1st day of school and preschool

Today 2 of my babies had big moments in their lives. For Eliza - starting Kindy. For Alexander - starting preschool. Both were ready. Both were excited. And both were a bit nervous (or shy as Eliza puts it).

Eliza woke last night just to tell James that she was so excited about starting school. Too cute! At 7am she came bounding into our room asking me to do up the back of her dress. She was all ready - shoes, socks, dress, headband. There was going to be no stopping her. 

That was until she heard and saw the rain outside. It was bucketing down (praise God!). She kept saying 'I'm not going to school if it's raining like that.' We told her that it wasn't like preschool and you just have to go if it is raining. Fortunately though the weather eased for us to walk to school.

The other 2 got dressed, we had breakfast and the kids were having a blast chatting and playing together - a nice start to the day. Eliza brought me a book to read so we snuggled on the couch to read together.

Nana arrived and kindly took some photos of us and I took photos of Eliza ready for her big day. When I asked her how she was feeling she said excited but felt a bit shy. She looks so grown up in her uniform. Where has my baby gone?

I love Alexander's hands in his pockets

Crazies!

The rain cleared for a moment so I could get a photo in the first day spot

The rain kindly eased off and we said bye to Alexander and Nana 

Cheeky Daniel

and headed to school, still wearing raincoats just incase. I love that Eliza walked along holding James' hand. 

We took a couple of happy snaps in front of the school sign then headed up to the classroom.

I got a quick photo with Eliza.

Eliza put her bag on her hook and got out her clip folder. 

She was so confident. We spotted Emily and got a photo of the 2 of them on their first day. 

Then it was time to head into the classroom. James gave her a cuddle just before heading in and then she went. 

There was no turning back to say bye, no cuddle, no wave. She went in, chatted with a year 6 kid who asked her what she wanted to do and Eliza pointed to the pattern tiles so she went over and started to play with them. We stood at the window and tried to catch her eye to wave bye but she was so focussed she didn't see us. 

But as we spoke on the way home, it was good that way because this is how school is. We say bye and she heads into the classroom. 

2 down, one to go.

We headed back home to find Alexander and Nana playing Bus Stop. Alexander won. A nice way to start his morning. He popped his gumboots on and we headed outside to take some photos of our baby boy ready for preschool. He was a bit over the photos but he was helpful. 

He even got to jump in some puddles.

We then said bye to Nana and headed off to preschool. 

 

He popped on his backpack and was quite excited.

We were a little early so we waited in the car.

He was quite excited as we walked down to preschool, like his sister holding Daddy's hand. 

We took a few happy snaps at the front of preschool and then headed over to his classroom. 

He washed his hands, unpacked his back, said hello to his teachers and then sat down to write his name. I loved that he asked me if I could help him write his name. He was so proud of himself doing it on his own because of having the dots there to trace.

He then decided to do a painting. He chose to paint a rainbow. He used each colour on his picture.

Next he wanted to draw a picture. He called out to us when he saw that his name tag was at the top of the pile. Well done to him on recognising his name! I told him that he would write his name on pictures before he draws or paints. He can try and write it or he can ask his teacher to. He chose to have a go at writing his name.  

We then said bye to him and he gave us both a big cuddle and then went off to another activity. Such a happy boy.

The teachers were very excited for us having our first child free school day. To take advantage of it, James and I got tickets to see Bad Boys For Life in Gold Class. It was the only time that it was on locally so we just had to make that choice. He surprised me by also ordering some doughnuts to come in at the start of the movie and a coffee and hot chocolate too. Yum! A nice surprise.

The movie was awesome! No spoilers but it has a lot of one liners from the past movies, same characters, great story line, laugh out loud moments, moments when we gasped. It was great. After the movie we headed out to the food court for lunch - nachos. We did a quick trip to the shops and got some clothes (because we could) before heading back home.

We were home for 10mins before we headed back to school. When the bell went Eliza came out of class, spotted Daddy and ran right past me to give him a big cuddle. She had a big grin on her face. She had had a wonderful day. We saw a few buddies who also started Kindy so said hi to them and checked that their mums were ok in the morning. 

Eliza said that she had a lovely day. She played with Ethan in class and played with Emily a little bit in the afternoon in the hall. She did a drawing for us of her first day of school and wrote her name. 

