First Day of Kindergarten!

Colin's first day of kindergarten went so well!

We woke up early (I had to set my alarm to make sure we'd be up!). When my alarm went off, I realized that everyone but Colin had crawled into our bed during the night. (We have a ginormous family bed.... which is probably a topic for another post- haha). Anyway, it only felt right to go wake Colin and ask if he wanted to come cuddle with all of us for a few minutes before starting the day.

We all savored a little extra cuddle time in bed, while Owen crawled over us. We talked about how it was Colin's first day of kindergarten and he seemed really excited. Such a contrast from this day huh? 

Then Colin jumped in the shower, Chris went downstairs with the others to make pancakes and..... all hell broke loose. Seriously, meltdown city. The trips were just having such a hard morning! And I felt so bad for Colin, that this was his first day of school and his brothers were such a mess and things felt so chaotic. Really, we underestimated how sad they were that Colin would be going to school all day, most days, from here on out (something we'd been talking a lot about and preparing for, leading up to yesterday). Later that morning, once settled, they would share things like, "I didn't want Colin to go to school" and "I'm sad that Colin is at school" and "Can we go get Colin yet?" 

Thankfully, despite the morning hiccups, we were still on time getting out of the house. Before leaving, we took a few pictures on the front steps. To our pleasant surprise everyone smiled!

And then we were off. Colin left with a huge smile (maybe he was thinking, "Finally, I'm out of the nut farm for a whole day!") Who knows the reason, but Chris and I were just thrilled, that our sometimes shy guy, was so excited about school. 

Once at school, I watched him line up with his classmates and then they were off. He seemed suddenly so grown up. 

I had high hopes that life with one less child at home during the day would seem infinitely easier, and we adjusted our wonderful nanny's hours as a result. But turns out that caring for three, three year olds and a 15 month old is still exhausting! At one point, one was dumping glitter glue all over the dining room table while Owen was splashing in the toilet. Before we knew it though, it was time to pick Colin up from school. Carter, Everett, Finley and I headed over to the school and man oh man, I wish I had a video of him coming out the doors. PURE JOY. 

To all you amazing, dedicated teachers who make it your business to help children love school.... THANK YOU.

My favorite after school picture, complete with a photo bomb from Everett.