Kindergarten

This morning, my firstborn headed off to her very first day of school.  All day yesterday she and her friend would take turns screaming excitedly, "Tomorrow is our first day of school!"  Clara's been ready for this day for months now.

After she ate breakfast, she wanted to know if she could play.  I told her she could after she got ready for school.  Her eyes lit up and she exclaimed, "I forgot today was the first day!"  What a silly girl. 

As we were getting her ready, she informed me she changed her mind and didn't want to take the school bus and wanted me to drop her off instead.  I knew this meant that she was scared, so I told her that we would walk to the bus stop first and if she didn't want to get on, she could get a ride with me.  Of course once we got there and she saw all the other kids getting on, she had no fears what so ever.

Here she is holding hands with her best friend as they boarded the bus together.

After the bus left, I decided to run some errands.  Since I was out and about anyway, I decided to drive by the school and made sure she made it to the kindergarten playground safely.  I found her still holding her best friend's hand as they waited to enter their classrooms.  Clara was looking so excited and had an enormous smile on her face.  I cried as I pulled away.   I'm not sure why.  I've been just as excited for this day as she has been.  It's probably because I'm more sentimental than I like to admit.

After school, she excitedly told me that school was so much fun.  She didn't stop talking about it for 20 minutes.  Apparently she thinks recess was too long.  I'm sure that will change soon.  She also told me that she almost cried a little today.  When I asked her why, she just said, "My body just wanted to cry."  She also told me all about what happens when you are bad, and promptly informed me that she never did anything bad all day.  Whew!

2 Car Family

The most exciting thing that has happened this week is being able to become a two car family again.  We were able to purchase a car through Jeremy's new job for a great deal. 

And we may or may not have sat in it for 20 min just to figure out all the features.   ;)  We love it!

Also this week, I was able to babysit my nephew all day long while his parents celebrated their anniversary.  He followed Joe all around the house and both boys gave each other lots of kisses! Clara's best friend was over as well and all 4 kids put on quite the show for me!

Joseph has gotten to where he tries to copy big sister as much as she lets him.  He was so proud that she allowed him to color with her!

And last I have to brag about my amazing husband.  He always looks for ways to serve everyone around him.  Saturday he spent 4 hours mowing our neighbor's yards (as well as our own.)  Then on Monday night, he noticed our neighbors trying to clear out all the over grown weeds from their back yard.  Even though he had a very long day at work, he went out to help them for over an hour until it got too dark to see what they were doing.  I'm sure proud of how willing he is to help our neighbors!

Kindergarten Prep and Parties

Sorry I didn't post last week.  Our lives feel like they've been super busy and yet also feel like we've done nothing all at the same time.

Clara was able to be assessed for her Kindergarten class this week.  Our school likes to group kids according to abilities, so they are all given a small test before school starts.  We also found out that the teacher who tested her also gets to be her teacher when she does start.  Clara is super excited to be able to go to a real school and get to take a bus to get there!

Also this week, we were able to go visit our neighbors who moved out a few weeks ago.  Their girl who is Clara's age had a birthday party that we got to attend.  I loved her cake.

Scientist

Clara loves making up her own science experiments.  She was sad we didn't have a white lab coat, until she remembered her almost white jacket.  This "experiment" kept her entertained for almost an hour!  Just don't ask me what she was doing....  ;)