She liked her teacher and said she was still pretty. I'm so glad that she had a wonderful first day.

She quickly got changed (ready for dance after picking up Alexander) and then we headed to preschool. I wish that we didn't have to rush today because we didn't get to stop and chat properly with his teachers and we didn't get to look at the photos from his first day on the laptop. But that aside, it was lovely to see him doing an activity with Lorraine and when he saw me, he ran up and gave me a big hug. He was so happy. In the short moment we had, Alison said that he had had a wonderful day, was totally ready and was so happy. He was really good at doing puzzles and he had fun building with the blocks. Each of his teachers said that he had had a wonderful day. So glad. I'm so proud of him being confident as he entered the classroom too as I know he was nervous about not having me there.

We then headed straight to drop Eliza off at dance. She was keen to go. 

She happily went in to the classroom and that was that. We don't get to watch the lesson so we headed home to start getting dinner ready and chat with Alexander. Daniel was great and helped him empty his bag then we played a bit of fussball. The time went quite quickly before I headed to pick Eliza up again. She came out with a smile on her face. When I asked her how it was she said it was good but she would like to go back to the jazz class that she went to before. I explained that it wasn't a set class and just a taster for everyone. When I asked why she wanted to change she replied because she didn't like the room. James told me later tonight that she doesn't like that it has no windows. Poor thing. But she said she's happy to go back again and she enjoyed it. When I asked what she learnt she showed me the dance as she could remember it. I'm so pleased that she enjoyed it and remembered it. She did great!

When we got back home Auntie Jenny called to FaceTime Eliza and Alexander to see how their day went. 
Then the kids FaceTimed Nana and Poppy to chat about their day 

and then Nana J and Boompa. 

So lovely to see the family showing such an interest in them.

Alexander told me a little about his day, but Eliza was a bit over sharing about it. Here's Alexander's recount about his first day at preschool (not his tiredness by his body language).

To my dear Eliza,
As you start this journey of school, shoot for the stars beautiful girl. Shoot for the stars because if you don't make it that far you will still reach the moon and you have got so much potential, you just need to believe in yourself. You are so excited about learning to write this year, I can't wait to see the piece fall into place and for your writing to just take off. I can't wait to get little letters from you, to ready your stories that match your creative drawings. I can't wait to see that grin that comes across your face when you realise you actually did it! I can't wait to see your friendships grow and develop at school. I'm so glad that you know many in your year and that you have Ethan in your class so someone who is familiar to you but I know that you will find your group. I hope and pray that it is a group of beautiful friends who will help you to be you, who will listen to you and include you. Who will encourage you when you are down and who will give you a hug. I hope and pray that your heart for others will continue to grow. That you will look out for those who are on the outside of groups of friends and that you will bring them in. My dear Eliza, you say that you are happy when people say 'I love you'. I pray that you will be able to shine Jesus' light of love to all around you because you have got that inside you and I saw it shining through preschool. At school, there will be times when things are hard, when you may feel alone or when you may doubt you can do something, but baby girl, try. I hope that you have the confidence to give it a go. Even if it is wrong or you don't get an answer right, at least you tried and you are going to learn so much through making mistakes so don't be afraid of them.
I love you. I am so proud of you and how you have started Kindy. I can't wait to see how you blossom this year.
Love Mummy.


Dearest Alexander,
How is my baby boy starting Preschool this year? Where has my baby gone? My sweet boy you are so ready for this. You are ready to stretch your wings and fly without me by your side. Wow, that actually makes me tear up as I write that. I'm kinda glad that you are only there for 2 days because I miss having my little chatter box next to me at home. Know that I am thinking about you as the days go by, but you are ready to explore and learn through your own activities. You are going to flourish at preschool, I know it. You are going to form friendships and I am so proud of you for going to preschool and not worrying about not knowing anyone there. I can't wait to see how you look after other kids in your class and reach out to them. Your inquisitive mind is going to grow so much through your play. I do hope that the tyres come back for you to be able to play with. I know that you have been hanging out for that in particular. I can't wait to see your drawings develop, to see pictures of your buildings that you make from magnetic tiles and from blocks. 
Have fun my sweet boy. Enjoy this time. You are going to be amazing at it! I am so proud of you and all that you can do already. I am so proud of your confidence already at preschool. May that continue to grow.
I love you. You've got this sweetheart.
Love Mummy.