first day of school

Today is Catherine's first day of school. She is going to Kindergarten at our nearby Catholic Elementary School. We got up and dressed and ate breakfast, snapping this "first day of school" picture before we left.

A big hug from her sister.

She wanted to ride the bus, so I drove her to the bus stop (3 miles) and then drove to the school.

She had her new backpack full of new school supplies and her lunch...in my old Care Bears lunch box. (Something old...something new...) All right, I know it isn't a wedding, but it is one of those big life events. This is her FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

I met her at school, with a grocery sack full of tissue, disinfectant wipes, copy paper and her towel for the classroom. The kids will have a nap time (in Kindergarten?! - well, it is ALL DAY Kindergarten...three recesses, lunch...) and they will *at least* lay quietly on their towel on the classroom floor in the dark while quiet music plays during nap time.

I didn't take a picture with the teacher or in the classroom, as many other parents were. I had Teresa, Anthony and Stephen with me in a room full of first-day parents (moms AND dads), Kindergarteners, and their younger siblings. I know my limits. I will try to snap one of her as she gets off the bus this afternoon...and then I'll have more to tell - in her words - of what school is like...and how much she likes it.

Here she is getting off the bus and running to mom for a hug. Sorry I didn't get a better picture; I was more interested in getting that hug.

Here she is before getting in the car. Is it just me, or does she look older (and is that not the coolest lunch box ever)?


She had "a lot of fun" at school. She didn't miss Teresa or Anthony because she was having so much fun. The first and most important thing she had to tell me was "We made magic play dough. It turned green. It was yellow first. We squeezed it on the table and it turned green. I get to keep it." They had three recesses. Apparently lunch was also a very important event. She told me that I forgot to put cookies in her lunch. Everyone else had cookies. I got a note that they want us to donate snacks to give the kids in the afternoon "due to our early lunch schedule". Maybe that is why she hardly ate any of her lunch - she just wasn't hungry yet - but she was starving by the end of the day. She told me that she finished her pretzels on the bus as she was finishing her carrot ribbons in the car and her peanut butter-filled celery sticks after changing into play clothes when we got home.

The other main point she emphasized (aside from the magic play dough and three recesses) was that she obeyed the teacher - she did what the teacher said - she followed the rules. "Every single thing." So, does she want to go back tomorrow? "YES! Every day!"