Zoe's 1st day of public school kindergarten

We found out yesterday that Zoe would be starting school TODAY!!! We were both a bit taken by surprise and felt we didn't have time to mentally prepare.... Kia asked Zoe if she wanted to go to school or wait a bit; secretly hoping Zoe would opt to stay home for a while longer. But, she said she is ready to go meet new friends. So, we got up this morning to take her to her 1st day of Pubic School/Kindergarden at Shoal Creek Elementary.

 

Here are pics from the morning drop off:

And just like that, she was gone. Absorbed into her classroom, immediately swept up by her classmates who were of course curious about their new classmate. Kia and I hung around watching her from outside the classroom for a few minutes... But it was clear that she was all good, so we left; happy for her, but sad at the same time as we had to let go of a little bit more of our little girl. She has come such a long way from the time we 1st dropped her off at her Montessori in Arizona when she was only 18 months old... Parenting is a cruel gig.

She was super brave and never once cried or looked to us for reassurance. It reminded me of one of my 1st days of school when I arrived in Utah. I think was roughly the same age as her. I remember pretty vividly being very scared. I cried and clung to my moms leg. Not wanting her to leave. Zoe was way braver than me.

 

Here is video of Zoe recapping her 1st day. Not as descriptive as I'd hoped, but i was running out of space on my IPad so just took what I could get:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ryder's 3rd Birthday

Today was Ryder's 3rd Birthday. We started the day by singing happy birthday in the morning and having cake for breakfast.
 
Unfortunately, we are new to the Area so he doesn't have any friends yet... So it was just us.
 
He then moved on to opening his presents. He got:
A Batcave from Grandma
A Bumblebee transformers bike; which he learned to ride at the park today. He did a great job.
He got a call from Grandma to tell him Happy Birthday...
Zoe got a bike as well. We couldn't just get Ryder a bike and not get Zoe one too.
 
Then Kia's friend Andrea stopped by to hang for a while.
Finally, at the end of the day, we did FaceTime with Uncle Rob and Aunt Bernie and then with Uncle Charles, and cousins Indigo and Orlando.
 
All and all, it was a great day. Ryder wrapped it up this evening as he was giving Momma hugs and kisses before bed by saying : "I want to turn free (three) again."
 
Here he is at the end of the night: