The School Year Begins

Sept 1 marked the first day of 1st grade for Lindsey, and the first day of Marissa at Fours Explores, her new pre-school program.

We are incredibly spoiled by having KinderCare be literally 30 seconds from our home. The 10-15 minute drive to Kenny School, where Marissa's new program is, is going to be a challenge for everyone to adapt to.

We first dropped Marissa off at her school. Lindsey came in with us and we got Marissa settled in. She has a hallway cubby for her quiet time items (blankie and sheepie) and an inside cubby for her daily items (change of clothes, notebook, supplies). We were late enough that the class had gone to the cafeteria for breakfast so we helped her get breakfast, too. They have trays for these little tykes, she looked so grown up taking her tray through the breakfast line! She gave us hugs and kisses good-bye, and seemed quite content having breakfast sitting across from her friend, Chitra, who also started this program this year.

Then off to Lake Harriet to drop off Lindsey at the before and after school care program, Mpls KIDS. Lindsey LOVES the Minneapolis KIDS program, and asked us to drop her off before Marissa the next day so she could have more time to play. So she was settled in about 2 minutes; I didn't even get any pictures of her there.

At the end of the day when I asked Lindsey how 1st grade was, her response was, "First grade is WAY better than kindergarten!"

When I asked Marissa...well, she told a long convoluted story about a mom who came to pick up her child, and left another child in the car. Then while she was in the building picking up her kid, the other kid got into the driver's seat and started the car. She even said that the kid drove away, but I suspect they only started the vehicle and sat there. Nothing about her day, nothing about her teacher, just this story.

I can't believe I have a 1st grader. It seems like just a few short years ago Lindsey was a baby. How did this happen?