Our much anticipated morning...

Today was Lauren's first day of kindergarten, and she had a great experience. No tears from any of us! In the true fashion of my maiden name, we were the first ones to arrive at the classroom. We got in a few pictures while we waited for everyone and then made our way into her classroom. The kids were able to pick out whatever seat they wanted and they got to pick a few coloring pages and a brand spanking new box of crayons. They parents mingled for about 15 minutes and slowly started trickling out. When I bent down to give Lauren a kiss goodbye she got a little nervous, but I told her I'd be back in a few short hours to pick her up, this time with Noni in tow. Luckily, last week, we'd gotten together with a couple of other girls that are in her class, so that they'd all have familiar faces this morning.

A couple of weeks ago her teacher had mailed her a letter with a picture of a gingerbread man and a note saying that on the first day of school she'd read a story about him and have a special treat waiting. What a way to break the ice! Both kids have been talking about this ever since that letter came. So today, they read the story and then were told that the gingerbread man had run away. They went on a school-wide hunt for him, which was just a sly way of introducing the new kindergartners to every class. They even got to go meet the principal and get a tour of the office. Eventually they found the gingerbread man hiding in the teacher's lounge on the fridge, and everyone got a popsicle and a gingerbread cookie. If that's not a way to reel them in, I don't know what is!

Mama and her girlie

Daddy and his crazy kids

She didn't want her sweatshirt when we left the house, but it was a little chilly.

Friends reunited, helping to make the transition easier.

Looking forward to this school year!