First Day of Preschool

Last spring, Rylee told me pretty much every single day that she wanted to go to school. We had been unsure about having them start preschool this year or next, but after visiting the school during their open house, we decided to bite the bullet and signed them both up. The kids have waited patiently all summer for this day to come.

A few weeks ago, I took the kids shopping with me. I had to buy a wedding gift and while we were there, I browsed the shoe department. Ayden was in desperate need of tennis shoes. I found a sales rack that had TMNT shoes, Spiderman, Paw Patrol, etc. Ayden fell in love with a pair of light up Spiderman shoes. Of course, those were the one pair of shoes on the rack that ended up NOT being on sale, but I couldn't put them back. He was so excited about the shoes, I had to buy them anyway (while internally cringing over the price). We brought the shoes home and put them up, saving them for the first day of school,

On Sunday, we took the kids school shopping. This only consisted of letting the kids pick out backpacks and picking up their school supplies, but Ayden and Rylee were super excited and so was their mom and dad. Experiencing their joy and excitement is truly the best thing about being a parent. Once we were done with our shopping, we took them to see Despicable M3. They LOVED it! This was their 4th movie theater experience. Every other movie we have taken them to, they usually down their drinks in 10 seconds and then we spend the rest of the movie with a million trips to the bathroom. Well, they still downed their drinks pretty quickly, but Ayden made it through the ENTIRE movie without a single trip to the bathroom!! He was so totally engrossed in the "Minion" movie, there was no way he was leaving. Rylee had to have two potty breaks, but that is still a vast improvement over the previous trips to the movies!

Yesterday, their school opened for drop ins to meet the teachers and drop off school supplies. The kids checked out all the toys and played for a bit, and we found their names marking where their seats would be when class started. Once we were home and they'd had their naps, we picked out their clothes for school the next day, and I pulled Ayden's Spiderman shoes out of the closet. Oh. My. Gosh. The excitement! He tried them on and was totally stoked about his new light up shoes. He wore them for the entire rest of the day. Of course Rylee really wanted light up shoes then, too! Fortunately, she had a pair in her closet that she'd gotten for Christmas and we just needed to wait for her to grow into them. I pulled them out and tried them on her. Yay! They fit! So they both ran around the house in their new light up shoes. They could barely contain their excitement.

And finally we made it to today! Their first day of school! Ayden gobbled down his breakfast so that he could get dressed and put his new shoes on. Rylee was too excited to eat, so she took for-ev-er to finish her breakfast, but she finally did. She requested that I put "ponytail braids" in her hair. Of course I had to oblige.

Once they were dressed, they got their shoes on, put their backpacks on, and were ready to GO! They put up no fuss at all to the obligatory first day of school photos. Although, it was like pulling teeth to get them both to look at the camera at the same time. They think it's hilarious to look elsewhere. Ayden actually made the discovery that we had a porch light, because he insisted on looking up! lol. I did manage to get a few really cute pictures though.

My favorite picture of the day!

I don't know if they were more excited about their new shoes and backpacks, or about school!

First day of school family selfie.

Dropping them off at school felt very anticlimactic. We signed them in, found the cubbies for their backpacks, and then they were off playing. Tony and I ended up leaving without even saying goodbye, which I later felt really guilty about. They were happy and distracted and we just felt like it would be best not to potentially rock the boat by pointing out to them that we were leaving. I wish I knew how they reacted once they realized we were gone.

I am totally excited about having some time to myself in the mornings. I have a ton of stuff I need to do to get ready for the upcoming consignment sale in just two weeks. Then I plan to finish painting our house and unpacking. Finally. Then, who knows? Maybe I'll actually be able to read a book! Or clean the house uninterrupted! The possibilities are endless! Although, I did discover that those 2.5 hours go by really, really, really fast! haha

When I picked them up from school, Rylee was upset because she thought she was going to be leaving without her "pirate hat" that she'd made. She didn't realize that her teacher had gone to get it for her and started having little meltdown, thinking we were leaving without it. She calmed down once she finally had it in her hands.

After school picture. Ayden called his hat a "captain hat" and Rylee's was a "pirate hat."

I think they both had a great day at school, although it's hard to get a lot of feedback from 3 year olds! Rylee was very emotional and sensitive from the time I picked her up till shortly after their nap (when I distracted them with play-doh). Her favorite part of school today was snack time, and learning a new fishy song. She did tell me that one of the teachers wasn't very nice. She said that the teacher told her she had to get out of the kitchen. Seems like a good rule to me that the kids can't be in the kitchen while the snacks are being prepared, and knowing Rylee, she was trying to be right there so she could get her snack first! I think she was just a little over sensitive to maybe thinking she got in trouble.

Ayden's favorite part of school was playing with the two tractor toys. I didn't get any other feedback from him at all! But he seemed the most happy and content with how the day went, which I was a little surprised about. I think Rylee was just a little overwhelmed with all the excitement and the newness of going to school.

Hopefully we will all settle into the new routine before long. I am a little nervous for the day one of them tells me they don't want to go to school. I know that day will come! I just hope it's not tomorrow already. Ha!