First Day of School

Bittersweet: pleasant, but painful

This word accurately describes this new chapter in my life.  My firstborn, my pride and joy, my little love bug, my curious one has reached a very important milestone in every child's life.  

HE'S GOING TO KINDERGARTEN!!!  AHHHHHHHH!!!  

I have always said I will not be that mom who is wiping away tears after her child goes to school.  I've always looked forward to that day.  Maybe a bit selfishly b/c that means just a little more freedom for me.  Andrew is very high energy and high maintenance.  I would not be exaggerating if I said he wears me out.  He does!  So why is this moment bittersweet for me?  Because he's my baby!  It means everything is changing.  Nothing will ever be the same from now on.  While I may have more freedom in some areas, some freedom is taken away.  I have to plan things around someone's schedule again.  I haven't had to do that for 3 years!  This whole summer as we've been preparing and getting excited about this day arriving, I have been nothing short of excited!  But as I sit here and reminisce and think about this amazing creature, who, as I sit here typing is sitting just a few feet away watching Blue's Clue's, the tears are threatening to spill over.  I've never wanted to freeze my children in time.  I want them to grow up.  I want them have tons of fun experiences during this thing called life, but I know that as they are growing up, they will one day outgrow my lap, they'll outgrow their insescent need for hugs and kisses, etc.  But I'm getting off track now.  The purpose of this blog post was to post pictures of this exciting day!  But I can't post them without telling a little of how I was feeling about it all.  :o)  Now let the fun begin!

What does a sleeping boy have to do with the first day of kindergarten?  Every night, I check on my kids before I go to bed.  This particular night, he wanted to sleep on the floor b/c he didn't want to have to make his bed in the morning.  Where they sleep (as long as it's not in my bedroom) is not a battle I choose to fight.  I could care less if they want to sleep on the floor or the couch.  So, here is my sweet boy sleeping on his floor.  I was about to leave when I noticed a certain, new backpack lying right next to him.  I think he was excited!!!

I was a little bit excited too and wanted to be prepared, so I set the table the night before so breakfast would be quick and simple.

Cereal it is!

4 boxes to choose from...

...and 3 people chose the same kind.  I chose the boring Cheerios.  :o/  And Andrew chose the yummy kind!

The morning went by quickly and before I knew it, we were out the door and I was taking those ever typical, "first day of school" pictures.  And, just for the record, I will do this until their senior year of high school whether they like it or not!  :o)
My transformer loving boy showing off his transformer backpack and lunch"box".

I wish I could freeze this moment in time.  Oh wait.  I kinda did by taking this photograph.  ;o)

Gotta have a better view of that new backpack and lunch"box"!  Notice the new shoes too!  I didn't notice until I was taking this picture how well they matched the whole "Bumblebee" theme.

As we were preparing to leave, I thought about asking Daniel if we could stop and take a minute to pray with and for Andrew, but just the thought of it was bringing tears to my eyes and I knew I would be an absolute mess if we did that.  So I didn't pursue that thought.  Maybe I should have, but I chose instead to pray silently as we were walking to school.  Walking to school?  Yes.  I  decided since I had to walk 5 miles uphill both ways to school as a child that my children will do the same.  Just kidding.  We live just a few blocks from his school and Andrew requested that we walk to school.

We made it a family affair.

After a lot of "Hurry up's!" from me, we made it.  I have never been around a public school on the first day, so I was a little unprepared for how busy it was!  I was pleasantly surprised to see many other people making it a family affair as they dropped off their children!

We made our way through the crowded hallways to his classroom.  Their backpacks are hung in the hallway outside the room.

Here is his Friday Folder that we were told to decorate.  This was his "homework" before school even began!

Andrew did all the crayon artwork completely by himself!

He was so excited he ran straight to his table without telling me goodbye!  I made sure to get his attention before I left so there were no freak out sessions after I left.  :o)

Love that sweet boy!!!