First Day of School

Wednesday is Ellie's first day of school ever. So exciting.

She is headed off to a Montessori preschool. Three full days a week (complete with lunch and short nap time). I know she will adore the whole experience. I am confident that she is prepared to make this transition. In fact, she declared that there is no need for me to drive her to school. She plans to take the school bus because that is how kids on television go to school.

I have spent lots of time thinking about how to give her her first back-to-school sendoff. What follows is a rough sketch of how I envision this going down . . .

We are going to get up nice and early so we aren't rushing. Instead of our usual lazy morning of pancakes and bacon followed by some playtime in our pjs, we are going to eat something expeditious (frozen waffles, blueberries and some oj?) and head upstairs in a timely fashion to put on our carefully chosen first day of school clothes. Once she is looking like the cutest little preschooler in the world, I plan to take an absurd amount of pictures to properly commemorate the moment.

Time to head out the door. Backpack? Check. New school shoes (complete with rhinestones and flower embroidery . . . Ellie's pick)? Check. Lunch bag filled with yummy lunch and a little note from Mom? Check. Little brother Brendan still in his pajamas because we haven't had time to get him dressed too? Check.

God willing, we will be in the car and buckled with ample time to make the fifteen minute drive in Chicago morning rush hour traffic so we won't be that family that is late on the first day of school.

A well-made plan. Update of actual course of events to follow.

Side note: I drew the above picture on my first day of kindergarten and it was chosen for the school calendar. A proud moment for a five year old. I was tickled to come upon it recently and concluded that my decision to keep every piece of artwork Ellie and Brendan have ever created is in fact a sensible thing to do.