First Day of School

Hope you enjoy these pics of our 'back to school' adventure...getting sick 2 days before school started, the traditional first day pics, and a precious pic of Isabella and Daddy on Day 2 of pre-school when Daddy drove her to school!

Isabella started her second year of pre-school on Wednesday, August 20th at Riverside Christian School! Her teacher is Mrs. Voeller again! We love Mrs. Voeller...Isabella was excited to see her!

Isabella had many familiar buddies in her class! Her class has 10 students and 8 of them were in pre-k 3 last year together.

We had a bit of 'drama' before school started:) We had a back to school picnic on Monday, August 18th...two days before school started. Isabella was a bit quiet before we left and in the midst of eating got very glazed over in the eyes and broke it in a massive fever. She was ON FIRE! We literally watched the fever take over her body...it was so sad...I felt awful for her. We left early and Isabella fell asleep on the drive home, woke up an hour later absolutely miserable. She was crying, uncomfortable, and on fire. We got some Tylenol in her and she snuggled up with Dad to watch a Scooby Doo. A short while later, Bry came to tell me that her fever broke and she was full of energy and chatting up a storm:) The fever came and went for the next 24 hours, coming on strong when it did make it's presence known. Along with the fever came numerous trips to the bathroom, if you catch my drift. Oh boy! I felt like we spent all day in the bathroom:) I was thinking we might miss the first day of school.

On a quick sidenote...so funny I have to mention...even though a bit gross:) Isabella spent a lot of time in the bathroom through the end of the week. During one visit she said, "I just want my normal poop back"...I about fell over trying not to laugh:)

But by Tuesday night the fever was gone, the trips to the bathroom were slightly less frequent, so I decided to play it by ear!

Isabella woke up Wednesday morning excited and ready for school! We dressed her in her beautiful sunflower tent dress and jean jacket! The official 1st day of school pics were taken and we were off!

It was fun to see Isabella go into her room and know the routine of hanging up her coat and bag on the hook. She really is a big girl:) I smooched her up and squeezed her as much as I could without embarrassing her and thought I was going to make it through without tears. But on the final smooch and squeeze, my eyes welled up...will this ever get any easier???? No, I know it won't:)

I stayed for the opening flag ceremony and a bit of chapel for the older students, peeking in Isabella's room just to make sure she was doing ok. She was great and Mrs. Voeller reported that she had a great day and was full of energy and excitement!

Afterwards we went with two of her buddies, Julia and Elizabeth for lunch! That was fun! It is wonderful to know almost all of the pre-school parents and to have friendships with several.

We joined Riverside last year because we felt it was the best pre-school for Isabella. We had never even thought of sending her to a private school for her primary grades. But we find ourselves leaning more and more that way. Mom has been praying about it a lot and will continue to do so. But I would say we are 75% sure that we will send Isabella to Riverside for Kindergarten and evaluate what we will do after that.

Speaking of Kindergarten, we are also strongly leaning towards one more year of pre-school before sending Isabella to Kindergarten. Since she is a June birthday we have the choice. Again we had always assumed we would send her at age 5, which would be next fall. But I started feeling a real strong tugging at my heart for more time with her. I spent a lot of time over the summer talking to all the teachers I know and the general message I got was this - I've never heard someone regret waiting, but I've always heard people wish they would have waited that extra year.