First Day of Preschool - Take 2

 Grace started her second year of preschool on August 30th!!  You think she was excited.........YES SHE WAS!!!  We had one small problem.  All she would talk about was going to see Mrs. Karen (her teacher from last year).  I kept talking about how this year would be as much fun as last year.  She would get to meet a new teacher, new friends, and learn all kinds of new things!  But to Grace, school revolved around Mrs. Karen.

After our 1hr (yes, I'm exaggerating) photo session, we were on our way to school!  We arrived and made our way upstairs.  She stopped at her classroom from last year and got a quick picture with Mrs. Karen (sorry about the quality!  Remember I was also juggling a 13 month old!)  This is where my emotions started to unravel.  She saw Mrs. Karen and thought she had found the place she was supposed to be.  BUT we had to get her right next door to her NEW classroom.  Karen was SO sweet and told her that she would have so much fun with Mrs. Callie this year.....tear!  I don't know if you remember my previous post about Grace's first year of preschool.  Just in case you didn't read it, let me just tell you that Grace LOVED Mrs. Karen and Mrs. Callie had big shoes to fill in both Grace's eyes and mine!
On we went to Mrs. Callie's classroom.  Grace stayed close to me (would not let go of my shirt) for the first few minutes until her friend from last year, Halle, arrived.......SHEW!!!!  Grace is not a shy kid but when we first arrived, there were ONLY boys in the room.  Thank goodness Halle showed up when she did because this momma was about to lose it!  I was much more emotional about leaving Grace this year.  I know last year was her first year of school but this year the circumstances were much different.  Last year, Anna was a newborn baby and I was obviously in a sleep deprived coma.  Don't get me wrong.  I didn't throw her at her teacher last year and I WAS emotional but this year it was on a much different level.  She has become my little buddy, my confidant, and little helper.  That probably sounds crazy but we live far away from family, don't have much help, and Matt works long hours.  My girls are always with me and always by my side.  She is usually willing to help out with some small tasks or is just there when I want to talk about this or that.  She's my go-to gal (AK, don't take that the wrong way.  You just can't talk yet, babe!)  And so maybe that helps explain why this year was a bit harder and more emotional.

Mrs. Karen

New teacher, Mrs. Callie

Preschool can wear a kid out!

Ice Cream Celebration!

I couldn't wait to pick her up and arrived about 20 minutes early.......WHOOPS!!  I loaded her up and told her we were going to have an ice cream celebration in honor of her first day of school!!  Chocolate was her flavor of choice, of course!  Anna couldn't wait to dig in as well!  Grace gave her a couple bites until she decided she could do it herself and then her spoon was OFF LIMITS!!!  WAHAHA!!!  

"I'll do that myself, thanks!"

Poor Grace was POOPED and fell asleep as soon as we got in the car.  Preschool can wear a girl out!

Here's to hoping 2011-2012 is as good as last year!!