THE. BIG. DAY.

Hard to believe, but we made it to kindergarten! Lily is officially a Nottingham Knight.

I distinctly remember pieces of my kindergarten year. After all, it was during that time that I lost my first tooth...got a baby brother...and contracted my first (and sadly not last) case of head lice.

But for the life of me, I cannot remember my first day of kindergarten...

Fear not, I think that I relived that day today. I don't know who was more nervous, Lily or me. Thankfully we both survived. And when asked for her daily "rose" (best part of the day), without hesitation Lily's response was "Kindergarten, silly! The whole day!!"

(Let me pause for a BIG sigh of relief...)

Lining up to go in to the classroom

A little stunned by the chaos that is the kindergarten and first grade morning gym gathering... (made exponentially more chaotic today thanks to lots of parents and even more cameras)

Lily has a friend, Quinn, from her Montessori school who is in the kindergarten classroom next to hers. In that same classroom is her "best friend" from camp (a little girl whose name I had not heard until the kindergarten open house, mind you, yet she and Lily treat each other as if they were long lost loves). And when I picked Lily up tonight, she was surrounded by new friends. Surrounded. We even spotted her new teacher, Mrs. Toner, out on her evening walk, strolling past our house tonight!

Anna with the school mosaic.

After a nice dinner at home, followed by an ice cream outing to Baskin Robbins to celebrate this milestone, Lily collapsed. Apparently she had had enough of using good behavior. Her body hit empty and just let loose. Hey, I guess I can handle an outburst here and there in exchange for a pretty excellent day, over all.

Here's hoping day #2 goes as smoothly!

Lily with new friends and old...

Fellow Montessorians...Lily and Quinn!

Anna even got in on some of the action.