First Day of Kindergarten

A day late in posting, but boy it was an awesome day! We got ready and took some photos before leaving. Lauren wanted a picture with her first homework assignment completed.I wanted a picture of her with her tagged backpack telling the teaching staff where she's supposed to go after school. It is like a humane way of tagging kids, and I wonder if this is done elsewhere or is a Texas thing, like branding cattle. It's smart and I used a 3M cable tie to ensure that tag was never coming off.We parked the car and went to the drop off location waiting for the first bell to ring. We saw friends from the Montessori school and Lauren seemed genuinely thrilled to be at the new school.

She saw her principal walk in and yelled hello to him (that's him in the background).
We walked through the door and down the hallway to her classroom. I couldn't help but notice how confident she walked, even though she looked so small in the big school. She did just fine and waved us goodbye after getting her backpack in her cubby and finding her name on the desk.
I couldn't stop watching the clock wondering every few minutes what she was doing at that moment...was the announcement bell freaking her out (sounds like the start of the fire drill bell and she doesn't like them), did she find her lunchbox and was she able to open everything, were kids being nice to her, did she get to the YMCA program OK...it was 2:40pm and I knew that school had been dismissed and she should be at the Y program (which is inside the school in the gym/rec room). I couldn't stand it any longer and left to see if she was OK. Boy, was she mad that I interrupted her Y program when I showed up "early". The Y director said Lauren was already her favorite because when she called Lauren's name, she stood right up and loudly said "HERE!" - the director couldn't believe she was a kindergartner. She started learning the Pledge of Allegiance, did matching, and sang songs. She says she loves kindergarten...I knew she would.