off to kindergarten...

...and flower was so excited and so ready for it. let's rewind to the week prior to school so we can show you how she got ready for the big day!
a week and half before school started, on monday the 16th, kg and i went to the orientation. that made me so excited! she has an awesome teacher that we heard great things about and therefore requested. she brings 22 years of experience. she taught 2 years of 2nd great at one point but went back to kindergarten because she missed the enthusiasm the kindergartners have. i'm so thrilled she has a teacher that genuinely loves the children and is so passionate about them learning. she brings experience, knowledge and passion to the table. then at the orientation we also met the other kindergarten teacher who flower will also be spending time with. she is youthful and energetic. the two of them together are going to make the perfect team! i'm really excited. we were also given the children's schedule. on mondays flower will have p.e., tuesdays and thursdays are music, wednesdays are library, and fridays are free day. i'm so excited that she is going to have so much variety and opportunity to learn. i cried when i got the truck. i can't believe this is all happening. it's a whole new phase of life for us. no turning back now. ;)
on wednesday the 18th we took flower to the school to meet her teacher. the teacher had her do several educational things and said she is more than ready for kindergarten and should excel.

here she is standing at her new classroom door.

this reminds me of two kids sitting outside of the principle's office ;)

drawing a picture for the classroom wall.

flower and her new teacher, mrs. mortin.

this is the girls on our way home from the school. i love when river does this with her arms.

on friday the 20th kg took her school supply shopping. she tried on several backpacks before picking her favorite. we will wait to debut it with her first day of school outfit. :)
i loved school supply shopping when i was a kid. i wanted to go so bad with her this year. but with work there was no time that i could go at the same time as kg, so i let him have the honors.

here she is making sure they got everything on the list.

he then took them out to lunch.

monday the 23rd we took flower to target to pick out two outfits for school. i know i wrote about this already but it needs to be in her school post as well. we let her model her new outfits when we got home.

she chose a shirt and skirt for her first day.

that is her adorable new backpack that she picked out with kg.

and she chose this very pretty dress.

she has so many jeans. not kidding. like 15 pair. they are handed down from her two cousins and in perfect condition so there was no reason to buy pants. she also has enough shoes for her entire class because her feet haven't grown in two years so no need for new shoes. these two outfits were perfect. while at target i also let her pick out a new polish color, which you'll read about next. :)
tuesday the 24th, the eve of the first day of school, it was time for some pampering. i gave flower a manicure and pedicure so her fingers and toes would be beautiful for school. :)

here is our set up.
hand supplies on the left, feet supplies on the right, her polish color of choice in the middle.

we started with the feet. she soaked them and then i massaged and scrubbed them before giving giving her toes a painting. she thought the toe separators were hilarious.

while i was painting her toenails she was trying to scrub old polish off her fingernails. :)

then i soaked, massaged and applied lotion to her hands. the hand massage was her very favorite part. she kept saying how good i felt. and then i painted the nails.

she got to watch 15 minutes of dragon tails while her nails dried. ;)

and then she had beautiful pink nails to show for our evening together.

and it was my pleasure. :)

AND FINALLY! the big day has arrived....wednesday the 25th, the first day of real school. we all got up together. we started the day with kg giving flower a father's blessing for the new school year. very special. then we got her showered, blew dry her hair, curled it, got her dressed and she was ready for the world and feeling so pretty. we took her to the school together. just prior to this photo i was mistaken for a 6th grader by another 6th grader's mother when she asked her daughter if i was a little friend of hers. totally made my day!

here she is in front of her school sign.

right outside her classroom window. she's so pretty.

we thought we were supposed to wait by the back door. we were not alone in that thought. we soon realized that wasn't the case. as we were heading back to the front door i saw a sweet little girl, fatuma, waiting by the back door crying. she was alone. i immediately grabbed her hand and took her with us. kg and river were behind us and he too saw another girl, heather, left there crying so he grabbed her hand and we lead our little clan inside. these poor girls were left to figure this all out on their own. well not with me around. we helped them do everything they needed to do and made sure they were settled. that just broke my heart. they are the girls in the lower right corner of the photo with the black shirt/black hair, fatuma, and green shirt/blond hair, heather. then as kg and i were leaving the classroom the boy in the forefront left in the photo tried to escape and i grabbed him from the hallway and took him back in. poor kid. i'm so glad flower is well adjusted and excited for new things. she had no problem with us leaving.
we saw lisa and topher as we were leaving. little miss independent, river, wandered the sidewalk while we talked.
at 10:30 we all went back to pick up flower. here she is lined up with her class waiting to go inside after touring the playground. can you see how tiny she is compared to her class? and she was also wearing two inch high flip flops. oy. she's the 7th one in line.

here is river striking some poses while we waited for flower to come out.

she was trying to copy kg.

that's her thumbs up and cool dude attempt.

they were so happy to see each other!

bright sun in our eyes.

this is her friend rudy.

she lives in our complex and her mom will be taking the girls to and from school in september.

and here we are leaving after a successful first day of school!

at 2:00 we took flower out to her first day of school lunch celebration to chow chows.

the week before school has been so fun getting her ready and making it as exciting as we could. loved every minute. i'm so proud of flower and hope she has a wonderful year. i can hardly wait to watch her blossom.