Today miss KC started Kindergarten! I can still remember her birth like it was yesterday. The day she got her first tooth… the day we were at our wits end wondering why she was coughing all the time, and now… she’s “made it”. The day I’ve been dreaming about since she was born. – really – .

I had this thought of bawling my eyes out, but I didn’t.

We set her alarm clock for 6:30 a.m. which she’s NEVER woken up to until today. Promptly at 6:30 a.m. “MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY!!! My Alarm went off, time to get ready for Kindergarten!!!”

I soo badly wanted to tell her to snuggle, but I know my procrastinating daughter well, and realized this is my new reality. 6:30a.m. wake up call. For life. Or at least until she’s old enough to drive herself to school.

We got breakfast. Her – Cinnamon Toast Crunch and OJ. Me… Coffee.

Soon it was time to head to school. We took the standard, “start of school day photo” and then departed for the whole 4 minute drive. We got there way too early. The administration staff doesn’t get outside until 7:50 a.m. and we got there at 7:35. Apparently no other parent shows up until 7:45 at the earliest. So tomorrow we will revise our departure time. We drove around the “car parade” a few times until I decided to park until we saw one of the admin staff.

We find a parking spot in the back corner, and of course my goofball daughter  unbuckles herself and pops her head out the moon roof shouting, “I’m a Kindergartener”. Me… feeling like an idiot to these professional looking parents.

Finally we saw the admin staff, told K to park her butt, and got back in the “parent/car parade”. Once we got up by the doors I rolled down my window and said, “its her first day- Ms. LeSage’s room.” and Ms. Moffat promptly got miss K out of the car and said, “Hi, I’m Ms. Moffat, lets go find Ms. LeSage.” and that was that. I drove away towards Walmart as I needed a few things since returning from the Canadian Border on a family vacation.

As I was driving away I started hyperventilating thinking. Oh. Wow. Five years is just like that. Soon I had visions of dropping her off at Yale or Harvard, or the U of M and wondered what that would be like.

If five years happens in a blink. Is the next 12 years going to be a simple inhale ~ exhale? Cherish these moments. This is my new mantra. No more overly busy schedules. Cherish… cherish these moments.

One thing I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE about this school is the amazing communication that the staff has with the parents. Each weekend we recieve an e-mail from our teacher on the upcoming week. What K will learn, and any upcoming volunteer opportunities. (We’re supposed to put in 40 hours per year of volunteer work).

This can be done through teacher projects (such as sharpening pencils, which i’m currently doing in between paragraphs), attending Board Meetings, serving on the PTO. All of which I plan to do.

I picked up K in the early afternoon, and she exploded with excitement. “Oh Mom! Can I do that again tomorrow? It was so much fun!”

She said right away they played a game regarding their names. “Find the missing letter”. They went to Art Class, did Math Stations, and learned nursery rhymes.  She even met a new friend named Aurora.

Every day in her backpack we get a special folder called the “Parent – Teacher Communicator” which one side says “Keep at Home” and the other side says “Return to School”.  (Or a few packs of pencils for me to sharpen).

Buckle up mom. You’re in for a ride!