Emily's First Day of School

7:55 am
Beautiful clear morning. Emily is at the bus stop (two houses away) waiting for the school bus this morning. She is holding a jam sandwich because we ran out of the house before the muffins came out of the oven (and then stood at the bus stop 10 minutes waiting).

All the neighborhood kids turned up to catch the bus. Two of our neighbors (rightmost in photo with neon orange strap-belt things) were bus patrol helpers so Emily had lots of help!

8:00 (approx)
Emily gets on the school bus, holding Elly's hand.
Elly says to us: "Don't worry, I'll sit with her on the bus".
Emily says, "I've been on the school bus before! I went on field trips in preschool!"

And off she goes, little Emily, now quite grown up. Very excited, waving madly to us from the bus window.


We miss her at home, but mostly psychologically.


11:00 am
We are at the bus stop waiting for her bus.

11:07 am
And here it is!
She hops off
and runs towards us in glee.
"I made a friend on the bus! His name is Gavin! He lives close to us! We talked and talked and talked on the bus and I asked him his name!"

She came home and reported everything that happened - she was so pleased that they did quite a few things the same as preschool (but with more friends), like the songs and the calendar. "I can't wait to go back to school!" she finishes.

As I type this, Emily is teaching School down in the playroom - her sisters are her students. We survived sending two kids off the school for-the-first-time. And oddly, no tears, not even from the mother. Tomorrow they'll already feel like veterans. How quickly we swing from novel to normal.