Yes, today my oldest child started Kindergarten. She is upbeat, friendly, and excited to learn so I knew she was going to have a great day. And she did!
However, the best line of the day came from Cody at 6 am. He's not a morning person. So I came in gently telling him it was time to get up and his response, "but it's still dark outside!" However, Sarah popped up like a Disney princess summoning animals to come help her get ready for the day. She is always peppy in the morning which made it easier at least.
The stagger start here so for the first 3 days only a third of the class comes, then the last 2 days half of the class comes. Next week all of the kids will finally be together. We're allowed to walk them to their class the first week of school, so their 2 first days. Chris told his boss he'd be late those two days so we could alternate taking her and not having the boys with me. It worked out nicely. We even had time in the morning to take the traditional first day of school picture. And Chris let me walk her today because the first day we were encouraged and allowed to take pictures. Yay!
Grandma Schwartz takes each of the school age kids out for the day and they go shopping for school clothes. This was one of the outfits the picked together. Let's all just ignore the socks and shoes, but to explain, Sarah said the yellow socks matched the yellow flowers in the pants and red shoes go with the red parts of the flowers. So there ya have it.
Sarah's teacher seems very nice. She's been teaching for a while and I have some friends who have had her and they say great things. So we're excited and looking forward to this year.
Goodness, she grew up!
But I didn't worry that she wouldn't enjoy it or do well. I mean just look at this face:
In the afternoon when I picked her up as soon as she saw my car she started waving and calling "hi mommy!" And I was so excited to see her! We got home and she showed me all of the great things she did and told be what they worked on and learned. She had a great day! She even wanted to share it as the Family Home Evening lesson.
I know she's going to love school.
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Last night before the kids went to bed, I asked Chris to give us each a school blessing. It's not really something that's appropriate for pictures but I did want to remember the sweet spirit and feelings that we had.
Growing up my dad didn't do school blessings at the start of each year, it wasn't one of our traditions and I knew nothing about them. During a lesson in young women's when I was growing up, one girl mentioned her dad did them, others concurred and I filed that little bit away for something I'd hope my husband would do for my family. So it was a great moment for me to have that desire fulfilled.
As Chris blessed Sarah, everyone even Cody was quite and still. I peeked and was so touched to see her sitting so reverent with arms folded, eyes closed, a sweet smile on her face. When he was done, we asked her how she felt and she said "good and happy". Cody immediately wanted one as well and sat down in the chair. I peeked at him too and of course his eyes were open but he seemed to be still and was listening. When his was over we asked how he felt and he said he "felt warm". We took that opportunity to explain that you get those feelings when you feel the Holy Ghost and he was witnessing to them that daddy was righteously using the Priesthood to bless them. It was a good teachable moment. The kids wanted me to get one as well, and heavens knows I was going to need one too to survive this first school year so again they all sat reverently as daddy gave one more blessing.
It was a sweet and powerful spirit in the room and it was a wonderful moment for our family. I'm thankful that Chris has the authority to perform these sacred duties. And I'm glad the kids were able to feel the Spirit and understand that in their own way.