Heidi Starts Pre-School

On the day before her 5th birthday, Heidi started pre-school! She was so excited to go, but I don't think she really knew exactly what to expect. She was up early in the morning, just as we always are in our house, and had plenty of time before we had to leave the house. When we were picking out her clothes the night before, she knew exactly which green shirt she wanted to wear on her first day. I was instructed by my "oh so sentimental" husband that I was not allowed to take lots of pictures at the school, so I took a couple of her before we left. She looked so cute in her new coat with her backpack on, not to mention very grown up!

The ensemble was complete with the apple she took for her teacher!

She was showing off her Barbie backpack that she picked out :-) After we dropped her off and we were walking out of her classroom, she yelled "bye mom, bye dad" with such excitement in her voice, that it made it easy for me to be sad and cry (which I totally expected myself to do). Her teacher quickly called us back in the room to take a picture with her before we left (making me very happy) but Danny didn't want to be in it.... I was a giddy Mom who loved every minute of the opportunity!

The first week of school was a success! Her birthday was on the second day of school, and we had cookies all ready to take for her to share with the rest of the kids in her class... and then we got a bit of an ice storm and school was cancelled. She was very disappointed, but was quickly reassured when we told her she would still get to celebrate the next day when school resumed. When that day came, the principal announced her birthday over the intercome so the whole school knew it was her birthday and she got to wear a birthday hat all day. Her teacher told us that she felt pretty special! She was also student of the week during the first week of school. (They usually try to pick the week of their birthday to make them student of the week) This meant that her picture was on a poster outside of the classroom with information about her for all to read and help them get to know her.
Her teacher also informed us that she is quite the social bug and made friends very easily. She came home on Wednesday with a personalized birthday card from a little boy in her class named Ryan. Daddy wasn't so fond of that though :-)
In the just one week that she has been there, she has learned so much. I hear her saying tidbits of things here and there that she obviously picked up in class and it makes me so proud and sad at the same time. For some reason, she finds it funny to keep everything she does a secret from Mommy. She will tell Daddy, Grammy, and PaPaw all about it, but if I ask any questions, they get met with a monotone "yes" or "no", quickly followed by, "I can't tell you, its a secret". I'm not sure what is up with that, but she better get over it quickly!
Needless to say, she is very excited to head back next week and I am very pleased with the school she is going to.