Clair's (sorta) first day of school!

Today was Clair's first day in the 2s class!

It's so nice only having to convince one child to look at the camera!

I call it her sorta first day, because it was only an hour and a half long, and we were there with her the whole time. *Tomorrow* is the real first day, when she has to stay from 8 to 11:30 -- alone. And then Thursday, she has to stay the FULL day -- until 2:30 p.m., which means she even has to nap there. Yikes.

Poor baby girl. Next week, when the boys start school, her world will be rocked even more, because she will not only have to stay for the full day, but she will also be picked up by a new caregiver, because this is Michelle's last week with us. I'm too sad to talk about that right now - really, it's too much.

So let's focus on Clair's (sorta) first day!

First of all, for one small child, we sure had to bring a lot of stuff.

The class did a gradual entry today, so only nine of the 16 kids in the class were there this morning. Guess how many of the nine Clair played with? If you guessed "not a one," you are correct!

She stuck close to us, not even venturing off to explore all the exciting toys unless one of us was near.

Making breakfast for Daddy.

Mommy's big going-to-school girl!

 She enjoyed decorating her name-tag and putting stickers all over it.

She didn't cry at all, thank goodness, though there was some whininess. But for the most part, I would say she was generally unimpressed with the whole thing.

Unimpressed is better than freaked the funk out, so I'll take it.

Because tomorrow, my friends, is another day altogether.
Pray for us.

Clair starts summer camp!

This is a big week for Clairzee!

First the dentist (which she totally aced), now this. Today Clair started three days a week of summer camp, which is basically just school in the summer.

Again, Lester and I worried ourselves into a tizzy about how she'd do.I couldn't sleep for two nights, thinking about her being in distress and what we would do if she had a conniption at drop-off. After all, aside from church, this is the first time we've ever dropped her off somewhere and left. Ever.

Guess what? Yet again, our baby girl surprised the heck out of us.

She galloped into the school, went into the classroom, said hello to the teachers, and immediately started playing with toys.  No crying, no worrying, nuthin'.

Another good thing: One of the teachers in the summer camp class is going to be Clair's actual teacher in the fall! So yay!

Lester wanted to make sure we didn't trigger Clair's anxiety by lingering too long, so I barely even got to take pictures or say a real good bye. I feel a little ...I don't know...something about all this. Especially because it was so hurried. Like, right now, I sorta feel on the verge of tears, and I'm not exactly sure why. I'm definitely distracted, so I'm going to need to do some mindfulness/centering exercises or something to get any real work done today. (And by mindfulness/centering exercises, of course I mean "chocolate.")

But mostly, I'm just grateful that Clair has Cary and Dean there with her to ease her transition into school. In the fall, she'll be by herself there -- because C and D will be going to their new school across town.

But for a few weeks this summer, they're my three little amigos (hermanos?) and everybody seems quite happy.

 

I guess. (Sniff.)

Fun Day at SFA

Today was Fun Day at the boys' school!

They got to purchase tickets to play mini-carnival-like games and win very exciting (plastic and tacky) Oriental Trading Post prizes. :-)

I spent a few hours volunteering to work one of the carnival games -- a softball tent.

Here was my assistant, Colin, who's in the fifth-grade. Hiiii, Colin!

 

What's that you say? What's going on with my hair?

In the spirit of Fun Day, I put pipe-cleaners in my hair and also sprayed it with hair dye, but my hair is too dark to see it.

Fun hair on Fun Day!

The boys thought my "kooky hair" was the funniest thing. And they had a total blast.

Lester took them around from booth to booth, and they collected a bunch of junk prizes, including a fistful of lollipops. We even brought a lollipop home for Clair, who exclaimed, "I LOVE it!" when we gave it to her.

Speaking of lollipops, it's been raining a ton here the last two days and this conversation happened in the car this morning on the way to school:

Cary: Why is it RAINING SO MUCH?!?
Dean: I think the clouds are crying because they want a lollipop and their Mom said "NO!"
Cary: Oh.

LOL! My kids crack me up. I'm so glad I get to spend these seemingly silly, but really important moments with them. Pretty soon they'll be the age of my able assistant, Colin, and nearly as tall as I am.

But today, they're still my little boys.