Kindergarten

I know everyone says this, but I cannot believe Cate is old enough to go to kindergarten. It really does seem like just last week we were dropping her off at the LeBonheur daycare in her car seat carrier. I know all the mamas cry, and there were a few tears at our house that morning too.

All summer Cate begged to go back to her preschool, which was a wonderful experience. All summer she said she did NOT want to go to Carver school. And the instant she leaped into the van Thursday afternoon, I knew our prayers were heard. She screamed, "I LOVE IT!!! Mama, I love my new school."

Now a few days before school started, Nana and Mama Sue and a few more family members had told Cate they wanted to know all about her first day of school. The night before school started, we were laying in Cate's bed saying prayers and talking about the upcoming morning and Cate announced that as soon as she got home from school, we had to write everything about her day down so she wouldn't forget anything important for Nana and Mama Sue.

So, the next thing she said when I picked her up that first afternoon was, "Okay, well first of all, we put up our backpacks..." I interrupted and told her we'd have to wait until we got out of the carpool line so I could start writing- I didn't realize she was so serious about it, but she was. She most definitely was.

And here is the story of Cate Babb's first day of Kindergarten, August 4, 2011, in her own words:

"Okay, well first of all, we put up our backpacks and I put up my lunch box. Second, we went and sat down in our seats. And then we colored a paper plate. And we walked down the hallway and used the bathroom. Wait. We colored a picture of a raccoon before that. Mine was pink and blue. After we got done in the bathroom, we walked back down the hallway into our room and had rug time.

That means story time on the rug. That means Ms. Turner reads a book. And she did. She read "The Kissing Hand". And then she gave us a little piece of white paper and we traced our hand on it and when we were done doing that, we put a heart sticker on it. And we colored it and we brought it home, so I can show you.



After that we played in areas. I played in all of them- books, puzzles, blocks, and homing center (I'm still not sure what that last one is). Then we read "The Gingerbread Man" and had gingerbread cookies. Alright, after that, we went to look for the gingerbread man, but we couldn't find him. At the end of the day, we heard the principal say on the walkie-talkie (intercom maybe?) that the gingerbread man had hopped on a van and said, "Run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man."

Then we ate lunch and then we had snack and guess what! We had a cookie and one chocolate kiss. Then, we ummm, we had a computer show, played on computers, went back to our classrooms, got our backpacks, examined all our work things, and went home."

She took a big breath and finished, " We did a lot today. Oh, and no homework."

When I asked who she played with, she replied, "Katie Grace, Lexi, Lily, and NO BOYS."

"Oh, and look what I found in my lunchbox."