Adrienne's First Day of School

In a continuing theme, Adrienne headed off to school today. Her sister, Rhiannon, goes to first grade, and this is the beginning of her second week at school. They (wisely) start the kindergartners a couple of days later, as things are crazy enough the first week even without another 100 5 year olds adding to the chaos.

Adrienne has been looking forward to her first day of kindergarten since her sister started last year. She wasn't happy that Rhiannon got to go a whole day, five days a week, while she only went for a couple of hours, two days a week to preschool. We have a model kindergarten system here in Medford, where they go the full school day, five days a week, something that other communities are beginning to do. It's a long day for the little ones, I'm sure, but Adrienne's been looking forward to it.

She surprised us too. The big concern was what to do with PJ, her main "guy". She's never gone this long without him, but they aren't allowed "guys" in the classroom. We figured that we would just put him into the (huge!) backpack, keeping him at the bottom, and at least knowing he was nearby would be enough for her. At breakfast, Adrienne announced that she would do that for four days, and then on the fifth day she would leave him home. But as we were climbing out of the car, and her big sister was leaving her guy (Bubbles, the fish) in the car, she decided at the spur of the moment to do the same. So PJ stayed in the car - I hope she doesn't regret that decision!

Here's our little girl as she heads out to class. Big backpack, with a big snack and lunch on board. Luckily (I think!), she has the same teacher Rhiannon had last year, and both the teacher and her aide were looking forward to having Adrienne in their class. I'm not convinced it's a great idea going forward, as teachers may have preconceived notions based upon Rhiannon, but I think for this first year, it will add some to the comfort level, which can only be a good thing.

Here's our two little girls, walking to school - gulp! School is a few miles away, so they get driven and then we walk over. Generally, Gabrielle will be doing it, but for now, because the kindergartners have a different entrance, I'll go with them and stay with one while we get the kinks worked out of our morning routine. Are they too cute or what? Rhiannon is taking her job as the school veteran very seriously, offering Adrienne all kinds of useful tips, and ways to avoid "getting a strike". Probably doing a much better job than I ever did, as the oldest brother to three sisters.