Maddie is in Kindergarten

Today was Maddie's first phase in day of kindergarten!!! She woke up Monday morning crying that she didn't want to go to school. I immediately got nervous about the process and told Alex that we were in for a rough Wednesday morning. :(

Last night, Alex painted Maddie's fingernails to match her shirt, which she was SUPER excited about. She just couldn't stop smiling! We laid down with her at bedtime to tell her how happy we were that she was excited and that she was going to make all kinds of new friends and learn so much. She just kept smiling and then her eyes started to water. I felt the lump in my throat and then she said, "My eyes are watering up, I better close them." I asked her if she was going to cry and she said "no, I'm just so excited!" It was priceless!

This morning, I got up and started getting ready before waking them up, just like usual. When I got done, I came out of our room and closed the door and I could hear footsteps upstairs. I quickly discover Maddie was up and eager to start getting ready for her first day! YAY!!!! I was so relieved that she was still excited and yet at the same time slightly still worried that might change when it was "game time". We did our normal morning routine and took a few pictures before we left. Unlike Ashton, Maddie LOVES LOVES LOVES to have her picture taken.

No family shot, but we each got our picture made with the kids before we left.

Maddie wanted Ashton to go with us to take her first. We walked her down the hall and into the classroom where she'd be for today. She was still just smiling ear to ear. I was melting! She picked a desk and sat down to start coloring until all her classmates for the day arrived.

Last night, I explained to Maddie that the first day they might call for Madelyn since that is her real name but she could just tell them that she likes to be called Maddie. She asked if she could just let them call her Madelyn at school and we told her sure, if that is what she wanted to do. So, as you can see her name tag says Madelyn because they'd printed them all based on the kids "real names" so she was kind of excited about that. However, she can't spell Madelyn since she's never really been called Madelyn except when she's in trouble or other random times.

She is so adorable and I'm so glad she was such a big girl! I'm going to miss my little shopping buddy during the day, but I'm also going to enjoy my mommy time too!

Daddy and his girl

Here is my sweet girl on her way to the car! She was so excited to tell me about her day and I loved listening. She was excited they got to play some games in the gym and go to the playground twice. She also told me about "the man" aka Mr. Cushing (the PE teacher) that she told her address and phone number too. It was cute! I can't wait to see who her teacher is and get the year started. She is going to have so much fun and I look forward to hearing all about it!