First day of Kindergarten!!

Today was the day. Brandon’s first day of Kindergarten. We have been looking forward to this day with excitement and a touch of emotion (from me and the grandmas) and almost disbelief that our baby boy is old enough to go to a big school! But he was ready. We had a pizza party the night before and of course the special father’s blessing that is our tradition before school starts, so I felt good about it all.

Sporting his new Spiderman backpack. He was so excited that he was ready to go by about 9:30 am (after haircut and shower) and wore that backpack for about 3 hours until the bus came!!

Oh how I love the fall and school starting and buying school/office supplies!! I love it! I love the smell of new crayons and pencils. I love paper and notebooks and folders and rulers and all that jazz. I know, I’m a weirdo. I love the office aisle at Target. And now I have a good excuse to buy it because I HAVE A KINDERGARTNER!! Brandon got a fun box full of school supplies and balloons from Grandma Judy so he was set.

We had some homework projects, mostly things all about Brandon, his favorite things, etc. He had to make this thing reflect what he likes and it was pretty fun. Jaden and I helped him work on it. I had the brilliant idea to make tiny glasses out of wire. Cute, eh?? When he finished it he said, “I think my teacher will say that it is tremendous!!”

I made this little treat can for his sweet teacher. I was really impressed with her when we did screening last week, and just really felt at ease knowing that Brandon would be in her care for a few hours each day. (I used the School Days kit from www.ggdigitaldesigns.com).

Now the load of pictures will commence. You know me, I just had to document nearly every moment of the big day.

Me and my buddy!!! I will miss him.

Annie was excited about the whole thing but she’ll miss him too.

Brandon and his best buddy Sam. They were so excited and eager to get on the bus. They were so funny, they had the same shoes and very similar backpacks, and the same goofy little bus tags. Kind of reminds me of the “dork dots” at the MTC. But NOT dorky, they’re CUTE. They just let everyone know they are the newbies!

Heading to the bus stop. Lovin’ it. “Follow the yellow brick road…..” was oddly enough going through my mind.

Waiting patiently for the bus to arrive. These two are the only ones at this particular pick-up for afternoon Kindergarten. There are several stops in our neighborhood. The bus would pick up more friends along the way!

AAGGAGHH!! The bus came! When it turned the corner we were jumping up and down and screaming! There they go…no worries at all. Us moms were more emotional than they were!

In fact, Brandon hardly even looked back. He hops on the bus and I hear him immediately introduce himself to the bus driver. That is SO typical Brandon. I love it. I yelled to the bus driver to “take care of him!” I really did. That’s probably embarrassing but oh well.

It was all over in a matter of seconds! It’s such a buildup of anticipation and then poof! It’s over and there the bus is driving away with my baby inside. Sniff sniff. We didn’t even have time to do our secret handshake. This is when the tears came but not for long, because I had several hours with just my girls! I think this will be good for all of us.

We kept busy the whole time. Annie and I made cookies for the after school snack and had it all ready for when Brandon came home.

Soon it was almost time for the bus to bring Brandon home. We went outside to hang out in the front yard so we were ready. Annie was on the lookout.

Ahem. I said “Annie was on the lookout!” I guess she was too busy studying a leaf she found.

Haylie couldn’t contain her happiness!

To pass the time we found cool leaves (starting to turn brown and fall to the ground–I love fall!) and we blew dandelions into the breeze.

It was a beautiful day. In the neighborhood.

OOOOOOHHHHH! The bus!! We got up and walked toward the bus stop. Some of us ran because we were so excited.

How awesome it was to see Brandon jump off the bus and come running towards me. He had a big smile on his face and he said “Kindergarten was so cool!! I was so good!” I was so happy. And relieved.

You can see how happy Annie was to see her big brother. Moments like this are so rewarding for a mom. I love the look on her face.

Haylie was happy too! We ran inside the house and Brandon immediately smelled the cookies and helped himself to a few–I didn’t even care how many he ate, I was just happy he loved school!

Annie kept giving him sweet hugs. I kept hugging him too. I asked him what he did and he said he couldn’t remember. But he said it was lots of fun and his favorite part was “Resas.” I had to think for a second–oh, RECESS!! Ha ha! Why am I not surprised?

It’s going to be an adjustment for all of us, but it’s a good adjustment. Yay! It was a success!! I’m so proud of Brandon and love him so much!

It was a great day. School is cool.