We have a Kindergartener

Today was a really big day! Hannah's first day of school. Real school - in a real school building, for the entire day, teachers, desks and lots of learning. We're so proud of her and prepared for a long time for this day. I couldn't believe it finally came!

I spent the day with her yesterday - just she and I having a special mommy/daughter day before I set her off into the "real world" of school. We didn't do much, but had a really great day. We did some shopping, had lunch together and then came home and baked cookies. She picked out snickerdoodles to make and practiced reading by following the recipie.

Then she did all of the sprinkling of cinnamon sugar and put extra love in the cookies.

Then we picked out her outfit for the first day

And packed her lunch and snack

Then this morning, I woke her up and she was so excited about the big day! It had been storming early this morning, but thankfully stopped as she was getting up.

She got dressed - she was so super cute in her uniform! She wears navy or khaki bottoms or jumpers and red, white, light or navy blue shirts. Love that she's wearing uniforms - should make getting ready in the morning easy.

She got her brother up - he had no clue that it was a special day, just being his ornery self!



She ate breakfast - oatmeal today



And then we got her backpack all ready and took some pictures.

Then it was time to go out to wait for the bus. We met McKenna and Allie at the sidewalk. They were all al bit chilly, but so super excited for the first day.

We went in to get jackets & sweaters and took a few more pictures.

Then continued waiting for the bus. It was right on time, however, as bus 83 pulled up and stopped we were ready to wave it along since we were waiting for bus 58. Laura went to talk to the driver, and it was in fact our bus, with cover up numbers over the 83 on the door side of the bus...sort of silly that they didn't cover all the 83's - a bit confusing for the first day, don't you think? But then we all crossed the street to get on the bus.

And then the big moment, Hannah got on the school bus to go off into the world of school, never again to be our little baby, but she promises, she'll always be our little girl!

And then the bus drove away.

I had some serious tears welled up in my eyes and let them fall after I went in the house a little. I'm happy for her, but sort of sad too. Everyone always says how fast the time goes, but it's when I sit and remember her as a baby, then as a toddler and then she seemed to go from 3 to 5 in such a hurry. Now that school has started, I'm sure time will continue to fly by.

I took Nicholas to daycare and then headed to work. The day went super fast and I left for the day around 3:15. I wanted to go to meet Hannah as she got off the bus for a few reasons. The biggest was because we have had a little bit of a fiasco with the bus garage over Hannah's ride home. We requested to have her bussed to Valarie's house after school, mostly for the ease of picking up both kids at one place. The first bus stop they approved was 2 streets and 15 houses away from Val's house, so that obviously got another vist from me to the bus garage. Then they appproved a cross street only 4 houses away. We tried to get them to agree to drop Hannah off at the driveway since she is a licensed daycare, but they said their rule is bus stops must be at cross streets and they wouldn't budge. So I wanted to meet her today to ensure they got her to the right stop and to make sure she knew how to get to Val's house from the bust stop since it's a neighborhood she's not really familiar with.

So I got to the stop at 3:30. School gets out at 3:15 and I knew they stopped at another school to get more kids, but I had no idea of what time she was going to be dropped off. The public school bus came and dropped off those kids and we kept waiting. Then it was 4:00, and 4:10 and at 4:15, Tony called. I told him I hadn't called yet because she wasn't home yet. Of course he got upset, but I didn't want to worry just yet - it was the first day and maybe they were running late. Then it was 4:20 & 4:25 and I started getting concerned - wondering if she got on a bus to go to our house or if they dropped her off at the original stop 2 streets away. I called the bus garage and got voicemail. Then I called the school and the secretary tried to help me out by calling the bus garage. She finally got through and left me a voicemail just as Hannah's bus was pulling up to Val's driveway to safely deliver our Kindergartner! It was around 4:33, but she was fine. It turns out she is the very last stop for that bus, so her normal drop off should be around 4:20. The good news is that the bus driver agreed to drop her off at the driveway instead of the actual bus stop, so that's a load off my worry chart. She will be on the bus for a bit longer than I would like, but she'll be safe and she'll be fine as she starts making friends.

She had a great day, was very tired, but all is well and she's going to do great as she gets used to the rountine! We get to do it all over again tomorrow, and until June I guess! Boo for summer being over now, but yay for Hannah taking another step ahead!