Kindergarten!!!!

Wow - everyone always tells you that kids grow up fast, but the past 5 years really have flown by! Hard to believe that my little girl started kindergarten today.  She was sooooo excited though.  We went to her school last night for open house to meet her teacher and take her stuff to her classroom.  Her teacher is new, so we hadn't met her at kindergarten round-up, but she seems very nice and Ava seems to like her already.  I dropped her off at school on my way to work this morning and she was very eager to start her day.  She rode the bus to the babysitter's after school and then I got to hear a lot about her first day of school when I picked her up!  Sounds like she had a great day - fun things with Miss Sutton, meeting Mr. Hall - the principle, going to Art class, using her new towel for rest time, eating lunch (which was the only thing that she wasn't all that excited about since she didn't like the hash browns apparently), riding the bus and many more new fun things.  She eagerly started her home work then as soon as we got home - she had to find something red to put on her "red page".  She immediately thought of what she wanted to put on it and went to the TractorHouse magazine and found a picture of a red tractor to cut out and paste on the page (should make Uncle Doug proud:) ).  Tomorrow she will get to experience riding the bus in the morning when it picks her up at home.

As I took Ava's picture before her first day of Kindergarten, Blaine had to have his picture taken too:)  Then I got a quick picture outside her classroom by the pawprint with her name on it.

I am not an overly emotional, gushy Mom, so never started sobbing or anything like I hear from many Moms - I hope that doesn't make me sound like a bad Mom.  I am happy for my kids to grow and experience new things in each of life's stages.  However, I really started thinking and praying hard as I drove away from the school about all the things that my kids will be exposed to in this world.  And to know that we will not always be there to help guide them and help them make the right decisions.  I pray that we raise our kids to know and trust the Lord and rely on Him to help them when they face temptations from the world and Mom and Dad are not there to guide them.  It is a scary thought to leave your kids in a school setting where they are exposed to many things that I would not dream of at home.  I know that we have a "good" school system, but there will always be challenges no matter what.  Please join me in praying for all of our kids to be strong and stand up for what is right in all situations and not to fall to temptations of this world!