Choose Your Adventure

Do you remember those books?  The ones where you would start to read and then at the bottom of the page it would say something like, "If you want to see so and so fight the dragon, turn to page 34.  If you want to see so and so play hopscotch turn to page 67."  I always chose the page that would get me to the end the fastest, thus ending my silent reading time.  What?!?!  She didn't like to read when she was a kid?  Nope.  I found silent reading dreadfully boring.  I'd sit and listen to a story no problem, but nothing was as interesting as what was going on in my own head when I was reading to myself.  I know.  I think am the center of the universe.

Anyway, this blog post is sort of like a choose your own adventure because as I'm typing I'm trying to decide which adventure to write about: Hadley's first day of school, or Harper's trip to the ER.  Hmmmm.  What to do, what to do.  I think I'll choose Hadley's first day of school.  Those of you who don't want to read about that subject (jerks) can wait until the blood and gore post follows.  I'll try not to disappoint.

I would first like to say that I am so pleased with the school we chose to put Hadley in for preschool.  They did a fine job with having several weeks worth of activities to get the kids settled into the classroom, etc.  We went to a "Popsicle Party" one week, and the kids got to play on the playground.  The next week the kids had some play time in the classroom while their teacher talked to us about different things that would happen during the year.  And then the first week of school started out slowly with a one hour day before Hadley went through the full day routine.  (Of course, Hadley was super annoyed that she only got to go for an hour).

I also got a newsletter (big fan of the newsletter) and an email from her teacher.  When I was teaching, I loved it when parents sent me notes of encouragement, so I sent out a little note saying how much fun Hadley was having.  I got a note back telling me that Hadley is a sweet, inquisitive little girl, and that she was the only one who knew the teacher's name.  Hadley's teacher's name is not an easy one to remember.  Let's just say that it's not "Smith" or "Johnson."  Actually, I think her name is just as hard to remember as my preschool teacher's name was.  It was something like "Popodopsnuffeloffagus" or something like that.  I'm sure I'm close.

Anyway, school is going very well.  Hadley loves it, and I am happy with what's going on so far.  Here are some pictures of the first day.

Here's Harper with her backpack on.  She thinks she's going to school, too.  You can imagine how awesome the car ride home was after we dropped Hadley off and Harper had come to the realization that she wasn't going too.  "I wanna geeee out!  Where Hadley go?  Eh! Eh!  I'm stuck!  I wanna geeee out!  Where Hadley go?"

Look how nervous she is.

(We were told to unbuckle the kids once we got in the parking lot so that the teachers could get them out quickly.  Just so you don't think I'm Britney Spears or anything.)

There she goes.  Handle with care, ladies.  Handle with care.

After school, I took the girls to Panera for lunch.  It seemed like the right thing to do.

Do you see how Harper is trying to do exactly what Hadley does?  Harper is Hadley's number one fan.  Unless Hadley has a toy Harper wants.  But they are buddies.  Hadley told me the other day that Harper is her best friend. 

Next up, why my youngest daughter looks like she got into a bar fight.