First Day of School

I am officially the mom of a preschooler! The anticipation and eagerness for all of us was building up all summer. Finally last week we had open house so we could see Gabrielle's classroom and meet her teachers. Gabrielle enjoyed open house so much she threw a fit when it was time to leave. After open house we only had the long weekend to get through.

On Monday we decorated Gabrielle's school bag with iron-on's and buttons of her favorite things - a ballerina, My Little Pony, a princess bunny, rainbows and more. We still have some heart jewels to glue on. What can I say - my girl loves bling!!! Knowing the next day, "tomorrow", would be her first day of school, Gabrielle asked repeatedly throughout the day, "Is it tomorrow yet?"

Tuesday finally arrived. We all woke up bright and early. It was obvious we were all very excited when we were all dressed and ready to go out the door 30 minutes early rather than being rushed and running our typical 5-10 minutes late. After a couple of photos we headed to school.

From My Little Sunbeams

From My Little Sunbeams

Gabrielle proudly showed her very own bag to anyone who would stop and look as we were walking into her school.

From My Little Sunbeams

Here she is standing right outside her classroom.

From My Little Sunbeams

Gabrielle "signing in" to her classroom.

From My Little Sunbeams

Finding her cubby.

I stayed only a couple of minutes. It was obvious Gabrielle was comfortable and ready for the school day to begin. I felt myself choking up and decided I needed to say bye before I could no longer hold back the tears. "Mommy is going to say bye now," I said. "Okay." was Gabrielle's reply. "Can I have a hug?" I asked. "Okay." And off I went, barely holding it together all the way to the car.

It definitely was a little weird being home with just Samantha. I tried to get as much cleaning done as I could. Samantha was a little lonely I think. She acted like she was looking for Gabrielle part of the time and just plain bored the other part. Here she is sitting in the laundry basket having a snack.

From My Little Sunbeams

The time went by quickly. The first thing Gabrielle said as I picked her up was "I'm really thirsty and hungry." I had to laugh. Of course she had snack and water while she was at school but my girl thinks she should be drinking and eating all morning - a bad habit I'll be happy to see broken. After her juice and a special treat of McDonald's for lunch she was happy to talk about her day and continued to tell me tidbits about her morning throughout the day.

Her first day went great and needless to say she is eager for "tomorrow" to be here again.