The First First Day

After a busy summer, it was finally time to relax.  And by relax I mean to send the kids back to school so that I could finally sit down and have some free time.  Kidding (sort of).

The day before school started, we had a meet the teacher at the Elementary school.  So Stinkerbell and I drove over and met both of her homeroom teachers and marveled at all of the gorgeous painted murals that had been done over the summer...

 Her teachers are Perez and Rovito - hence, they are the Pros.

 Her class is on Bobcat Boulevard South...

 And this mural is HUGE and so fabulous.  I do love her school.

And then it was off later that afternoon to walk MadHatters schedule.  She was very nervous about Middle School and being able to find all of her classes.  She was afraid she would get turned around and not make it in the 5 minutes allotted to pass.  After getting her schedule, we walked from class to class and then did it again.  And again.  We finally headed home when she felt like she had it down pat.  It truly helped alleviate some of her stress about the next morning.

She has a great schedule and even better teachers.

*Now that we are a couple of weeks in, she laughs about how worried she was to start Middle School*

*Yes, I laminated her schedule.  I love to laminate*

 And suddenly, it was upon us.  The morning dawned early as we tried to wipe the sleep from our eyes and make it to the bus stop on time.  Thankfully this year they pushed back the pick up time by 20 minutes, so we get a bit of extra sleep.  Stinkerbell is my sleeper and no matter what time you put her to bed the night before if you wake her before 8, she is going to be a bit groggy.

She was dressed and ready for her first first day in the U.S.  I say it is the first first day because we moved back last year over 2 months after school had started.  Technically they had the first day, but it wasn't when everyone else did.  So this is the first one at a U.S. school according to my logic :)

 Outfit and hair by Stinkerbell herself.

 And I had to get one of them together - it is tradition after all.  But MadHatter doesn't start school until over an hour after Stinkerbell starts, so she went with us to the bus stop and then had some time to kill.

 Off she went.

 Too cool to have the picture taken without attitude :)

I dropped MadHatter that first morning instead of adding to her anxiety by making her also brave the bus.  It was the last time I drove her.  We left the house at 8:30.  We live less than 3 miles from school.  I dropped her at the front gate of school at 9:17.  47 minutes to go 2.7 miles.  Never again.

They both came home bursting with excitement and stories of their first day.  They both had a fabulous day and loved being back in the swing of things.  Stinkerbell is very excited to be the Big Kid at school, and MadHatter found that being the little kid didn't make much difference.  And they both came home saying that they made new friends already!  Win, win, win.