First day of Kindergarten!!

It's official, we have a kindergartner.  When did she go and grow up on me?!?!?!

We had orientation on Monday the 11th.  We took Lydia and Quinton to Aunt Steph so that Charlie and I could focus on just Natalia on her big day.  We went to the school and got acquainted with her classroom/teacher.  Put away all her supplies we bought, found her cubby, and listened to a bunch of important info.  Then it was off to find the restroom and show her how to get back etc.  We also had to show her the exterior door of her classroom and where to go for pick up/drop off.  It was just a tad emotional but managed to keep it all in.  ;)

Tuesday the 12th was the first official day of school!  She gave me free reign to cry that day.  ha ha ha.  I almost lost it taking her picture with her sign!  We got to school about 10 min early and of course it was chaos with all the parents and students first day business.  I parked the car and got Lydia and Quinton loaded into the stroller.  We walked up to her class room and waited for her teacher to open the door.  I took a few more pictures and then the bell rang.  My sweet girl didn't want to let go of my hand to get in line, so I walked her up and gave her goodbye hugs/kisses.  She seemed totally fine though and walked right in to her class.... and that's when I lost it!  Thank goodness I was wearing glasses and could hide my tears.  I let a few more come out in the car.  When I went back to pick her up I was so excited I may have shed a couple more when I squeezed her extra tight.  =)

Each day has gotten easier to drop her off.  No more tears have been shed.  She is LOVING it.  Everyday she tells me about a new friend she has made, and tells me all about her day in the car.  I asked her the other day what her favorite part of the day was and she said all of it!  Lydia misses her, I can tell.  Each day she asks as we get back in the car, "where's talia?"  Today I was downstairs dusting and she came to the top of the stairs and said to me, "Mommy I don't have anyone to play with me"  heart breaking...  Normally I'd be playing right with her or coloring or something.  But I had to get the downstairs cleaned because tomorrow is Charlie's fantasy football draft over here.

Big girl doing her first ever homework assignment!  She was so excited to do it that she didn't want to wait until after lunch! 

It's the end of the week and I'm just not getting to blog about her first day... that tells you we've been busy!  So normally our day to day was pretty relaxed.  I'm such a schedule/routine/structured person that it was a struggle for me everyday.  But I just couldn't seem to drag my butt out of bed to get into a schedule.  Well, Kindergarten kicked us into gear and forced me to do just that!  This week has been hard on my solely because I'm used to just crawling out of bed once the girls were up.  Then I'd get to breakfast and we'd just hang out in our pj's until we felt like changing or we had to be somewhere.  Now, my alarm goes off at 7am, I'm up dressed/ready and making breakfast right away.  By 8am I have both girls up and dressed and at the table eating.  Quinton gets up somewhere in there depending on when he last woke up/ate.  While they are eating I'm combing hair.  Then it's puff ball jars for sleep/breakfast, brushing of teeth, shoes, and we load up the car at 8:45am.  So far this system has worked great this week.  During school I'm doing breakfast clean up, laundry etc.  We've run a couple of errands and I'm trying to keep Lydia entertained.  Quinton takes a morning nap in there as well.  Wednesday morning my grandma came and watched them so I could run to the gym for an hour.  She's going to come Monday mornings so I can go volunteer at the school and Wednesday mornings so I can go to they gym.  In September dance will start and Lydia will have dance class Tuesdays at 9:30am.  So that pretty much sums up our morning schedule.  Afternoons we do lunch and then naps for Lydia and Quinton.  Now that we've been doing this a week Quinton's naps are getting more consistent and he's been giving me a couple of good chunks of sleep at night!  Woo.

I got a call from a bus driver, and he said Natalia is on his route to go home.  he would bring her right to the house from school.  I was soo nervous at first to let her do this!  I walked to school when I was little so the whole bus system seems a little foreign to me (although I rode it all through middle school, but by then I was older and 5 just seems so little!!) Anyway, I told her this first week I want to pick her up but next week we'll go talk to the bus driver and I'll let her try riding it.  She's so excited to ride the school bus.  ha ha.  I'll probably still show up to the school the first couple of days just to watch her get on the bus, because I'm crazy like that.  ;)  Plus the teacher doesn't have what seems to be the best system to keep track of kids leaving with parents/getting on the bus etc.  So I want to be sure that Natalia is fully comfortable with finding the bus on her own.  =)  In the end I know it'll be better for all of us because then I don't have to worry about if Quinton is still napping when it's time to leave to get her, plus I can get lunch going and have it ready for when she gets home instead of starting it when we all get home from picking her up.

I'm happy it's the weekend though!!  My mom is in town and the girls get to have the usual Saturday date with her after swim lessons (Costco/lunch, Planet Kid, Slumber party)  They are super excited!  Charlie will be busy with his friends to Cheryl and I plan on taking Quinton for a walk around The Village since we've yet to check it out and grab some dinner.  It'll just be nice to not have to worry about waking up right at 7 and getting the day going!