The First Day of a New Age

Today was Kate's first day of Kindergarten.

Kate's First Day

Maggie's first day was actually last Wednesday, and let me tell you, it's been a rough week in between - and not because Maggie hasn't loved second grade, because she has. It's been rough because Kate has been a total grouch about not getting to start school, too. She was absolutely chomping at the bit!

Maggie's First Day

Maggie was also extremely excited for school to start again. (Yes, we are successfully raising a couple of nerds over here. We're very proud!) She has one of the best teachers in the school and there are a few good friends in her class, so I think she's going to have a fantastic year. And even though they had homework on the very first day of school, she seems to be loving everything so far.

Pink and purple animal print backpack! Kate's is rainbow animal print. They're a couple of Wild Things.

In addition to Maggie's first day, last week also included a student orientation for Kate, a separate Kindergarten orientation (which involved spending just an hour in her classroom getting to know everyone), and an assessment "test" with her teacher. So honestly, it wasn't just a wasted week of sitting around pining for cafeteria lunch. Plus, she's already just about the Queen of the Campus because she's spent the last two years hanging around dropping off/picking up Maggie and playing after school on the playground. She knows half the kids, where the bathrooms are, how to get to the gym, she has Maggie's Kindergarten teacher so she's comfortable with that classroom already, and she's buddies with the principal. She's Kate! Everyone already loves her. She was ready - why were we all holding her back?!

Let's Go Already!

This is what they always look like in the car on the way to school - Minecraft crazy!

When I went to pick her up this afternoon, she was super jazzed. Everything was mega fun! She saw Maggie once in the hall and on the playground! She ate two lunches! (She had a lunch box, out of which she ate her cookies and some crackers before noticing that the cafeteria was serving pizza, so she got in line and got a hot lunch and a chocolate milk!! Maggie thought this was HILARIOUS.) They played a game with a "talking drum" in music class! They played a clapping game with all the kids' names in her regular class! Over dinner, she told Mike, "It was WONDERFUL!"

Kindergarten Queen

I also am feeling pretty good. I haven't shed any tears or moped around today. I generally feel thrilled to see the girls grow and progress and become new versions of themselves rather than feel mournful at the loss of their baby-selves. However, I have had a few moments of panic over the last few weeks about how an era of our lives is truly at an end. I've been a mother, professionally, for the last 7 1/2 years, and as of today, I'm not really that anymore. I have no babies, no toddlers, no teeny-tinies. Just two giant school girls over here... and their mom, who is a... housewife? Uh, hmm. I have much to do in the next year and I'm excited to see where life will take me, but it's always a little nerve wracking not to have a clear idea of where I'm headed. Exciting. Terrifying. Thrilling. Anxious. Hopeful. Even though our paths are diverging, my girls and I are still headed off on some big adventures. Wish us luck!

Back to School

Maggie started first grade on Wednesday. Can you even believe it?! No, me either.

This is pretty much the only picture Mike got of her before we had to rush out the door because she would not cooperate. She's not about to cry. She just insists on making weird faces and acting awkward in photos. I have no idea who she gets that from. Ahem.

She woke up at the crack of dawn on Wednesday, all jazzed to go back to school and see her friends. She got dressed and ready to go with no prompting and seemed excited by the familiar morning routine. However, when we got to the playground, it was a zoo. The teachers were outside with signs trying to get their classes to line up in front of them to go in, but the whole place was just a complete madhouse. Maggie ended up crying and saying she didn't want to go anymore. I think she was really overwhelmed by the crush of people and the noise, and she was feeling apprehensive because her only friend from kinder who is in her class this year didn't show up until the very last minute.

Luckily, her teacher this year is wonderful and very kind. She came over and talked to Maggie and asked her to come stand by her at the front of the line and hold her hand! We hugged our goodbyes and off she went. Mike and I hung around chatting with friends and waving to her until her class went in, and she genuinely seemed fine after she was assigned a spot of her own. When I went to pick her up later, her teacher said she was great all day and Maggie said she loved her class. Then Day #2 went smoothly, no problem. She just needed a quieter transition, I think.

Yesterday, we dropped Maggie off at her school and then zipped over to Kate's preschool for her Open House. Kate did two days per week of preschool at a nearby community center last year (where Maggie and our neighbor friend went the year before), and her teacher suggested that this year she bump up to the pre-K instead of just adding another day of the same preschool program again. So this year, she'll go three days per week, and she has a new teacher in a different classroom that Maggie never had.

