It was a big day for Presley and mommy and daddy! The first day of KINDERGARTEN!!! It was the day Presley had been waiting for...and mommy and daddy had been dreading!
We had conferences with her teacher, Mrs. Kuhl, the beginning of the week. Her classroom is the first one on the right when you come into the kindergarten corridor. We turned in all her papers and took her school pictures. She was set!
I woke her up around 6:30 and had made her chocolate chip pancakes and bacon. Apparently I was a little more nervous then I thought as I had turned the burner way too high and proceeded to burn the first 4 pancakes. By the time I figured out what the problem was, I managed to make her a decent one...and then cut the edges off the other ones.
We went up stairs, went to the bathroom, brushed teeth, got dressed, and combed hair. I had gotten her a book called "The Night Before Kindergarten" and because I forgot all about it last night, I read it this morning. It was cute! Then it was time for some outdoor pictures...
I woke Madison up just after 7 so she could be in a picture too with her big sister!
Then we were off. First stop...daycare to drop Madison off. Konner was getting ready to head off to 1st grade...so we took a picture of both of them. They will ride the bus to school and after school together every day. They will be the last ones on in the a.m., ride for about a minute and then do the same in the afternoon - first ones off after riding for about a minute. I told Presley I would bring her every morning the first few days of school.
We made it! Prairie Elementary!!! 
One of the first people we saw was her BFF, Lauren Nelson! Yeah! Her classroom is right next to Presley's.
Yeah! Another BFF, Jacob Meyer! He is actually in her class and they sit right by each other!
We also saw Bryn Donkersloot, Cooper McCoy, and some other familiar faces from Sunny Days pre-school. There was lots of good support for each of us mom's and dad's this morning as all our friends either had their first or last child starting kindergarten. 
Insert more tears here...I needed to head to work and she needed to get on with her big day! A good friend and I walked out together. I was starting to cry and she was fighting back the tears. We both got in and bawled (she told me this later on)! I called Jason and bawled some more! I talked to my mom and bawled some more. They both did their best to comfort me. I had lots of calls and emails from friends all day checking in on how I was doing. Thanks so much for that! Don't get me wrong...I'm so glad she is so excited about school...I wouldn't want it any other way. But you know what they say about once they get into school...life goes by even that much faster.
I couldn't wait to talk to her at 3:30! I thought about her every minute of the day. I called her at daycare and she had had a GREAT day! I could tell she was just beaming! She did her best to remember all the things they had done - they started with morning announcements all in a big group in the middle of the area, they put their stuff in their lockers, they listened to books, they sang songs, they took a couple bathroom breaks, they went to phy ed, had lunch (her class is the first one through Grandma Mary's lunch line which she is excited about), went to recess, took a 20 min. rest, ate snacks, etc. She got on the bus at the end of the day, sat with Konner and Cooper, and made it back to Shelly's in one piece! YEAH!!! She did it! I did it! We did it!!
We love you Presley Renee! Welcome to kindergarten!
and made a plan for the day. It was supposed to be a hot one. We decided to head to Wayside Chapel in the a.m. before it got too hot. What a great little place! We saw it on our way on Friday night and knew we had to go back.
Mersaydes is loving the cars. She is one of our nieces.
Mersaydes liked it so much she wanted to go down a whole bunch...
We had a little party with food and games to start the night off. One of the bridesmaids agreed to bring a meat and cheese tray, so we had that and then I made a chocolate fondue pot with 5 foods to dip in it! Amber loved it! I also made a chex mix and 2 heart shaped special k bar cakes! One of them said "A+K=" and that one was at the hotel. The other one said "Love" which I had brought to the restaurant that afternoon for us to have as dessert after supper. I brought along mixes for 4 fun drinks! 
At 7:45, we headed to supper. We all ordered appetizers and shared them. It was a fun atmosphere! We visited and enjoyed each others company. Around 9:30, we headed to the Shout House in downtown Minneapolis. That was the best part of the night for me! The dueling pianos at the Shout House were so much fun! 
We paid to get Amber on stage and so towards the end of the night, she got up and sang Summer Nights from the movie Grease! It was a riot! 
We headed back to the hotel at 1:30, ate a few munchies, and were all asleep by 2:30. Just about everyone stayed over night. We had to be up and on the road by 9:30 that morning...which made for a short night. 
