When I called a little over a year ago to place Hallie on the list for Free Spirit preschool I fully expected the year to creep by slowly...simply for the fact that I wasn't ready to send my only baby off to school. But alas, it did not. And now here we are at the end of her first week wondering where this big girl in our house came from. She began what will be a three day per week morning program with 23 other kiddos who are three and four years old. Monday August 19th (Gman's birthday) was her big first day of school and we were ready for it. Backpack laid out, clothes picked out and a good night's sleep. Ok, that last one is a lie. She went to bed late. Late late.
Hal met me out on the porch that beautiful morning for some quiet time and some unexpected snuggles.....
First day of school called for a good breakfast. I was looking less than put together as I whipped up her meal but I cooperated when she asked if she could take pictures of Emmi, daddy and I.....
Great angle work with the camera
Good luck kisses
I couldn't resist turning the camera around on my sweet red-headed school girl....
Genuinely happy kissable face
She supervised from atop the counter as she chatted away about her backpack and what friends she was excited to see....
"Oh dad, don't cry...I'll be just fine."
My preschooler inhaled her Mickey pancakes and fruit....
And then joined me in the bathroom for some goofiness while she watched me get ready.....
Twas the time I'd been halfway dreading. The moment I would try to dress her in jean shorts and a t-shirt. Gasp. How dare I?! She quickly informed me that t-shirts were for boys and jean shorts were too tight. Awesome. Back to the picky dresser drawing board. No need to fear though....she had it all planned out. Ya see, "girls wear dresses and boys wear shirts." Oh, okaaaaaaaay, I see now. We've been on a dress kick lately. Dresses, dresses everywhere. If I even so much as try to put some of her athletic shorts on her I'd better be ready for some screaming. She selected this cute little turquoise and pink outfit along with her little pink flats. I must say it did match quite well with the chalk waiting outside for her. We grabbed her backpack and a cup of juice and walked out on the porch to surprise her with the chalk I'd done the night before. She stopped and gasped before shouting "mommy, mommy, look what happened!!!! What it say?" She knows me all too well and went to take her spot without me even having to ask. Plop she went and the fingers went in the corners of her mouth for her signature silly face.....
The lighting on the porch wasn't ideal and I hadn't even considered it when I chose where to chalk. This jump pic she happily agreed to do is kinda hard to see but cute nonetheless......
Monday was an orientation day for parents to come along to fill out paperwork and learn more about the school. We were nothin' but smiles in the car on the way until we pulled into the parking lot. I looked back to see exactly what I though I would see: confusion. She hollered "mom, dis is NOT school! Dis is our church!" Oops. I guess I'd forgot to mention that her school was inside of our church. We avoided a huge argument....thanks be to the Stahlman's who we spotted walking up to the school. Total distraction helped her forget that she was confused. Hal walked up to say hi to her BFF and showed off her backpack....
Once she noticed that all the other children filing in had their backpacks on, she needed hers on ASAP. This is the moment I nearly cried.....
They were all greeted at the door by Mrs. Gari who knew them all by name (impressive) and then they stood in a line (or in Hallie's case, tried to push her way to the front of the line) to receive their backpack nametag. We found the perfect hook to hang her bag on and then found our way to the table with Mrs. Eason where I began to fill out paperwork and Hal started her froggy art project. She wanted to be up in the middle of it all.....trying to lift chairs to get closer to the teacher, reaching for more than her fair share of froggy eyeballs....I was beginning to get a bit worried that her gung ho-ness was not going to work in a structured environment like school. Once we finished her project she began to settle in once she'd had a chance to take in her surroundings. The kiddos were able to play while the parents finished up with paperwork. This was when she put her social butterfly wings to use and caught up with her friends Jaidynce, Jocelyn, Kaydence and Marleigh. We hopped over to the room across the hallway to have her picture taken. This is a moment I will never ever ever forget. Now it's plain to see that Hal is not camera shy so when Mrs. Gari asked her to stand on the lily pad and smile, she immediately lifted her hands up underneath her chin with a tilt of her head. We got a good laugh out of it and then asked her to hold her hands down by her side. But the hands they just couldn't stay still....a drama queen needs to moooooove. So her hands found ten other positions to be in besides down by her side. I think she finally got a good shot with her hands clasped in front of her.....
