First day of School!

Today was Diego's first day of Kindergarten. How can that be?! Kindergarten?! 5 years old!? Really!? Wow!!

It was a wonderful day! Yesterday I told Diego that I would have to wake him up to get ready since we had to leave the house at 7:20am. He came into our room at 6:30am, ready to have breakfast and get ready for school. He was so excited. This will be quite an adjustment for us since the kids and I are never dressed, fed and ready any time close to 7:30.

On Monday we went to a "meet and greet" where he was able to meet his teacher and classmates which was so neat. Ricardo and I had a conference with his teacher where we were asked to answer some heart-probing questions about who Diego is. The teachers really want to get to know the children and learn about their strengths, weaknesses, abilities, areas to be trained, characteristics to be shepherded. It was wonderful to spend time with Ms Hite and see her genuine interest in Diego and excitement for the school year. After our conference, Diego attended the "meet and greet" and had a blast. There are 10 other students in his class, 3 of which he already knows.

Heritage has a tradition of letting balloons go on the first day of school. So after we dropped him off in the carpool lane, we parked the car and walked around to the front of the school for the celebration. The Head of School greeted everyone, read scripture, prayed and then asked for the balloons to be released. It was awesome. I could write for pages about the amazing ways in which we have been immensely blessed in just these few short months of being a part of the Heritage community.

When I picked him up I asked him what his favorite part of the day was, "Recess!" was the answer. Diego is not overly chatty, but he shared a lot with me about his first day:

- He loved painting with the primary colors in art class. He smeared the paint all over his hands so it looked like he was wearing gloves

- They read a bible story about creation

- They read a chapter book about a boy who had a really bad tooth ache and finally let the dentist, ("or maybe it was a doctor?") pull it out

- There is a tarantula in the classroom and he thinks it lost a leg

- He told the class his favorite color is blue

- He was dripping with sweat on the playground. He had drips on both sides of his face (this is a BIG deal for him!)
- On the playground the girls were horses and the boys were bad guys and the boys captured the girls and put them in jail

- He sat in his chair like he was supposed to

- He tried to explain to a boy that he (Diego) speaks Spanish, but the boy just didn't understand

Other moms that I have talked to/emailed with say that their kids were too tired to share much about their first day so I am grateful that he was eager to tell me some details.

After we dropped him off, Alexia and Marco and I went to Panera for a special breakfast date. Alexia ate the entire chocolate chip bagel that you see pictured below. She was hungry!

After our bagels, we went to church for bible study. Alexia is in the big kid class this year so she was so excited, with her backpack and all! Marco was not too thrilled to go to his class, but after his initial meltdown, they said he did fine.

We decided to have a first-day celebratory lunch at Chik Fil A with some friends after school. Diego was thrilled!

I didn't want to leave this one out. This is at Heritage. Notice Alexia wore her new backpack with her purple cup sticking out. Sweet Marco had to go in his jammies and had a box of raisins for breakfast. I had to wake him up this morning so we could leave on time and he was all smiles the whole way there.