So far, so good. The class will be quite a bit smaller and the kids do seem older and more mature. Her new teacher is lovely - like a very kindly grandmother who happens to know a ton about children's minds. Kate's neighbor buddy is in her class along with a small handful of kids she recognizes from last year, so I think she's going to love it despite the changes.

Here are some photos of them in their new outfits, which they picked out themselves, as is our pre-school-year ritual. It was hotter on Wednesday than it has been for most of the entire summer, so we decided to postpone Maggie wearing her new first-day-of-school dress until yesterday when it was much, much cooler. Also, because of Kate's open house, they could wear their new outfits together. I think they look adorable anyway, but they would not pose properly for the photo. Mike got frustrated with them and gave up trying to get a picture where they both look normal. Here's the entire portfolio. Which one do you think is the least bad?

No shoes. They would not put their shoes on. They did eventually have shoes on for school, I promise.

Kate's shirt says "smart cat" and Maggie's dress has little hearts all over it.

Kate's first full day of real class is next Monday. I will be here at home, drinking my coffee, hopefully posting a lot more on my blog, and absolutely piggishly wallowing in the sweet silence.

... and missing my girls, of course, and wondering what they're doing, but also, AHHHH! THE SILENCE.

Summer Vacation is Finally Here!

Today is the official first day of our summer vacation! And it's pouring rain! Hooray! That's OK though, because all the girls want to do is go to the bookstore. That's my kids' idea of "summer fun." I couldn't be more proud!

The last few weeks have been kind of a blur with all of the end-of-year school activities and whatnot. Kate's actually been out of preschool for about a month now, so she's thoroughly bored of me already and very glad that Maggie is finally home during the day. Let the bickering begin!

I'm not going to post a ton of pictures of the girls' programs here because you can see the faces of all the other kids in them and I'm sure their parents wouldn't appreciate that, but here are a couple of photos of Kate's pirate-themed graduation:

She said she wanted her hat to come down over the side of her face because she was pretending it was her eye patch.

She's moving on to the Pre-K program at the same school next year. Growing up!

Maggie's program was hilarious. They did a dance to the Superman theme song because they're "Super Kindergartners," and they sang a song to the tune of Surfin' USA with surfboards and sunglasses.

In her cape and star sunglasses with her surfboard. The cape is signed by all the kids in her class. So cute!

Each child in the class got to read a short book that they wrote themselves about what they learned or liked about kindergarten. Maggie's was about constellations.



Accepting her diploma from her teacher

Me and my girls (and Joyce the Cat)

Note: Kate was a little distressed at all the attention being lavished on Mags, even though we reminded her that we had already been to her graduation program.

Note: You can't reason with a 4-year-old, especially when sibling rivalry is on the line.

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Here are few extra pictures of random stuff we've been up to:

The Barbie Jeep at Gram and Grandpa's is up and running.

Bikes inherited from Cousin Ana - now with training wheels.
Watch out, neighborhood, the Pink Ladies scooter gang is about to kick it up a notch.

Kate spent the night at Gram and Grandpa's all by herself last week and got to go to Gram's school and do crafts!

Tea parties. Always the tea parties. I predict this summer is going to involve a lot of tea parties.

First Days of School

The house is silent except for the sounds of the garbage truck outside and my typing fingers on the keyboard. I have eaten my breakfast and poured my second cup of coffee and sorted through our photos to find the best ones. The reeling thoughts in my mind are settling down into actual sentences and there is no one here to interrupt me. Today is the first day so far that Maggie and Kate have both had school at the same time, and let me assure you that I am not weeping into my hankie about it. I feel like I'm taking a big, deep, relaxing breath; a sigh of relief. Don't get me wrong, I'm going to miss those girls. But I'll be that much happier to see them when I pick them up from school later. We'll all four have our own separate stories to tell tonight over dinner. I'm looking forward to that.

 

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Let's take a quick detour through some photos of the girls picking apples with their Gram and Grandpa a couple of weeks ago. I can hardly believe it's already apple picking time, but the Macs are ripe and Kate has been begging for apples. We went up to New Hampshire on Labor Day to our favorite orchard, Mack's Apples (since 1732, here's their story), to pick a literal peck of apples and eat some ice cream. The girls had a wonderful time. They love to do farm work!



