Eli's 1st Day of School

In our area there is a wonderful preschool that I have seriously looked forward to Eli going to since he was born. My good friend Nicki's little boy, Jonah, attended it when they lived here and it was so good for him. We know a lot of other kids who have gone through the program, too, and their parents all raved about how great it was. The first class they have is a toddler class for kids 12-24 months. Because of Eli's birthday,we couldn't start until this September right when he's about to be 2. Nicki pointed out to me the other day, that Jonah finished his first year of preschool at the age Eli is going to start. WOW! Crazy how that birthday stuff plays into a kids academic career.

Last spring, I called and got Eli's name on the waiting list for his class this year. Since the program is so great I knew I better be an early bird and get his name on the list before it started to fill up. We filled out his application in, sent in his registration, and patiently waited during the summer for more information about when his school would officially start.

The weekend we got back from our Labor Day vacation in Arkansas there was a letter from his preschool waiting for us. YAY! Inside the letter was his first supply list and details about parent orientation and other information about the school. As a school teacher I already get giddy in the summer when stores start to put out their school supplies. Can you imagine how giddy I got about Eli's first supply list? Total geek alert! I went out immediately and bought all the supplies :) The supplies proudly sat in our house for the rest of the summer.

Eli's 1st school supplies :)

Now our only problem was how to get him to preschool. Pretty big problem for us considering Josh and I both work and his preschool started at 9:00 and ended at 12:00. We tried everything we could think of and were able to work it out so that Josh could pick him up at 12, but we still needed to find someone to take him to preschool. Literally the week before school started, we found someone. I called Nicki and let her know that we were thinking about pulling Eli out of the program because we didn't have a way to get him there and she mentioned that Mrs. Cathy, the wife of Nicki's old boss, might be able to help us. She lived in our town and would be going by Eli's preschool on her way to work. She called her for us and Mrs. Cathy said she would love to help us! YAY! We were so excited!!!

A week before school, Josh and I went to Parent Orientation and met Eli's teachers, talked to the parents of his other classmates, and got to see his classroom. His classroom was SUPER CUTE! Everything was so neat and organized. We knew he was going to have so much fun once he started. Did I take pictures? No! What was I thinking??? Sorry, I'll have to take some on those special days I get to go up there with him.

The Wednesday after Labor Day was Eli's first day of school. Josh and I took the morning off so we could take him to school on his first day. We also called Mrs. Cathy to come with us because we wanted to introduce her to his teachers since she'd be doing the drop off in the mornings.

Wednesday morning, Eli woke up in a great mood. After a hearty breakfast of eggs, yogurt, and half a biscuit we got him ready for school. We kept telling him that Mrs. Cathy was going to come over and we were all going to go to Eli's new school.



Cathy came by the house Tuesday before school started so she and Eli could meet. They hit it off right at the start and were best buds by the time she left. When she came to the house Wednesday morning, Eli was very excited to see her again.


We went out to the cars to load up and Eli decided he wanted to ride with Cathy to school that morning. He let her get him buckled in completely before deciding that he wanted to ride with Mommy and Daddy instead.



We arrived early so we had time to take a few pictures of our big boy going to school.

I LOVE this picture of Josh, Eli and Cathy.
So sweet!

Hi, Mama! I'm ready for school!

Me with my big boy. I can't believe he's starting school!

The door to Eli's classroom. He loves the guitar so I thought it was very fitting

He saw his classroom and all the toys in there and immediately wanted down. He waved his hands to us and said, "Bye, Mama!" and walked right in and started to play. I thought I'd be able to take more pictures than this but shortly after this picture he realized that Mama, Daddy, and Cathy weren't coming with him and the waterworks started :(

He didn't cry very long though and when Josh went to pick him up his teachers told him that he'd had a great day. His daily report card even said so! I was so happy to hear that good news! I am already looking forward to all the fun he's going to have, all the things he's going to learn, and how much he's going to grow this year. It's going to be lots of fun!