Preschool begins!

I'm not going to lie, sugar coat it, or pretend that it wasn't.... today was a tough one. Today I sent my baby girl off to preschool -- again, and had to trust that all that I've taught her up to this point would be enough. Thankfully, she's taught me enough over the past 4.5 years to get me though....

I'm not sure if I mentioned this or not, but Katherine and Caleb are absolutely addicted to pancakes. They eat them at least once a day, often times twice. So making pancakes in the morning has become part of our morning ritual, and since I wanted to keep things as "normal" as possible, we had pancakes (with fun new sprinkles I picked up at Target last night) once again.

After breakfast, we got dressed and ready for the day. Katherine picked out the outfit she wanted to wear and decided how she wanted her hair done. She looked so sweet this morning. She's such a big girl!

When we arrived at school, she walked confidently in the front door, but once we got to her room, she didn't want me to leave. Caleb could have stayed there by himself for a week! He started pulling out toys, finding trucks and police cars and playing with the kids. He was loving it. Katherine was begging me not to go. UUUUUUGH!

After ALL the other parents were gone, I decided that it was time for me to leave too. I bent down to give her one last hug goodbye and the tears started flowing. I couldn't help myself. So I let her go, turned away, picked up Caleb and walked out the door. I didn't want her to see me crying.....

The pictures turned out awful. In the outdoor pictures, the sun was in her eyes, and Caleb kept trying to get in every shot. He couldn't understand why he wasn't getting his picture taken... So unfortunately, if I decide to scrap these (which I will), I don't really have any great shots to commemorate the day. Here's my little princess on her first day of preschool this year.

As soon as Caleb and I left the school, he started wiping away my tears saying, "Dat OK Mommy. Dat OK". How sweet is he???? Boy I could have just squeezed him. He was so wonderful!!

After we got in the car he kept asking, "Where Sissy go?" He literally asked me the same question every 5 minutes the entire 2.5 hours she was in class. I guess I'm not the only one who misses her!

When we arrived back at school, I could hear all the kids singing, and looked in to see Katherine singing and dancing with her new friends. I'm so proud of her!! Mrs. Schramm told me that she had a great day, and was looking forward to Friday! Thank goodness.

I have to brag... I had a proud Mommy moment today on the way home. After Katherine got in the car, we started to talk about her day -- what song she sang, what craft they did, who she played with, what they had for snack. She told me that she had graham crackers (and actually ate it -- she normally doesn't like them). When I asked her if she had milk or water to drink, she told me water. (She NEVER drinks milk). She said that she asked very nicely for a glass of water. I then asked her what she said to her teacher, and she replied in a sweet voice, "May I please have a glass of water". I guess she remembered at least some of the lessons I taught her!