Grins' first day of Kindergarten!

I was very nervous about sending Grins to school this year!  Even though he meets the cutoff in the Maine school system by a few months, since he had just barely turned 5, I hesitated.  I seriously considered keeping him home another year.  But he wanted so badly to go, that I decided we would give it a try, and see how it went.  And he has LOVED it so far!

He was supposed to start school Thurs, 2 days after Angel started.  But Thurs morning, he was complaining of a stomach ache.  Assuming it was nerves, I recommended he just get ready for school, go as planned, and that, as school started, he would probably feel better.  The Mr. took the morning off, and Grins asked that the Mr. accompany him on his first bus ride to school (as he did with Angel last year).  So, we got him all ready and, aside from not touching his breakfast, he seemed to be doing OK, so we headed for the bus stop.  Three steps out the door, though, poor little Grins' tummy could be silent no longer, and he got sick all over the front lawn.  Poor little guy!  So, the Mr. took Angel to school, and Grins stayed home another day.  He felt perfectly fine after that, though, and started school the next day, without further incident:

Unlike Angel's first day of school, Grins' first day was beautifully sunny!

(A little too sunny for great picture taking!)

Angel was happy to walk him in (I love seeing my kids holding hands - is there anything better?  I hope they continue this tradition for a long, long time!)

I hesitated to leave, but he sat right down at his table, took out his play-doh, and started to play, as if he'd been doing this for years.  Then he looked up, realized I was still there, and said, "Bye, Mommy.  You can leave now!"


 Of course, after we dropped the kids off, Wiggles wanted to have her own photo shoot:

And she insisted on carrying Grins' backpack

Wiggles was so funny!   When we first dropped both kids off at school and started back home, she gasped and said, "Mommy! We forgot (Angel) and (Grins)!  We need to go back and get them, hurry!"  I laughed, and told her that, now that they were in school, it would just be Mommy and Wiggles together during the day, and that we would have some special time alone together.  She kept asking, "Just me and Mommy?"  and I worried that she would miss them terribly.  I asked, "What would you like to do, with just you and Mommy?" So, during our walk home, she planned out our entire day.  "First, we're going to play blocks.  Then, we're going to play the elephant game.  Then, we're going to play the Old McDonald game (Uno-Moo).  Then, we'll play blocks again."  It was adorable to see how excited she was about finally being in charge of things, for a change!