Lana's First Day of School (Take 1)

So I debated posting this today or Thursday. It's a long story, but we actually decided last week to move Lana to a different preschool. We had planned on moving her next year to the one at my church or another Catholic church. Honestly, I didn't know that my church (and another church associated with it) had a 2-year-old program or we probably would have been looking earlier. We planned to move her then partially because we think we're sending the girls to Catholic school for Kindergarten (and up) and these preschools feed into that and partially because we wanted a bit more structure than she was getting at her old school. Well, we found out my church did have a two-year-old program (that was full) as did another Catholic church that feeds into the same Kindergarten. I decided to go check it out to see if I wanted to move her now and then just start Calli in there in two years (rather than having them at different schools). I really liked the classrooms, teachers and program so we moved her on Friday. (School was scheduled to start today.)

Funny back story about visiting Lana's new school. We go over there Friday for a tour and to meet the director and all that before we decide. Lana goes in ok to the two-year-old classroom and loved the three-year-old classroom. A lot wasn't out because they have church nursery in her room so the toys and such have to be put up, but she seemed to like everything. On our way out after I got Calli in the car, Lana sees a shrine to the Virgin Mary. She bolts across the (empty) parking lot yelling "Princess!" at the top of her lungs. I grab her and say we can go look at her together but in the car since Calli's already strapped in. We drive by the shrine and I spend the next 10 minutes or so attempting to explain who Mary is to a two-year-old. (As Mom and Auntie Maria said - She almost got it right. Mary's a queen, not a princess, but she was close enough...) Anyway, I think that at least I have explained to her that the "princess" is Mary and she's Jesus's mother and maybe even that Jesus is the Son of God (but probably not). We get to Brent's work to pick him up and take him out to lunch and Lana promptly announces that she saw "Snow White" at her new school. I think we need to make more of an effort to get to church, huh?


Anyway, today at Lana's new school we had orientation. We just went in and the parents got their talk about where to pick up and drop off and all those fun details while the kids got to know their teachers. Their "real" first day is Thursday when Lana will go all day. I didn't know if I should do her first-day-of-school pics today or Thursday so I'll probably do both. I didn't get a great one of her on the front steps, but a cute one of the girls together. You should have seen me trying to convince her to wear sneakers. School requests them if possible instead of sandals, but Lana hated them. No, mostly she didn't notice them, but she's more comfortable in sandals/flip flops and a lot of the little girls were still in them, so I might change my mind Thursday.




Lana did great when it was time for us to head to her classroom from the gym. She followed her new teacher and went straight in without me. She wasn't too happy when I had to leave to go back to the orientation, but she did fine and was happily coloring when I got back. She said she colored me a picture. Her teachers seem really nice. She's got her own little hook with her name on it for her things and all that. There are plenty of toys and books (you know I love books). They even said I can send her in with some of her own books for naptime since she's not the best about sleeping at school. Maybe they can get her to. Ms. Marie last year always could but this summer she never slept (and she's only 50/50 at home these days). Here's Lana coloring in her classroom (very serious work - no pictures, please):

And kinda an overview of her little classroom (or at least part of it):


Then we went down and took Brent out to lunch to tell him all about it...


The new school is much further from our house than the old school, but it's really close to Brent's work (maybe 15 minutes) so he can always pop up there if I can't get her or something. This is also the church we went to Sunday to try it out. We liked it a lot and the girls were great. They also have a nursery that's in Lana's classroom so we're thinking she'll be ok going there on Sundays during Mass too. We can even put Calli in there and actually be able to pay attention...