 

I'll actually be going on a field trip with Kate's preschool class to pick apples again in a couple of weeks. We should be ready for another peck bag by then even though Kate is on a strictly one apple per day ration. She would eat them all right now and damn the consequences if her parents didn't force her to be sensible. I'm afraid of what her college years are going to look like!

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After our "What?! Apple picking?! Summer is over, Fall is upon us!" Labor Day weekend, we started the slow process of easing in to the school year. Last week we had something to do at school every day even though their actual classes hadn't started yet. We met Maggie's teacher, Ms. K, and did a scavenger hunt around the school on Tuesday. Maggie had an "assessment" on Wednesday - a little test to let Ms. K know where she is on her academic, cognitive, social, and physical development since she's new to school. Thursday was Kate's preschool open house. And then on Friday Maggie had a class visit where all the kids went into the classroom with the teacher for an hour or two and got to know each other while the parents went to a reception with the PTO and the principal in the cafeteria. Just a little bit every day, and a good excuse to get up and be dressed by 9 am! Thanks School, I needed that kick in the pants!

So we were ready. We were pumped. We already knew some kids, we had our school supplies, and we had labelled all our belongings. Kate actually started first, since she goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Maggie's kindergarten didn't begin until yesterday. Kate has actually been ready for preschool since Maggie started there last year and I had to drag Kate, crying, out to the parking lot every morning after drop off. So I wasn't a bit surprised that she charged right in and never looked back. Kate has fun wherever she goes, with whomever she's with! I know they're going to love her.

Maggie admitted that it was pretty weird to drop Kate off at her old preschool and leave with me instead of it being the other way around. And Kate said, "This is MY school now, Mags!" They both seemed pretty pleased about it. Afterwards, Maggie and I drove Mike to the train station and then headed for the book store - our favorite place! I was really glad to have that morning alone with Mags before her all-day-every-day classes start. We had some treats in the cafe, picked out some books, went to the story time in the kids' section, and just bummed around. She was totally eating up being the center of attention! It was a really lovely little quiet morning for us.

Kate just HAD to have this dress for her first day of school. She's very proud of it.



This is a cheesy pic, but I wanted to tell you about this lunch box. Kate told me about a month ago that her lunch box was red with a lady bug on it. I was a little worried that she'd be disappointed when we couldn't find one just like that, but then this one miraculously appeared at Target. Kate saw it and said, "Oh see, there's my lunch box, Mom!" So of course we had to get it! Whew.

Two Little Girls Go Off to School

First School Artwork

Cutting and Pasting

Maggie's first real day of kindergarten was the following day (yesterday), so we went through the whole process of crazy morning, remember all your stuff, quick take some pictures, yes Daddy is going to school with us again today, try to look like you know what you're doing. Kate did NOT have class, which was really nice because we could just focus on Mags. She packed her own lunch the night before (!) and we laid out her new first day of school dress that she picked out to match Kate's (!).

Maggie is often fairly tentative in new social situations and she can really hang back when there's a huge crowd of strange kids - like on the playground at her K-5 elementary school on the first day. But since we'd been through all the orientation events, she seemed pretty comfortable with the school itself and with her teacher. I'm sure it's all a bit stressful for her as she tries to figure out what to do and where she fits in, and she's been pretty quiet about the whole thing, but there have been no tears or refusals. She's a brave girl and I told her how proud I was of her. She came home with stories about the other little girls in her class: Annie, Katherine (!), Elsa, and Clio. They played princesses and Maggie was the dragon, and when she got tired of being the dragon she was the girl who fought the dragon even though she wasn't sure if girls fight dragons! None of the boys in her class seem too mean or too crazy, she says. She got to put a special sticker on a bulletin board in computer class because she helped another student read the word "keyboard." I'm sure they are already starting to figure out that our Miss Mags is a firecracker! Watch out kindergarten, she's going to eat you for lunch.

New dress, new lunch box, new school!

Pretty cute girls! (Kate is standing on her tiptoes, but jeez!)

And now it's Thursday; both girls' second day of school. They are out there in the world now, running on playgrounds, eating sandwiches out of ziploc bags in lunchrooms, learning to raise hands and stand in line, playing girls who fight dragons. And I'm here by myself in the quiet, drinking my coffee, typing. I'm excited for them. They are a couple of happy, tough girls and the world is their oyster. OK, I might cry a little bit about that now, but then I'm going to pat myself on the back and rest on my laurels for a day or two because I think we're all doing great.

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Here are a couple more fun pictures that Mike took of them a few days ago. No, they aren't twins. They're just doing that to mess with you.