Back to School Excitement For the Whole Family

Back to school, back to school, and the entire DeSpain house is elated!

Hadley started her official Pre-Kindergarten year on Tuesday, and I mean it when I say that she couldn’t have been one ounce more excited.

Her teachers are precious, and I have a strong hunch that she’s going to have the very best year. When I picked her up on Tuesday, the first thing her teacher said was that Hadley already had a new best friend, and that’s what she and the girl had been calling each other all day. “We are new best friends.”

I had actually told her that morning that her goal was to learn the name of just one friend to tell me after school, and she was able to. 😉 Her goal for day #2 was to try to remember the name of one boy. I am terrible with names (but I’ll remember your birthday forever for some reason, lol) so I’m hoping that I can train her to do better in this department than me.

We took a couple quick cell phone pictures at home on the morning of her first day and then met Jamie at school so that he could walk in with us. It totally isn’t lost on us how incredible it is that he has such flexibility with his new job to do this kind of thing (he works 10 minutes from their school). Sometimes we have to pinch ourselves!

And then yesterday, it was Sadie’s turn for her first day! I told her before we got in the car to run out to the front porch to take pictures, and she knew exactly what I meant! She stood on the mat on her own and said “Cheeeeeese!”

This girl is PURE JOY. I wish everyone could get to be around Sadie. She is just the most hilarious, special kid! She’s also a pill a good chunk of the time, but gosh, we are some lucky ducks to be her parents.

Big sister was thrilled that Sadie got to join her at school. After Hadley’s first day, she said that the only part of her day that made her sad was that Sadie wasn’t there. Cue the “awwwwws” from my mother-in-law and me. Ha.

It’s too bad I have lipstick all of my teeth in these pictures, but I’m not in the mood to photoshop that out (#lazyblogger) so there ya have it. Two excited girls, one excited mama, and a smear of lipstick in all three of these pictures.

My mom saw this picture and asked if I told her to do that, and then she immediately retracted and was all “No, she definitely did that on her own, didn’t she?” Of course. That’s my Sadie girl.

Sadie has two personalities: eternally goofy or incredibly analytical (her RBF is KILLER), and as soon as pulled into the parking lot to greet Jamie, she started studying the place.

Alas, she bolted into her room straight for the play kitchen, and literally didn’t look back at us as we lingered a bit too long saying bye.

Jamie was really sweet yesterday morning (Sadie’s first day) as we both got ready for the day. He looked at me and out of the blue said “Congrats, Mom. You made it!” And I just smiled because gosh darn I DID MAKE IT! The girls had been out of school since the end of February, and I was anxious to send them off to other adults who would be happy to teach them new things and entertain them. 😉

I knew they were missing their school setting as well, so starting school again makes us all super happy. I love being a stay-at-home mom; I chose it after all and continue to chose it every day, and that’s important for me to remember on the days that feel heavy. We simply will all function better with a bit of daily routine though, without a doubt.

Let’s chat!

Are your kids back to school?

PS: 5 Things I Do With My Kids’ School/Artwork