First Day of Preschool

It finally happened, Parker and Penelope started preschool. Its so hard for me to believe they are old enough to go to school.
That being said, they were so excited and totally ready for preschool. As the day drew closer, I was the one getting nervous, wondering how their first day would go, if they would be ok. Then the day before their first day, I got an email from the mom helping on the first day (one mom helps each day) saying her child was sick and she needed to swap. So I hurried and called Tory to see if he could take the morning off to watch Oliver. He was going to go in late anyway since he wanted to help drop the kids of one their first day of school. He could and so I quickly emailed the mom back. I'm so glad I got to see them experience (and document - I took a TON of pictures) their first day. I loved seeing what the kids did, how their time was spent and how they did in a school setting. Parker and Penelope didn't really care if I was there or not so I knew they would be ok when I wasn't there. We got to open the door in the morning and help each of their new friends pick out their 'shape' that they would be sitting on in circle time.

Then after everyone sat down Ms. Sharon, their teacher, did some welcome stuff and had the kids practice doing the pledge of allegiance. Since I was the mom helping, Parker got to hold the flag, he did a great job!

Circle time:After a story, the kids drew pictures of themselves and then got to have some free play time. Parker and Penelope LOVED this time.



Then came snack time:


After snacks the kids got to go outside and play, they have some great outside toys at this preschool:
Here is a picture of their whole class lining up to go back inside after playing outside:
When they got back inside it was more circle time and Ms. Sharon had each child come up front with a baby picture of themselves to introduce them to each other:

Then there was some fun singing and dancing:
And then it was time to go home. There were no tears or anything from Parker and Penelope, they were so great the whole 3 hours. They keep asking when they get to go back. I think they are going to love preschool!

As for Oliver, he desperately wants to go to preschool as well. He loves all the toys and cries when I take him to leave, he so wants to be a big kid!

Sesame Street Live

Early in the summer a moms' group that I am a part of told me that they could get really inexpensive tickets to Sesame Street Live so I bought 5 tickets for our family. I knew that Oliver might not last the whole show which is why I bought a ticket for Tory as well. But the day before the show Tory hurt his leg and wasn't up for it and since I wasn't up for taking my three kids, I left Tory home with Oliver and we invited Parker and Penelope's friend Dmitri to come with us. We got to our seats just as the show was starting. In the opening song the characters come down off the stage and since we were sitting on the side, they were right by us which scared my kids. Thankfully Dmitri wasn't frightened by them. Parker and Penelope fell apart , they were so scared of the life-size characters. They both jumped into my lap. Penelope settled down quickly and I was able to move her to her seat in a few minutes. But Parker, bless his heart, he pretty much cried through the first half. He kept asking "is it over?" and "can we go home?" After the intermission we went back in and Parker didn't cry but he did plug his ears for the entire show, poor kid. But afterwards all the kids just talked and talked about how exciting it was to see Elmo and Big Bird and Cookie Monster. Here are some pics from our first theatre experience - they are all from the 2nd half when Parker calmed down and I could take some photos!

Here are the three kids just after the show outside the theatre. I think having Dmitri ride in our car was just as exciting as seeing Sesame Street Live. They loved having a friend with them!