Ahoy Captain! and Sophie time with Mommy

Lillie has enjoyed the first weeks of school and made a lot of new friends.  At school, students are recognized for their good behavior through AHOY slips.  Each week, students names are drawn to be selected as the AHOY Captains of the week.  Last week, Lillie was one of the names drawn and she had her picture taken in the captain's hat.

For the last week, I have been working on the Reading Club program for the PTO.  It has kept me pretty busy, so today after I made copies at school, I took Sophie to the Bird Sanctuary.  She enjoyed feeding the birds, including this goose and duck.  She has been enjoying the past few weeks of time with me.  Her potty training has improved and she is listening better.  She is also learning a lot, she is identifying more letters and when she saw a meijer's commercial yesterday she said "grocery store".

Lunch with Lillie

Lillie generally takes her lunch to school.  On the second day of school, Lillie ate the school lunch and didn't get to drink her milk, because she expected a mom to open it.  (The kids are suppose to raise their hand and someone will come open it.)  I talked to mom that was at school on the first day and she said that Sophie and I could come and eat lunch with Lillie.  The school especially likes parents to come help with lunch during the first few weeks at school.  Yesterday, I packed Sophie a lunch to take to school.  When I told Sophie where we were going she grabbed her Dora backpack and Dora lunch bag.

Sophie was so excited to see Lillie in the middle of the day. Sophie ate lunch with the big kids and I helped the kids open their milks, fruit cups and bananas.  I think that we might go back to see Lillie next week.
Lillie is enjoying school.  She has made several friends, including some that are on both the bus and in her class.  She is a little cranky when she comes home, but she is still adjusting to her new schedule.  Sophie is enjoying this one on one time that she gets to spend with me.  And I love how I can get so much more done during the day, now that our schedule isn't as busy.

She is ready for Kindergarten, but is Kindergarten ready for her?

The day has finally arrived where Lillie gets to go to Kindergarten.  As you can tell from her "Rock star" shirt and hand on her hip, she was ready.

Yesterday, we gave her a Kindergarten book and this poem with "special" dust.  She said that only needed a small pinch, because she was only a little nervous.

Before we went to the bus stop, we had to take our pictures on the front porch.  It was raining, so some of these pictures turned out dark.  Brian went into work late, so he could see her off at the bus stop.

 Sophie was excited to see the bus...but when I asked her this morning "Do wanted to go see sissy get on the bus?" She replied, "no, I want to go see Elmo."

Lillie got on the bus and let us take her picture.  The buses were running late today, because of the new routes and all of the parents taking pictures.

Then Sophie and I went to Lillie's school to see her getting off the bus.  Since, our community is a busing community, it is a tradition to have your child ride the bus on the first day of school, but you meet them at school and walk them to their classroom.

 Lillie's Kindergarten teacher is Mrs. Barber.  She likes parent volunteers, so I will be able to help a few mornings in the classroom.  Mrs. Barber is also very warm and excited about teaching.  She was also excited  to use iPads in their classroom this year.  Gull Lake School district passed a bond for construction and technology improvements.  Every student will be able to use iPads and the high school students can even take theirs home with them.  We are glad that we choose to live in this community.  Lillie has one friend in her class that was at Jack and Jill Preschool and there are 5 other Jack and Jill friends at her school.

We got a "Congratulations Lillie" cookie and balloon to celebrate Lillie's first day of school.  She will be surprised when she gets home and I can't wait to hear about her first day.