First Day of School, including KINDERGARTEN!

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Our sweet little school was 250 students when Andrew was in Kindergarten and had ballooned to 350 last year.  The county's $35 million bond referendum was intended to expand our campus to support 600 students.   The school has been under construction for more than 18 months---mostly exterior grounds work and new additions were built during the school year while the existing building was completely renovated over the summer.  It's quite remarkable what they achieved in the 8 weeks students were gone----literally the soil the school stands on is the only thing that remains untouched.  Every other square inch of the building was upgraded and modernized. 

We spent MANY hours at school in the days before students returned helping with a variety of tasks.  Our CARES traits have always been front and center, but now they are all over the whole new campus---and in six languages!   #mixedfeelings

 The night before, we read "Kindergarten, Here I Come!" for the last time and "Sweet Dreams", provided by Matthew's teachers at his Open House, along with sleeping confetti to go under his pillow.

 Think someone was excited?!?

And Margaret was just thrilled to get me to cry..."Tomorrow is your LAST first day of Kindergarten, Mom!!!"...as if I was unaware. 

  5, 3, K!

  Wait...whhhaaaat??  Are these the same people...

  as these???

And are the Kindergarten boys featured wearing the EXACT same shoes (just with different laces??)

  

 Matthew RACED up the hill to the bus.

So thankful for no trepidation!

Just enough time for a street lax clinic....

...and one more round of...

Off goes my baby!

He was simply beaming with pride finally to be doing what the big kids were doing.  Finally able to get on the bus himself.  So much of his life has been marked by, 

"No.  

No you can't.  

No, you're not old enough. 

No, you're not tall enough. 

No, I'm sorry, but...."  

But this...THIS was a big YES!!!

 

It didn't feel right to take one of the cheerleader posed pictures.  While this day has seemed so sweet from afar, reality is actually quite bitter.  The basic demands of these littles have defined nearly every single day I've breathed for the past 10 years.  

  As Matthew reminded me yesterday, "Won't you miss having lunch with me everyday, Mom?!?".  Oh, my heart!  What I really miss is holding hands with him in the car.  But so far, I do not miss constantly fielding questions all.day.long. :-)

So what did I do to help fend off my emotions?  I volunteered to be a bus tagger.  So as soon as they climbed aboard, I hopped in the car and dashed out of the neighborhood to beat the bus to school.  Thankful I was able to weasel my way to their bus, Andrew sweetly greeted me, "Oh, hey Mom!  Have a great day!".  Margaret darted right past me, trying not to be seen.  Matthew bounded off the bus in sheer joy, grinning from ear to ear, "Mom!  Mom!  On the way to school, I saw a car with a Fairview sticker on it!!!".  Well, it was probably mine, but none the less, I was just filled with joy to see how happy he was:-)  

Part of Margaret's new 2nd/3rd pod...too big to capture.

 

Part of Matthew's brand new K/1 pod - no doubt everything is bright and fresh.

Proud, happy, sweaty boy at 3:00pm.  Grateful Mama.

As luck would have it, it was Mere's birthday.   So at least I got to reassure Matthew that I didn't have to eat lunch alone today after all:-)

The first week of school also brought with it Matthew's first flag football practice.  On a K-2 team, it's the first time he has seemed less substantial compared with his peers.