Leighton's first day of KINDERGARTEN!

Today was the day.  The first day of school!  The first day of the big K for Mr Leighton!

I had many people (today and prior to today) asking me how I was feeling about it, and my answer was always, "Excited!"  Not nervous or sad or emotional.  We saw many emotional parents this morning, but I wasn't feeling that way at all (VERY different than the last few years!).  I guess it's because Leighton has been in big kid schools for his preschool and pre-K (twice!) years, so Kindergarten wasn't as BIG to us.  I don't know?  I almost feel guilty that I wasn't really emotional sending my baby off to Kindergarten because that seems like the major, official, absolute start to a school career, but I really was just super excited for him to be starting at his new school and for us to meet other families and new friends in the neighborhood.  I felt for the other parents that were emotional though.  I have SO been there.  Dropping Leighton off when he was almost three (and had never even had a babysitter!) while I was 8.5 months pregnant was quite the hormonal emotional roller coaster!  And last year I was nervous and worried about the new school and sad about my little buddy leaving me after our fun exploring our new city together.  I am sure you all remember what a blubbering mess I was this past June when he finished school and we had to say goodbye to the teachers and staff and administration there.  But today, I was just happy.  Happy and excited for Leighton and for our whole family.  This school has so much to offer, and I really think it is the perfect fit for our family (I hope so anyway - it's the whole reason we bought our house in this neighborhood!).

Here are some pictures of Leighton from this morning.  It was pouring rain and barely even light out at 7:00am here, so the pictures were not as great as I'd hoped as we huddled on the porch.  But here they are.  The memories are more important than the photo quality, anyway.

Here he is lined up to walk to his new classroom.

And a quick shot of him from the doorway as we blew kisses goodbye.

And then there was a quick little PTO meeting and celebration for the Kindergarten parents (and siblings!).  Riley was excited to go get a donut and kept asking for pink (no surprise, right?!?!) with spinkles, but I told her I thought there would be only plain.  We were pleasantly surprised to find a whole array of choices, including the coveted pink with sprinkles.  I must say though - she preferred my plain one to eat, I think!

I spent most of the afternoon making Leighton some first day of school cupcakes.  Well the strawberry cupcakes and strawberry buttercream took not so much time.  It was the little toppers I made took lots of time.  I had a cute little girl cheering me on and oohing and awing as I worked though!  And they were a lot of fun to make.  I am extremely proud of these.  I love them - and the kids do, too!

I thought we could finish off the school theme with some apple plates to eat our dinner on - homemade pizza, as per Mr Kindergarten's (aka Mr Art, who informed me he could have made a better apple because he would have only used one leaf!) request!