Off to Kindergarten We Go!

Yes, it's that time of year again.  The kids are going back to school, and in Kayla's case she's starting Kindergarten!  To say she is excited would be an understatement.  She has been telling people for nearly a year that she's 5 years old, but she's not in Kindergarten yet.  Now she can officially say, "I'm 5 years old AND I'm in Kindergarten!"

Decked out in Hello Kitty (even on her headband) and new light-up Puma's she carefully selected from the outlet store (uncle Josh will be proud), she was ready to conquer the big leagues.  Poor girl got the new shoes over a month ago, and has been patiently (some days anyway) waiting to wear them to school.  Being the control freak that I am, I didn't want those babies trashed before she even stepped foot into her new school.

But the Hello Kitty didn't stop there (side note: I have to admit that while she does love Hello Kitty, I'm not afraid to push the addiction because I've loved this character for so many years too!!!).  After significant deliberation, Kayla also picked a Hello Kitty lunch box, to which I added a Hello Kitty drink cup and food container.  I am sooooo jealous!  Hopefully she makes it home with all of this stuff.

 

You may notice her name tag, which they are asked to wear for the first several days until they feel comfortable.  Understandable.  On the back, it also has their food service number...what's this you ask?  Well, being new to this whole elementary gig, I bombarded my neighbor with questions yesterday while we were at orientation.  Fortunately, her son Reese (who Kayla insists on calling Ryan for some reason!) is in Kayla's class, and his older brother also had the same teacher a few years ago.  I had no clue about lunch, dress code, PTO, etc., etc., etc. 

Each kid is assigned a number, which they have to punch into a key pad each day in order to pay for their lunch (apparently pretty common across schools these days).  The pessimist in me was wondering how she was going to memorize a 5-digit number and punch it into the key pad (thus why I bought her a lunch box).  But I should have known better - Kayla had the code memorized in no time.  I had her look at it in the car on the way back to daycare from orientation, and asked her about it last night.  She rattled it off with ease.  That's my girl!

Maren also started in the 3-year-old class this week (she'll actually turn 3 in about a month), which is a new classroom with lots of old friends.  She was reunited with Callan, her buddy that moved up earlier this year.  She seems to be holding her own so far, big shocker to those of you who know her well.

Side note on the super cute Hello Kitty skirt...apparently mom (me) bought this one a little too big.  When Kayla got home from school, I noticed that it was falling off of her, and so I inquired about it.  To which she informed me that if fell down to her ankles when she was out on the playground.  Good grief.  I'm going to get my child kicked out of school for indecency on her first day!  She seemed to play it cool and assured me that her long shirt (that's the style these days) covered her booty and the teacher helped her pull it up.  There I go making my case for mom of the year again!!

 

Here are her proud, supportive parents.  We have smiles on our faces because we had not yet fought through traffic to drop off or pick her up.  The big news about this school year is the lack of busing (without paying an additional fee) and thus the swarms of parents (me included) trying to drop their kids off at school this morning.. For those of you who do not live in the area, you can check out this news story for the wonderful details.  Much like every school system across the nation, we are suffering from budget shortfalls, and it was determined that our district would eliminate busing in order to keep special classes, more teachers, etc.  What this meant for us was a LONG line of cars to sit through.

It took me about 40 minutes to drop her off in the morning, i.e., she was about 20 minutes late to class!  When we went to pick her up, we arrived about 15 minutes before the end of the school day, and sat parked for the next hour.  Round trip, it took us nearly an hour and a half.  News crews were everywhere, traffic helicopters were flying overhead, and everyone was tired and frustrated.

Some would think this situation would overwhelm a poor kindergartner, coming to a new school for the first time.  But just so we are clear in regards to Kayla's position on this whole mess, she was ticked more so than scared.  The next morning for day 2, she came busting into my bedroom, demanding that I get dressed so we could get going.  "I don't want to get caught in that traffic again," she exclaimed!

Overall, she really did have a good first day, and came home just as excited to go back the next day.  There are lots of things that will need to be adjusted over the coming weeks, but we'll get our groove back.  For example, something as simple (seemingly) as lunch:

• Day 1, packed her lunch.
• Day 2, she wanted to buy her lunch because they'd had roast beef sandwiches the day before (Arby's is basically her favorite fast food; maybe a close second to Chik-fil-A).
• Day 3, she wanted to pack her lunch again after realizing that it's not every day that something as wonderful as roast beef sandwiches are available.
• Day 4, she's never taking her lunch on Friday's again because they could get Popsicles!!!

Oh the roller coaster ride of Kindergarten.  Stay tuned, it's only just begun.