Well, today was the first day of school for Strawberry and Apple. I was nervous about it. Strawberry has been complaining about school coming up ever since vacation started and Apple has been crazy clingy and whiny--cannot blame the girl with all that has been going on for her, but it does make starting a new school difficult. However, the day went amazingly well.
We were lucky enough to find a house right behind an awesome school. The parking lot is up against our backyard so the kids just have to walk around to the sidewalk and they are there. It's amazing. So much better than the half-mile through busy traffic that we had the last two years. I'm going to be able to just send my kids out the door. Awesome. We had gone over and over safety and I made them promise to not walk through the parking lot. So we head out there this morning and Apple immediately bolts out into the parking lot. Sigh.
We got to the door just as the bell rang. How on earth did I manage to make my kids late on the first day of school when we live right there? I felt so terrible. We took Strawberry to her class first and then dropped Apple in with her class. She went right in and didn't even look back. It made me feel much better and much worse at the same time. Don't they know how hard it is for Mommy when I've had these kiddos with me 24/7 for the past 2.5 months? I don't even get a goodbye? :( It wasn't as bad as it could have been since this is her second year of Kindergarten (she didn't flunk, just didn't want to be 3 months younger than the youngest kids in her class--moving states is a pain). But it was my fault for making them late.
Mango and I enjoyed our time alone together. We went shopping for new pajamas and birthday cakes. She went down for a nap at 12:30 and I was able to enjoy my freedom for about 30 minutes before I got bored. All those awesome things that I have to squeeze in time for aren't all that fun after all. I'm going to start painting all the rooms on Friday so that will be exciting. I kept looking out the back door where I could see the back wall of the school. I don't know what I was hoping to see because if my kids had been out there, it wouldn't have been for a good reason.
Anyway, when the girls got home, they told me how amazing this new school is and how wonderful Luke and I are because we bought a house where they could go to it. Apple talked for about 10 minutes before she got bored and wanted to do something else, but she did have a great day and loved the art and music classes. The exercise class was okay, but it was kind of boring. She only cried once when she locked herself in the bathroom. It's just a single bathroom and she couldn't get the door open and kept crying for help. A helper finally opened the door and a fixer came to make it better. She was really shaky for a while afterwards. :( Poor baby. Darn it, I want an implant in my kids that lets me know where they are and when they are in distress.
Strawberry said that this was the best day of school she has ever had in her life! She loves her teacher who is really pretty and young (probably Uncle Mike's age), but she is really strict. Strawberry loves strict teachers. But she is also fun and laughed a lot, especially because she kept saying Strawberry's name wrong. She really likes Harry Potter, but thought the movies were too different. They had art class and PE and those teachers were really nice, not like the mean art teacher from the other school. The PE teacher is also about Uncle Mike's age, but he has a helper who is older, more like mom's age. (Now I gotta see this helper and figure out how old she thinks I am--I'm only two years older than Mike). Her teacher is very organized and made sure that everything was labeled and ready to go. She gave them a math test to figure out which math class they will be in (Strawberry loves math and it is definitely her favorite subject--she did awesome on the STAR tests in Cali). Oh, and her teacher has long brown hair and freckles, just like Strawberry.
The girl is completely smitten. It makes me happy. I knew that this was going to be a hard school to move in to because most of the students have been here since Kindergarten and everyone knows each other. But the stability seems to make it a stronger school. They have a lot of programs that we haven't had before. And everyone has been very welcoming. Strawberry thought that no one would talk to her, but one girl complimented her braid and a couple of the boys from the neighborhood recognized her and helped her out when she wasn't sure what to do. And at recess, she found a friend from church and talked to a couple of other girls too. She talked to me about her day for 2 hours straight and then repeated most of it when Luke got home. She was laughing and dancing and supper happy. And even though Apple wasn't quite as thrilled with everything, she still really seemed to enjoy the school and is willing to go back. :)
