First Day of School 2012

This was a very exciting first day of school for us all.  For Olivia, although she would be at the same pre-school with the same teachers, all of her best friends had moved onto kindergarten.  As excited as she was to be with Ms. Stipes and Ms. Devore, she was a little sad to be without her best friend Faith, whom she'd been with since her very first day of baby daycare.

For Juliana, this was an entirely new chapter in her life.  Not only was she moving on from the Pre-school campus into a new huge elementary school, she would also be, for the first time in a mainstream kindergarten class all day.  In her years at pre-school she had spent most of the day in a special education class and only part in mainstream.  This definitely has it's benefits, the main one being smaller class size so she got more attention.  But as we "learned" Juliana and she continued to mature we discovered that more and more she "wants to do what the others are doing" (this is a button on her computer that she uses often).  We also realized that her "disability" is physical.  Her mind works!  So, together with the school we decided to let this little chick soar into general ed Kindergarten.  Let me tell you mom and dad were VERY nervous and excited.

Here are the kiddos on the first day of school.  And yes, Ashely is one of our kiddos too.  She was awesome.  She spent the night with us that night to help us in the morning and then spent part of the morning at school with Juliana to help get her acquainted with her new class.  Then Super Daddy tagged her out and he ended up spending the first week at school.  Got to love the Super Daddy! So she is in a class of about 20 kiddos with one teacher and one teacher aide dedicated to Juliana all day.  She is wonderful and quickly learning Juliana.  Looking forward to the awesome things to come this year!

 Day 2 - This is Evan.  He is Faith's (Olivia's bestie) little brother and he is in Olivia's class this year.  I think Olivia has loved having a pseudo-brother that she looks after in class.  They car pool together with Super Daddy.

 And here is Juliana on Day 2!  I'd say day one was a success judging by that smile.  For those of you that don't know I was lucky enough to be able to transfer to Juliana's school this year, which is exactly 2 houses from our house.  So we have had the best time walking to school everyday and sharing about 20 minutes before school starts in my room together.  And another plus, we are in the same hall, so I can peek in from time to time.  Not sure that is a plus for her but it is for me!

 

 This was the moring of Day 3.  I'd say school is wearing them out a bit.

 Here we are on Day 3 - Still smiling!

 Day 4!

 And Day 5 - I'm so glad she is loving it so much

 And here is Mommy and Juliana after the first week of school.  We were both whipped!