Claire's First Day Of School

Well, we topped off our whirlwind weekend of moving with Claire's first day of kindergarten!  Claire was so excited!  She had literally been waiting for months to start school.  She told everyone she knew that she was starting kindergarten at "Buffalo Point Elementary!"  Danny and I were excited to be able to enroll her in the Spanish Immersion program.  This is a program that starts in kindergarten and continues throughout the elementary school years.  Spanish is spoken exclusively in class for half of the time.  This way, the children learn by literally be immersed in the language.  

The first day of kindergarten (September 4th) was more of a meet-and-greet orientation, with instruction starting the next day.  Danny and I had taken Claire on a special date a few weeks earlier to shop for her first day of school clothes.  She picked out a darling outfit, but wanted to wait to wear it until she would actually be in class.  So, for the first day we just picked one of her other cute outfits. :)  She looked too cute, and WAY too grown up!

Since Danny was still off of work, he was able to come with me to drop Claire off.  I stayed with Claire while Danny took Sophie to school and dropped off the trailer we had used to move.  Claire and I walked around and around trying to find her classroom.  All I knew was that her teacher's name was Mrs. Savatornil.  We searched, but couldn't find her name on any of the doors in the Kindergarten area.  So, we stopped by the front office and found out that it was Mrs. Maria Savatornil.  We knew right where the door labeled "Mrs. Maria" was, so we hurried there.  We walked in, and Claire found her name tag and took a seat with the rest of the kids.

I could hardly believe it!  Claire was sitting in kindergarten.  Where did the time go?  But I had no time to reminisce, since the kids were hurried outside to the playground and the moms were asked to take a seat for our portion of the orientation.  I was very impressed by Mrs. Maria's introduction and background, and felt very confident that Claire would have an excellent year.  Once we were done, Claire and I met Danny and the boys out by the playground.  Claire was so excited to show her Daddy her new classroom, so we went back inside so Claire could give him the tour.  It was great to see her so excited!

First day of school for our oldest child done without a single tear.  I'm the most amazing Mom ever! :)  I was feeling really good about things, and honestly thought that I would make it through this whole process emotionally unscathed.  Not so much.

The next day was the real first day of school.  Claire got ready in her outfit that she had been waiting weeks to wear, and was ready to go!  She looked so stinking cute in her "Hello Kitty" outfit and back pack...

Then I drove my little girl to school, and dropped her off into this crazy world all by herself.  We had rehearsed the drop-off routine the night before, so I was confident that she could find her way to class.  But what about everything else?  As I watched her through the rear view mirror, I know I should have seen my confident, beautiful, smart 5 year-old Claire hopping along to class, with her over-sized back pack hitting her bum with every step.  Instead, I saw my baby girl, my cautious, careful, and completely innocent Claire Bear, leaving my protection and influence.  This is when I started balling, and I cried the whole time she was at school.  I couldn't quite figure it out.  I was completely confident in Claire's abilities.  I knew she wasn't scared or nervous.  She was ready for life!  But it was all the things she didn't know about, the things that I did, that made my heart ache.  I knew there would come a time when her feelings would be hurt, when she'd be scared and confused, and when she'd feel discouraged.  I could only hope that Danny and I had prepared her for this big step, and that she would want to stay close enough to us to allow us to continue to prepare her.

The time passed quickly, and the boys and I went to pick her up.  Claire loved her first day at school, and told me all about all her new friends.  The ache in my heart eased, and since then we've settled into school life pretty well.  I still can't believe our first kid is in school, but I suppose it was inevitable!  I'm so grateful that we live in such an amazing area, with good schools and good families.  I'm know we're blessed to have such a wonderful place to raise our children...a place where I don't have to worry for the safely of my children.  Any more than I have to, at least. ;)

Here's to an awesome year of Kindergarten!!