First day of kindergarten

{Making back-to-school crowns with friends the day before.}

{Glitter!}

{The finished crowns on Malayna and Lily.}

{Special back-to-school dinner the night before.}

{Sleepy, but ready for her first day of kindergarten.}

{Saying goodbye to the neighbors.}

{First day of kindergarten!}

{On the way to kindergarten.}

{Very excited girl.}

{Love this face.}

{Waiting in the schoolyard for kindergarten to begin.}

{Me and my big girl.}

{Daddy's girl.}

{Bye-bye!}

{All gone.}

{Daddy is very sad.}

My baby is in her kindergarten classroom right now. And I'm more okay with that than I thought I would be - the worrying about the day was much worse than the actual day. Malayna was really excited to be starting kindergarten. She shed a few tears, but nothing like she did last year when she started preschool. She was so anxious to get to school this morning, putting her backpack on and going outside to say goodbye to the neighbors.

We had a special dinner last night, with her favorite meal - spaghetti and homemade meatballs (made by her and her daddy). We lit candles and she wore her special back-to-school crown that we had made earlier that day. We talked about all the things she'll do in kindergarten - art class, gym class, eating in the cafeteria, recess, meeting new friends. We toasted to our big girl.

She whispered to me this morning that what she was looking forward to the most was art class. That's my girl! (Whether it's true or not is questionable - she may just know how to play me. I'm okay with that. Hehe.)

We knew several people with kids starting kindergarten at her school. Some were people we know from the community parenting center, other we had played with at the park, and some we met at orientation. One set of parents used to work with Jimmy at Ikea years ago, and another family is related to my uncle.

I said to Jimmy after we dropped her off this morning, "This is it! This starts her school career. This is when we find out if she's as smart as we think she is, or if we're just biased because she's ours."

I do know this: she is a wonderful child - super bright, creative, funny, beautiful and brave. And she'll always be my baby.