tomorrow was Monday.  Then he asked again who was starting school tomorrow.  Sadly they were still confused.  I guess that is why they do calendar math everyday.
   Then Sunday night my best friend, Teresa, called and said she was on her way over.  She lives over an hour away from me.  But she drove over to deliver a First Day of Kindergarten care package for Riley and I.  It was the sweetest thing.  Inside it was waterproof mascara, in case of tears, goldfish for Riley to have a
snack for afterschool, a coloring book & crayons for some after school fun, a Starbucks gift card for those really tough mornings, chocolate because chocolate makes everything better, and some kleenexes.  There was also some stuff for celebrating with the next afternoon.  I thought it was a great idea.  I wish I had her creativity!

   Monday morning we got up REALLY early so that we could drop Alex off at Mrs. Tracey's and get to school by 7:15.  Everything went pretty smoothly and he wasn't too hard to wake up.  I had packed his lunch the night before and had everything laid out ready to go.  He was even in bed at his new bedtime of 8:00. 

Not only was this Riley's first day of school, but it was also Alex's first day at Mrs. Tracey's by herself.  She did great.  Not a tear, well at least the first day.  This morning she did cry for just a minute as we left.

Here we are before school.  You can just tell how excited he is.  Then the craziness started.  My students started arriving to my classroom, but Riley needed to be walked to his classroom.  So I walked him down the stairs and waited for Mrs. Adams to arrive with the rest of the class that had been waiting in the gym. 

Then I hurried up the stairs to my classroom and my first day of school.  I did not cry.  In fact, I really didn't even want to.  Part of it was I didn't have time to think about it.  But mostly I think it is not quite so hard on me because I know he is at my school.  So I am seeing him alot more in a day now than I was when I dropped him off at daycare.

Here he is all ready to begin a successful day. 

After school, he was pretty excited, but like most kids couldn't really tell me what they did.  The main thing he knew was he didn't get to get in the treasure box.  (Only 2 children did)  All I cared about was he earned a sticker, which means he was well behaved.  He did get to get in the treasure box today and was quite excited about it.  He got a Shrek donkey watch!  I never really doubted that Riley would be well behaved in school.  He is such a people pleaser.  I'm so proud of him!