Monday marked the beginning of the newest chapter of our lives... the start of Claire's 'official' schooling. And no less, the first day of school was on her 5th birthday. Some parents might be concerned about their child being the youngest child in her class and being ready, but with Claire you don't worry at all. She's been what I call street wise from the beginning. In fact, a teacher (3rd grade) at Claire's school who has a son in her pre-school class was shocked to hear how young she was in comparison to her classmates. She described Claire as "with it" after searching for a while to figure out how to describe her. I just knew I didn't need to worry a whole lot about Claire venturing off into the world of big girl school. Chloe may be a different story....
It's a transition for all of us: now we have 2 drop offs to make in the morning, Claire brings a cold lunch every day instead of her usual leftovers from dinner and there is the afternoon nap to give up. I feel for her - sound asleep at 7:20 on the night of Day 2, after having the excitement of a birthday on the same day as a jam packed first day of school. Thankfully she didn't wake us at 4:30 AM, but still an early time to get up. I tried to time things to not be quite so hurried in the morning, but we still ended up later than I wanted. We did snap a few pictures in the driveway before heading off.
I had drop-off duty for both girls because Jason's car was full of the birthday party water slide that had to be dropped off on Monday morning. I took Chloe to school first, then we made our way sloooooooowly through the traffic to Claire's new school. The traffic was as bad as I expected, but we did make it before the 8AM start time, parked and both walked her into her new class. The teachers were great in introducing them to the routine of indicating their lunch plans with a popsicle stick (brought from home, buy hot, etc), putting their bag in their assigned cubby and sitting at their assigned seat. The kids were coloring while everyone was getting settled. With a few more pictures and kisses good-bye, we were on our way out leaving Claire behind with her huge smile on her face.
I worried all day. I thought about her at 10:30 which is her designated lunch time (!!!), 12:00 at recess time, 2:00 at dismissal time, and 3:00 wondering if she made it back to Goddard for after school. I zoomed out of work at 4:50 and was thrilled to find her playing with kids in the gym - successfully making it onto the correct bus! Whew!
After collecting Chloe, we headed over to meet Jason and both sets of grandparents for dinner at Claire's favorite restaurant, Red Robin. After eating and having the obnoxious group of 10 of the wait staff sing their version of Happy Birthday, we came back to our house where a gift opening session to rival Christmas morning for a family of 8 kids took place. After another round of cupcakes, the girls were ready to collapse into bed.
What a memorable day to celebrate a birthday and first day of school!
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