The Boo-Hoo Breakfast

So, it is official, we are the very proud parents of a kindergartener! Wow, I didn't realize that this makes us even more responsible now!

We decided to walk to school. Duane took some time off this morning to go with us. He walked with Jena and Paige and I pulled up the rear with Annie and Sophia, (what a new addition? No, I am watching her while her mother is teaching! :) ) So anyway, it was really hard to watch her in her new clothes and backpack, carrying her Barbie lunch box. As we got closer to the school I overheard Duane praying for her and I started to cry. Earlier, at breakfast, she and Paige and I prayed together for her and we all cried a little. Man, I miss her. But I am so proud of her!

We got to school a little early and mingled amongst the other children. It was easy to pick out the other parents that were surrendering their children to complete strangers too. They were the ones holding tightly to their child's hand toting a plastic bag with all kinds of school supplies. Duane took the opportunity to teach Jena how to introduce herself to someone else and make a friend. He was the perfect parent to do this. I probably wouldn't have made it passed, "Hello, my name..." Then the tears would have choked me to death!

So Jena made a new friend and then we met her teacher, Mrs. Bales. She has been teaching for a long time, in fact a friend of mine said that she was there when she did her student teaching more than 15 years ago. Her teaching focuses on the child developmentally, rather than academically, which I think will be good for Jena.

As you can tell Paige was all about the muffins and juice in the library. The PTO hosts a "Boo-Hoo Breakfast" for the parents to come and mingle and cry over the first day of school. We overheard a teacher saying she wished that they would do that for the teachers to mourn the end of summer.


Here I am holding Sophia and boo-hooing in the library. We left soon afterwards but not before I signed up to volunteer at the school. Proud daddy mans the camera with Annie on his lap. We both seem to fair quite well. This milestone is monumental for us, raising a child and knowing that she qualifies for schooling is huge. She has survived our less than perfect parenting for the past 5 1/2 years and now we have to trust that she will continue to do so just not so close as before.