First Day of Preschool (Camp)

I can't believe it, but Piper and Fletch are just about preschoolers. Last week, they said goodbye to our wonderful daycare provider Claudia (who will be caring for Deacon in the so it was more like a "see you later"). This week, they started preschool camp at Rose Hill Academy. Here is a photo from their first day.

(It's still impossible to get them both to look and smile at the camera at the same time.)

During the summer, Rose Hill offers summer camp for preschoolers, and then the real "academic" stuff (if that's what you can call preschool) starts after Labor Day. The preschool camp has awesome activities like bringing in performers, a petting zoo, camp olympics, a weekly water bounce house, etc. It reminds me of my days at Camp Evergreen.

For weeks, we'd been mentioning to P&F that they'd be starting school soon. Thanks to an episode of Blue's Clues about going to school, they were both so excited and couldn't wait. In fact, on Sunday night on the way home from Target, Fletch started crying because he thought we were driving to school and not home. He was heartbroken he'd have to wait until the next morning to meet Mrs. Bonds, his new teacher.

Needless to say, by Monday, the school excitement was palpable in the Woodard house. Eric and I drove them there, and they both ran in the door, without a moment of hesitation. We met up with Mrs. Bonds, and she took them to the cafeteria for breakfast. Piper shouted a quick "bye bye" to me, while Fletch was so excited he didn't even turn back to look at us. The only tears that were shed were mine (my babies!) and Deacon (fussbucket).

Since Monday, they've had a terrific time each day and have gotten good daily reports. They're even using the potty there!. In fact, picking them up at night is a bit of a disaster because they both don't want to leave. Thank goodness for their sweet afternoon teacher, Mrs. McDaniel, who works some crazy teacher magic to get them to come home with me. I'm so happy that they love school so much and that they have adjusted so quickly. And, I think it's actually calmed them down a bit. They are coming home tired and less clingy. Let's hope they continue to like it--for at least the next 16 years or so.