First Day of Kindergarten

Today was Alyce's first day of kindergarten! And it couldn't have come soon enough! Mom and I weren't in a big hurry to see her out of the house. But both she and her brother have been bouncing off the walls for the last few days in anticipation of the big day. Now that the day has come and gone we hope that life can return to normal.

Alyce is in afternoon kindergarten along with every other child in the neighborhood. A few events last week we met some of Alyce's classmates and their parents. I think about a third of the families in attendance live in our neighborhood. One girl, Ellie, lives three houses away. We've met her and her parents before but haven't had much reason to carry on a conversation let alone become friends. We are hoping now that the kids ride the bus together and get off at the same spot we will become closer.

I stayed home from work today. I couldn't miss such a big event in my children's lives especially since I have a dearth of vacation days saved up. The morning was pretty much like any other. Mom got the kids up and fed and then fed again earlier than normal because they'll be in class during their normal lunch time. Once dressed up in their 1st day of school finest we brought them outside for the required 1st day photos. Timings being what they are Alyce can't ride the bus to school except for Fridays when Luke doesn't have preschool. We have to drop Luke off first and then hightail it over to Alyce's school to get her in on time.

We didn't get to walk Alyce to her room. We just brought her outside and waited for the buses to show up with her classmates. Many parents put their kids on the bus and then drove to school to record the experience and to make sure they got there ok. If we didn't have to drop Luke off I think we would have done the same thing. Once everyone was accounted for it was time to say goodbye. Except things happened so quickly we didn't get the heartfelt goodbye we hoped for. We had given her about a million hugs before then so she didn't seem to notice not getting one more. And then they marched in. Mom and I turned and walked to the car holding back a few tears. I was sad to see her go but happy that she was taking such a big step.


Later that afternoon when she got off the bus she was as happy as can be. She and Luke even played with Ellie and her sister while we and Ellie's mom chatted for a while. Mission accomplished. We asked Alyce how her first day of school was and she said some pretty generic stuff like she had fun, she liked her teacher, and enjoyed the bus ride. The big item of note was that they search for some buried treasure of tootsie rolls.