Off to School (ALL OF THEM!)

This is a very long post.  But no apologies from me.  I'm recording this for a future time.  It was a pretty exciting day at the Prime house.  Everyone but Mom got to go to school. Erin and Ashleigh started kindergarten, Janiel started 5th grade, Wes started 8th grade and Brent is continuing whatever grade he is in.  I thought Kara might be lonely and sad, so we signed her up for preschool.  Here they call it VPK (voluntary pre-kindergarten, wondering if there is such a thing as mandatory pre-kindergarten?). 

On Friday, we got to go to Kara's school and the elementary school to meet teachers.  

Here we are all excited to be in Kindergarten.  Can't you see that Ashleigh can hardly contain her excitement?

 I think Erin was the most excited.  She has been counting down for a long time.  She was very cute and knew exactly how she wanted to look for class.

 Ashleigh is really excited too.  She is just more reserved and so it doesn't show.  But she was the one that wouldn't stop talking about school when she got home.  We heard all about it.  She said, "The girls were all nice and the boys were all naughty."  

 Kindergarten is all day long.  That is a long time for little ones.  They seemed to do alright.  Ashleigh said that during PE she started to cry a little because she missed me.  Ahhh.  We decided to put them into the same class this year.  I figure that they need each other, we will be moving next year and so they don't need to make life long friends at school.  They both said they wanted to be in the same class and so that is what we did.  They have Mrs. Madonna for their teacher.  We hope that she is good. 

Florida law limits how many students can be in each class.  I think it is very smart.  It seemed like there were too many in Utah schools.  The law states that only 18 kids per class in kindergarten through 3rd grade, 22 in 4th though 8th and 25 in high school.  Get this:  There are 14 kids in their kindergarten class.

Sporting their school uniforms!

And their new backpacks!

Janiel is excited to start school again.  She is a very good student.  I'm so thankful that she will be at the same school for Erin and Ashleigh.  Some comfort to know that big sister is there.  Janiel has Mr. Leonard for her teacher.  We hear that he is the best teacher there is.  She had a male teacher last year too and he was a great teacher.  We are very happy to know that we can expect another successful year.

All ready to go to the bus at 7:30 a.m.

I took the girls today so that I could help them carry their supplies to class.  I pulled into the main parking lot which was a joke...so many others trying for spots.  I finally happened to be by one that was pulling out so I put on my blinker and waited for the van to pull out.  Before the van could even get out of the spot, another car came racing down the aisle and pulled into the spot.  They saw me.  I was furious.  I left my window rolled up so that I wouldn't say something mean.  I just left and parked down the street.  It was a walk, but it helped to cool me off (not really, it was very humid and sweaty and I had 500 pounds of paper to carry!).

Erin and Ashleigh in front of their Kindergarten class.  Yea!

They got right to work coloring!

Wesley (who didn't want any pictures taken) left at 8:30 which left me and Kara home alone.  I asked her if she was lonely and she said, "Yeah, we're lonely, huh mom!"  But she really played well and was just fine.  She wanted to eat lunch at 10 so that she could go to school.  She was so excited.

Kara all ready to learn.

Kara is so proud of her Eagle's Nest shirt.

Florida really wants all children to go to VPK, so they provide vouchers to pay for the school.  Anyone can have a voucher, income doesn't matter.  The vouchers are good at community centers, churches and elementary schools.  I was going to take Kara to the community center, but it didn't quite feel right.  The elementary school was mainly for headstart (which means low income or special learning needs).  So I had heard someone else in our branch had taken their kids to this church.  So I decided to go with that one.  It had a much better atmosphere about it.  As it turns out, another family in our branch is going there, so it is going to work out even for carpooling.

I'll have to take a picture of the outside of the church.  It will be interesting for Kara to be there.  They will attend "chapel" once a week for 30 minutes where they will have puppet shows, dance and learn bible stories.  In Florida, they aren't afraid to mix church and state.  Maybe it is only in Utah that they are.  It seems like the attitude here is that it doesn't matter what church you go to, just go.
When I dropped Kara off, I asked her what I was going to do with no kids at home.  She said, "Relax and listen to no fighting!"  Nice, I like that idea.

Kara and Claire from our branch.

Kara had to color this project to look like her.  I thought she did a great job (I did do the outline for the hair and colored the pants, but she did the rest.)

Brent picked up the girls from the bus stop.  They were happy to see him!  It was a great day and I look forward to more days of relaxing and listening to no fighting (or grocery shopping alone, or cleaning out toy boxes alone, or doing a craft, or volunteering at school---don't get me wrong I love my kids, but I am ready for a little my time!)

Ashleigh and Erin were the first ones off the bus!