Pre-Schooler!

I'm in a tiny state of shock, I believe.  Not only are the boys almost six years old and in grade one, but their teensy weensy baby sister, the one I gave birth to, like, uh, yesterday, started preschool this morning.  Yuh.  I know, right?  Shock.

But Elly was definitely ready to go, has been excited about it since before the summer and has been telling everyone and anyone that she's going to 'kool wiv Cayeb'.  Yes, we're pretty lucky, Elly's going to school with one of her BFFs, Caleb.  The two of them were quite adorable this week as we dropped the "biggies" off at school (Abby is now in JK at the same school as Will and Owen, so all three are quite excited to see each other there on a daily basis), hanging out in the playground, holding hands and talking to each other about 'kool'.

We got these two adorable photos of them the other day, and realised even if we didn't get a cute photo of them on the first day of school, these shots would make us happy nonetheless!

So cute!  We love these two together, even if they can be a little on the crazy Alpha Second Born Child side of things from time to time.  Yes, they have been known to brawl a little, but when they play nicely, its so very, very nice.

But back to today.  I did manage to get a quick photo of Elly as we raced out the door this morning.  Isn't she adorable in her new fuchsia pink shoes and hand-me-down backpack (she's so blonde these days she's almost neon.  She literally glows in the dark)?

We drove over to Amber and Jon's house, where their lovely nanny Ginette walked the three bigs over to school (first day Owen didn't cry going in to school!  Woohoo!) and we drove the ten minutes to their preschool.  Thank goodness we've got car seats coming out the ying-yang, we can easily split up who drops off and picks up the kids, depending on everyone's schedules.

 Anyway, the two of them seemed fine going into the school, immediately started playing with the toys they saw once they went in, and once Amber and I had a quick chat with the teachers to let them know that these two were well acquainted and could comfort each other should the need arise, we told them littlies it was time to give us a kiss bye bye.  Elly said "ok" and kissed us both, but Caleb looked a bit stunned at the news and kind of gave us both a strange little kiss as if he wasn't quite sure why we would be asking for one.  Then we waved and walked out and proceeded to spend the next two and a half hours in Starbucks swinging wildly from "What have we DONE?!  We've abandoned our babies!" to "They looked fine, they'll be fine, they were ready for school."

Amber and I drove back to the school fifteen minutes before pickup time so we could spy on the kids in the playground before going to get them.  Needless to say, they were both very happily playing, mowing the astroturf with matching plastic lawnmowers.  It was cute to watch them interact with each other and the teachers and to see them so happy.

As soon as we went to the gate, they both came running over with big smiles, and their teachers told us they'd done really, really well.  Hurray!  Caleb was pretty tired out though and almost fell asleep in the car.  Elly was just excited to get home and eat lunch.  Such a Pergant.

When we picked the boys up from school later on, it seemed only right to celebrate the first week of school with an ice cream cone.  Here are my three very tired, but fairly happy kiddos.  Okay, maybe only Elly looks happy in this photo, but I did try to get them all to smile.  Owen just snarled at me that he was "trying to eat my ice cream!  Stop asking me to smile!", so I took what I could get. 

And now they're all in bed, we have a nice weekend en famille to look forward to and then....we get to do it all again. 

Hopefully, though, next week will see the beginnings of our new fall routine taking shape and some semblance of calm will emerge.  And I will bask in the silence instead of sitting in Starbucks thinking "Where have my babies gone?!"