first day of school

Today was the first day of school around here.  I went to bed teary-eyed thinking about my sweet boy being at such a big school all alone for an entire day.  John Mark went to bed excited about going to a new school.  Typical!

He woke up this morning around 7:15 chanting "FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!  FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!"  He reminded me so much of Nemo- ha!  After getting out of bed, we turned on magic school bus and he said "mommy, I"ll snuggle you a little bit since I'm going to school all day."  After some snuggles, I got around and made him breakfast- he requested scrambled eggs and jelly toast cut into the little squares like Bebe gives him.

After breakfast and getting ready, we headed out to the porch for first day of school pictures.  I still remember every morning standing on the porch with a piece of paper my mom had written our grade on.  Of course I had to carry on this tradition with John Mark, but I decided to take it up a notch by using Lesley's awesome chalkboard.

Doesn't he look so big?  I can't believe that just 5 short years ago, he wasn't even a month old.  And now here he is, a great big Kindergartener.  And think... in another 5 years I'm going to be doing this all over again...

I tried to get a cute shot of his backpack, but this came out a little dark.  In case you hadn't noticed, we're kind of on a star wars kick. 

And a lunch box shot- again with star wars and I don't even know what that pose is.

We loaded up in the car and drove to his school.  I took a cute picture of him in front of his school sign and then headed into the building.  It took everything in me to not cry as we walked down the hall.  The thought of not wanting to be the crazy crying mom for the rest of the year was enough to make me pull it together.  We walked into his classroom where his teacher was waiting.  We found his cubby, put up his backpack and gave a few more hugs and kisses. 

I left him there, walked out the door and down the street to my car.  I got in the car and that's when I started to cry.  I really didn't cry as much as I expected (I probably got most of my tears out in the weeks leading up to this morning). 

I spent my day getting glucosed tested at the doctor (woo-hoo), buying JM bedding for his new big boy room and eating lunch with Mallory.  It was a nice day and before I knew it, 3:00 had rolled around and it was time to go pick him up from school.  I parked down the street, walked to the door and realized I had left the paper with his name on it in the car.  So I walked BACK to the car, got the sign and back to the school.  I was a sweaty mess by the time my boy was finally released to me. 

We walked back to the car and took a trip to our favorite cookie shop for cookies and a juice box (or a large ice water for the sweaty pregnant momma!).  JM told me about his day- his new friends, his teacher, what he did on the playground.  He loved everything about school and can't wait until Monday.  I guess I couldn't ask for more than a happy boy at the end of the day!