The precious group of 24 hurried outside for some playtime on the slides and swings while us parents sat down for Free Spirit 101. Although I always enjoyed school, I'll be hones it did make me nervous year after year.....so I left the meeting feeling a tad bit on the nervous side....most of the nerves were probably caused by my irrational fear of Hallie turning out like her neurotic momma. She came running up to me with a big hug once they came inside from the playground. She told me all about their snack and how it was hot outside and that she followed the rules on the slide. ;) Before we left that morning us mommies couldn't wait to get our little school friends to smile for pictures together.....
I can't wait to see how much they grow and learn this year! She has two sets of twins in her morning class. Hallie is one of the youngest so she has been placed in the small 3's class known as the "yellow group." Day one was a huge success!!!! I could tell she was pretty pooped once we got home that evening. She wasn't too forthcoming with information about school for her daddy but she did at least have some giggles left in her....
After a little chill time on the couch she was back in action and outside running around, chalking and picking flowers to pretty up the house....
Sweet girl
The second day of school was upon us and Riley graciously made some adjustments to the chalk sign out on the porch....
My baby's first big day without me by her side.....clearly I'm biased but I can't think of anything cuter than this right here....
Wednesday morning was our first go at the drop off line. Hal was unbuckled and ready to hop out by the time we made it to the front of the line. She was so excited to get inside that she ran away without her backpack. Mrs. Gari laughed and told her she'd forgotten something. Goofy girl ran back to get it from her with a huge grin on her face....
.....and then took off like a bolt of lightening. Mrs. Gari said "I sure hope you got a picture of that." Me? Picture? ;)
Mid-stride with pigtails whippin' in the wind
I called Riley to tell him how excited she was to run into school and his response was this: "you are way ate up babe." Why yes, yes I am! ;) Her after school picture at the end of the day was of a different creature. Meet the sleepy monster....
Poor thing didn't know what she wanted that evening. She was way too tired to function....
Despite the exhaustion she gave some funny reports about what they did at school and I could tell that she had a good morning. Day #3 proved to be a morning full of fun. Miss Priss posed for her picture that morning but not without letting me know that she thought I was being a bit overbearing....
"Alright mom, I think one of those first twenty pictures you took will suffice."
"Is this good enough?!!?"
Kaydence and Hallie waved to eachother over and over saying "hi" while we waited in the dropoff line Friday morning. Super cute overload....
I picked up two happy girls who couldn't wait to show off their froggy art project that they had made that morning. These little froggies were all giggles in the backseat as I drove to lunch....
Hallie had surprised me Thursday night by asking "mommy, can we have a picnic at the park wif Marleigh?" Lauren gave us the okay so the three of us grabbed some Dairy Queen and headed to the park. The two friends were quite entertaining. When I handed them their chocolate milkshakes Marleigh took one drink and said "Whoa, I think I really do like this." Hallie was next to her munching on her cherry when Marleigh proclaimed that she didn't like cherries. Hallie made a worried face and then quickly agreed that she didn't like cherries either.....and in the next breath she asked Marleigh if she could eat hers since she didn't want it. Ha! Ha! Marleigh referred to me as Hallie's mommy which spurred Hallie to ask if Marleigh knew her daddy. "Marleigh, do you know my daddy?" Marleigh asked what his name was and Hallie answered back with "my daddy's name is Wiley. You know him? He my daddy." Marleigh finished off the funny convo by asking "Hallie's mommy, do you know Hallie's daddy named Wiley?"
Once we got to the park the girls hurried off after asking me to remember to bring their food because they were hungry. ;) The food was a lot less interesting than the two ducks that came waddling up to say hi...and beg for food. The girls could not stop giggling and asking the ducks if they wanted to come sit with them....
Marleigh found a feather and asked me if she could go and try to give it back to the duck.....
This hilarious request began what I can only describe as an unforgettably adorable scene in which the girls each grabbed a feather and chased after the crowd of ducks yelling "tickle, tickle, tickle....come here ducks, you forgot your feather....tickle, tickle, tickle."
These two red-faced cuties did not want their playdate to end but it was getting closer to naptime and getting hotter by the minute so we called it quits and dropped Miss Marleigh off at Paula's house before the two of us headed home. I think this may have to be our Friday ritual from now on....these girls are two of a kind and oh so precious together......
As you can see, we all survived week one with just a few tears and lots of new experiences under our belts. I'm thankful for a healthy, happy, fun-loving preschooler and the opportunity for her to enjoy such a wonderful school with amazing teachers. Here's to a fantastic year!!!
