Where is my baby girl?

Yeah, she's in Kindergarten. When did that happen? Addie had an awesome summer taking and passing 2 levels of swim, tumbling around in beginning gymnastics, and just being a wonderful young lady. But even with our countdown chain it felt like the start of school snuck up on us. She has been excited for school to start all summer but she definitely developed some jitters the night before her 1st day and was awake in the middle of the night from about 11-2 because she just "couldn't get comfortable". Poor kid.

But luckily I woke her up without too much difficulty in the morning.

She got to have "dinosaur egg" oatmeal for breakfast, which is really just oatmeal with some little candies in it. Oh well, at least she ate. And hooray for us, we got out the door on time. Her school starts every morning with a flag ceremony and the pledge of allegiance. In the pic below she is in line with her class all decked out in her uniform.

She was doing really great until it was time to go inside and then she started to tear up and cling to my hand which I am chalking up to her being so tired because she was totally ready to do the Kinder thing and preschool prepared her for the separation. I was not expecting her to cry and was so unprepared that of course I started crying (which I would have done anyway, I was just hoping to see her off before it happened). They let the parents take them into their class on the 1st day which was helpful. Now we just get to walk them to the courtyard and then we have to leave. *sniff*

If you want your heart to break a little bit just look at the next picture with her sad little face. Cameron made me take that one. Someday I will probably want it but right now it makes me so sad! Bless her heart, she was a trooper and went to sit in her desk (which we had found the night before at Meet the Teacher) when I asked her to and thankfully stayed there until we finally just had to wave bye and leave lest the sadness go on and on.

I didn't want to end the post with that sad pic so I am ending it with a happier one of her at her desk. :)

I was a little worried during the morning since I didn't know how she was doing, but when I picked her up she was all smiles and the first thing she said was, "It was fun, Mama!" Happiness, pride, and relief flooded me at that moment. This milestone is just so bittersweet. We couldn't be more thankful that she loves learning, her school, and her teacher. Looking forward to a good year!