Haylee's first day of school - Kindergarten!!

It started the day before with a special dinner out with Mommy & Daddy. This is a tradition my parents started with me and I really wanted to do with my kids. We got dressed up and went on a 'fancy' date to a sit-down restaraunt with just Haylee. (Olive Garden) She had a wonderful time and felt so special. I can't believe my little baby girl is such a big girl. I know its been said a million times before, but 'where does the time go?' It really flies away so quickly that I just can't keep up! I'm so grateful for every moment I've had to spend with this beautiful, precious amazing little girl. I'm so lucky to have her in my life.

The kitchen all decorated and ready for our first day of school celebration!

Yummy first-day-of-school breakfast: Pan-a-quickie, bacon, muffins, banana, OJ... mmmm...

Oh, she's so precious. Such a sweet, sweet, sweet girl she is.

Off to the car!

Quick shot in the parking lot just before we went into the school... this is a genuine smile of excitement and happiness due to the fact that she's about to go to Kindergarten for the first time. I looked down at her and this was the huge smile that was showing on her sweet face. It was the most excited I'd seen her about it. It was a great feeling.

In front of her school and classrom.

'An apple for the teacher...'

Decorating a nametag.

Making fringe - Haylee loves art and crafts and being creative.

I love the pink airplane.

Putting my blown kiss on her cheek... Mrs. Manos read the story The Kissing Hand so Haylee was putting my kiss on her cheek as we were saying goodbye.

I thought I'd be okay leaving her... but it was a lot more sad for me than I expected.  I was glad for the little baggie of gifts Mrs. Manos gave us - including a tissue.  Its hard to let my baby girl leave my wing.  Its hard to share her with someone else.  Worth it, I know... but still hard.

Here's what I wrote about her going off to school:

Dear World,
Today, I sent you my baby girl. My beautiful, precious little princess. From now on, I will have to share her with you. And I'm okay with that... mostly. Please treat her well... she is so tender and has such a big heart. She, in turn, will make you better in a thousand ways. Be kind to her - she has so much love to give. I adore her completely.
Love, Haylee's Mommy

After her first day of Kindergarten... so happy and excited!  She really was made for school.

So I guess here's a good place to confess my blunder for posterity...

So, my van battery was almost completely dead... I'd been having trouble starting my car for about a week.  So after I got the boys after taking Haylee to school, I took the car in to get a new battery.  Afterwards, I did a little shopping at the store, and when I got back in the car, I saw that I still had about an hour and a half left and thought about how it was more time than I thought I'd have and I did really well in the store.  So I headed home to make Haylee some chocolate chip cookies so the house smelled like homemade cookies when she got home from her first day of school.  On the way I figured I had time to stop in the cell phone store to ask about a couple accessories for my phone.  Which was dead at the time, even though I had tried to charge it, so while I was there I also asked why it wasn't starting up (it had been giving me issues...).  So she restarted it, and when she did, I got a bunch of text messages that had come while it was dead.  I didn't think anything of them, and then I got a call from the girl I carpool with, and when I did, I noticed the time on my phone... it was 3:48... EIGHT MINUTES AFTER I WAS SUPPOSED TO PICK MY LITTLE GIRL UP FROM HER FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN!!!!  Apparently, my car clock was off because of the battery change, but not off enough for me to realize it was totally wrong!!  And just by coincidence, my cell phone which also would have given me the correct time, was ALSO broken.  So my time was completely off and I completely missed my baby girl's face as she walked out of her classroom from her first day of school EVER. I'll never see that beautiful face of joy and excitement, and I'll never get a picture of it.  A little dramatic, perhaps, but its how I felt and I was heartbroken.  Of all the timing and dirty rotten luck.

So anyway, I was able to get home and luckily a good friend had given me some chocolate chip cookies a couple days earlier so I was at least able to have a chocolate chip cookie waiting for her when she got home from her first day of school.

She had such a great day, and absolutely LOVES school.  She's a darling girl.