Well, my babies went back to school today. Returning for 3rd grade for Eli and just starting Kindergarten for Sarah. And remember, my tiny little girl just turned 5 last week!! Wow. But we did really good. I didn't get any vibe of being nervous from her, not once in the past few weeks as we've hyped up the whole kindergarten experience. But then this morning, while we were praying as a family in the car on the way to school she popcorned in "and please help me not be anxious" and my heart squeezed hard. She never let on. But she did awesome. No tears, no fuss, just excitement for the day. And brother was so good to her, giving her pointers along the way. None of the 'icky little sister' nonsense you would expect with a 3+ year age gape. Rather, he was ready to pave the way for her, to protect her at any cost... Very cool 3rd grader in my book.We stopped to take this picture on the way in. Eli looks a little perturbed because he was severely concerned about getting a tardy on his first day back. He is forever my responsible child and I love that about him. So now we'll backtrack a bit and cover the mini-shoot we did at 7:20.
This is my amazing and giant 3rd grader. He was ready to show the ropes this year!! School is old hat now, Mom...
I love that these two kids love each other. They certainly have their words from time to time (Sare is a very passionate person and can be vicious when she's agitated, Eli feels deeply and hurts easily, so we definitely have tough moments) but when you scrape off that surface stuff, they love each other fiercely. I have told them oh, so many times that they are all each other have in the way of brothers and sisters and they need to hang on to each other. Friends will come and go, but siblings are forever.
You can see here, that Sare was super ready to get out the door. She didn't even whine once about the dress code or the lack of jewelry. "Jewelry is not encouraged." was the decree from her firm but awesome (and seasoned, thank the Lord) teacher. I think her structured classroom will be exactly the coccoon Sarah will need this first year of public school. That's my initial mommy-instinct anyway.
Eli is forever my fabulous picture taker. He was cooperative, but very aware of the time. "It's 7:31 Mommy, we need to go, we can't be late!"
Had to snap a picture of their fabulous Converse/Airwalk combo. I love that these are cool again and my kids are totally into them. Helps Sarah around that 'tennis shoes only' requirement....
This pose was Eli's idea. He thought the green would make a nice background and told me so. I love how he's developing a strong eye. I'm thinking about starting to teach him some of the beginner camera stuff this year and letting him play on my baby Nikon. With supervision of course.
This girl. Oh, pray for me. With eyes like this, who can say no??
This was such a cool instant inspired idea and I just love how it translated. See my absolute favorite pic from the morning here.
And this picture I nearly missed, didn't really have the shutter speed set for it, but took the shot anyway, it was just too priceless. We were in the middle of these serious shots and all of the sudden she just couldn't contain herself another moment... Love it!!
From here on out it's mostly Sarah, cause I could only follow her into the classroom this one day. And Eli was extremely focused on getting to his classroom and friends and meeting his teacher!
Here's the Sare-bear blowing a kiss goodbye to her daddy, hollering "I love you Daddy, I'll miss you!" All the crossing guards ate it up. She can't do anything without flair, can she? Wonder where she gets that from? (apples don't fall far from trees, right?)
And here she is all ready to start her day, confident and sassy, even in a serious way. She's gonna do fine Mommy.
From there, I slipped out of the classroom, praying as I went through the halls that would house my precious children for 8 hours 5 days a week for the next 9 months. Praying blessing, and safety, and knowledge of the right things. Praying for positive influences and precious witnessing moments for them. Praying for good Christian teachers and praying for the not-there-yet teachers whose lives would be touched by my childrens example (good or bad). Praying that that the investment we've poured into Sarah these past 5 years would be enough of a foundation of faith to anchor her in this sin-ravage world and praying that our influence wouldn't weaken because of our public school choice. Most of all, praying and believing that the God of the Universe would be walking those halls with them, watching them as they work and play. I choked back a few tears, unbelieving that the first 8+ years of my time with them and had already slipped through my fingers, but so incredibly thankful and in awe of the amazing little people they are becoming. I swallowed hard, made it out of the building, and had pulled myself back together before I even made it to the waiting car. Rob and I had a (thankfully) busy day at the office and before I knew it, we were flying home to greet them.
A long and prayer-ful day, they stepped off the bus at 3:45, much later then the appointed time. To be expected on a first day, but hard on a nervous momma's heart. So glad to see this next shot!
My triumphant Kindergartner, ready to tell me all about her day. She did great. She was exhausted, but ready for a good night's sleep and the opportunity to experience it all again tomorrow. And I'm so excited that we captured all those important moments.
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