First Grader!

This past week was a crazy one for our family! With both Matt and Madeleine starting back to school and us being in charge of a two big events at Madeleine's school our last week of summer was, unfortunately, not too relaxing....but we still managed to have a lot of fun (that will be blogged about in another post).

Thursday was Madeleine's first day of first grade! It's amazing how different this year is from last year. This year we knew much more of what to expect and how exciting it was going to be! This year Madeleine seems so much more grown up. She knew right where her classroom was and we knew her teacher from last year. She even had the fun of looking forward to seeing friends from last year on her first day! Fun stuff!

While we were at the school on Wednesday setting some stuff up for Thursday morning, I snapped this picture of M and H in front of the first grade bulletin board. Madeleine was able to find her name right away! (to the right of her head)

The first day of school came bright and early. It was hard getting her up out of bed, but once she got going the excitement started to build. Poor Charlotte, I think it was the earliest she's been up ever. :) She had some big ol' yawns during breakfast and did end up taking a little nap at school.....and then a BIG nap later that morning.

We knew from last year that we needed to get there early if we wanted to park anywhere close to the school. All the kids waited in the cafeteria parking lot for the teacher to come and take them to their classes. Madeleine was at the head of her line and got to lead her class inside which was a fun start to the day!

This is Madeleine with her teacher, Miss Austin. Her teacher is so full of energy! Madeleine going to have such fun in her class. I know that Madeleine will be in her reading class as well since she's in the accelerated reading group (yep, I'm bragging.....my child got a perfect score on her end of the year kindergarten standardized test.....can you tell I'm a proud parent??)

Here she is in her classroom. She's sitting by two kids in her class from last year, but there are quite a few new faces in there too. Her seat at her table faces out the door, so anytime I'm at the school and walk by I can see her.....and since I'm there quite a big, I love being able to peek in at her. :)

After dropping Madeleine off, the rest of us headed to the library for the kindergarten breakfast sponsored by the PTO. We did some heavy recruiting and met a lot of new faces. Matt left to head to his school and the kids and I stayed around to clean up before heading home. Sweet Charlotte used this time to chill and take a little nap after her early morning. She's such an amazing little baby, just goes with the flow. I left her in the office while I pulled my car around and she woke up. The ladies in there said she looked around, and just started smiling and talking to all of them. :)

The rest of the day actually went by quite fast for me. Harrison, Charlotte & I made a very overdue Sam's run. On the way home from Sam's, Harrison fell asleep and slept three hours! I think the early morning was tougher on him than I'd imagined it would be. :) When we got home, I put him in bed, fed Charlotte and eventually put her in bed and ended up with two whole hours all to myself. That never happens and I made the most of it! I got so much accomplished -- I think I spent most of the two hours just picking up the house & putting things where they belong after a summer full of playing. And, I did so much laundry that I actually saw the bottom of the hamper! That's enough to make me feel giddy!

Before I knew it, we were heading to pick up Madeleine. Madeleine's school dismissed only kindergarten at 2:30 the first 2 days (to help carpool run quicker) and then everyone else at 3:00. If you didn't have a kindergartener you were supposed to wait till 2:45 to get in the carpool line. Well, we pulled in right at 2:45 and were the 3rd car in line! Yippee! I could see her leaving the building & heading to the car -- and she was so excited to see us! I loved the ride home -- all of us talking at one. I was trying to ask M about her day, and she was trying to tell me about it. Harrison was trying to tell Madeleine about his day and Charlotte was jabbering to Madeleine on top of it all! I think we all missed her!

When we got home, she wanted to go out and play in her pool. I think she needed to run off some energy from sitting so much of the day! :) They stayed out there a couple of hours and had such fun. Sometimes I think the kids need a break from each other so they have a chance to miss each other.

Before I knew it we'd had dinner, baths and it was time for bed so we could do it all again the next day. Oh, I miss summer already!