First Day of JK

This is it. The start of elementary school or "big kid school" as Ally calls it!

On Tuesday Ally and I attended orientation. Above Ally is posing in front of her classroom. It was a one on one meeting with her teacher(s). Noelle is the teacher and Joanne is the assistant teacher and there are 19 students in the class. It was actually supposed to be one on one, but another family we know from preschool needed to reschedule so they doubled us up. It was fine and kind of nice to hear some other parents' questions. Ally loved it. When we left she proclaimed "that was really fun".

But today was the big day. Her first day. Here she is in our annual spot at the front door for the "first day of school picture".

With her babysitter Lauren - can you believe this is the only picture have of Lauren? If you can't tell Ally and Lauren get along wonderfully and we are very lucky to have Lauren in our lives. She will taking Ally to school again for the second year in a row, and since her grad program is 3 years, we're all hoping she can do it again next year!

Mommy and Ally.

The only hitch about today is that it is pouring. Raining buckets. So no first day of school walk for Ally. She agreed to ride in the stroller and stay nice and dry.

At school with her teacher Noelle.

(At Ally's school all of the teachers go by their first name only.)

When the bell rang signaling that we could go into the classroom. Ally grabbed her coat and led us into her cubby (that she picked at orientation). We put away her stuff. Her stuff is a lunchbox, backpack, extra clothes for emergencies, a blanket and a lovey for rest time. This year Ally's lovey for rest time is a Pooh doll - its an extra one we had at home. We wanted something replaceable in case it got lost. Manx Cat, her stuffed animal lovey for 2 years at preschool is basically irreplaceable until we go to the Isle of Man again and since that is unlikely to happen anytime soon, Becky and I encouraged Ally to choose something else for this year. It is likely Ally will decide to bring home Pooh and not keep him at school, but since lovey/comfort items are something she likes we thought it would be good to start the year with one.

After we crammed everything into her cubby she went to the activity area where Joanne showed Ally she could chose to color, do play dough or use blocks. Ally said blocks. Sat down and started in. I kissed the top of her head. Said goodbye, Lauren said goodbye, I told Ally to say bye to Lauren so she barely turned her head to look at Lauren, mumbled Bye and that was it.

Lauren and I left.

I took the picture below with my phone as I left the classroom.

We were certainly the first ones to leave, and there were only a couple of other students there yet, and their parents were hanging around. But I know that with Ally its best to get her involved and let her be, make a quick exit.

I hope she wasn't upset later when she realized I was gone. But I am sure not - she is tough and brave and she was so excited and ready for this.

I am so proud of her.

Then I walked the empty stroller home in the pouring rain and got even more soaked.

I'll pick her up after school today and take her to gymnastics! It will be her first class in 2 weeks and with a new coach. I can't wait to hear about her first day at her new school.