Monday, September 8, 2014

First day(s) of school!

Newest entrepreneurial endeavour: homemade drawings. $0.10 per drawing; $0.25 for commissions
Last Thursday marked two milestones: Juniper's very first day of kindergarten, and Linden's first day of preschool at the Child Center.

Juniper insisted that she was going to take the bus to and from school on her first day, despite my (multiple) suggestions that we drop her off. (Apparently I did the exact same thing on my first day of school). So, as per her insistence, we all got ready, made sure everything was packed in her ginormous book bag and that she was wearing her special sign that designated her as a kindergartener, so that everyone could help her get where she was going. Here is a little photo series from that morning:
All dressed up and ready to go!
Dwarfed by her book bag en route to the bus stop
Close-up on her hand-decorated book bag: her family, holding hands, with a rainbow, a sun a flower and a butterfly
Close-up on the VERY fancy, sparkly hair bow and stick-on earrings
You can tell she's excited by the real smiles!
Getting on the school bus...
... and big waves and smiles as they take off!
I only cried a *little* after the bus left. I might have been (extraordinarily) tempted to hop in the car and stalk follow the bus until it got to school, and then watch everything unfold from the sidelines. As it so happened, however, I had parent helping duty at Linden's preschool that morning. So instead, I gathered all the things I needed for Linden and myself, and off we went to the child centre.  Here are photos from that part of the day:

All set to cause trouble (notice the steri-strips above his nose?  Library accident. Only Linden).
Naturally, Linden went right for the trucks
Because I was parent helper, he got to ring the bell when it was time to come inside.  
Linden can't just ride the zip-line - he needs to maximize injury potential
And how did everyone do on their first days?  Well, shortly after we got to the child center, Linden declared, "OK - you can go now".  
"Actually", I informed him excitedly, "I'm parent helper today, so I'm going to stay!" 
"Well, after you finish your helping, you can go, OK?"
Yup, Linden is going to be fine.

Juniper was still smiling when she got off the bus at 4pm, and when I asked her if she thinks she'll like school, she replied:
"Oh, I already do!  I love everything about it!"
I think she's going to be fine as well.

With a little adjustment time, I believe that I will also pull through it all, thanks for asking.

Right now, my mom is visiting, as Clark is spending the better part of a week on a work trip. Could things be more exciting? And with that, I'm off to the playground.  Have a great week!

Some breakfast fairy-type conversations.

2 comments:

Erin said...

Well done everyone! I wouldn't have blamed you for stalking the bus. I did it twice last year and once already this year. Big hugs to everyone!

exo

Unknown said...

Very important milestones. Thanks for the story. I remember taking Clark to Bedford Central on his first day of school in 1983. He was pretty excited but confused when they made two lineups - one for the boys and one for the girls.