2010 First Day of School and NEW SCHOOL

We had to switch Ella's school for this year cause the school she was at different offer longer than two hours a day. With Ella going to Kindergarten next year, I just thought it would be too hard on her to have her continue to go to school only 2 hours a day 2 or 3 days a week to 6 hours a day Monday- Friday next year. I felt like I wanted something in between that could be a transition to better prepare her for the longer days in Kindergarten.

Enter PLA (Premier Leaning Academy) in Chandler. I know FOUR Moms besides me who enrolled their children there, and ALL so far have told me they LOVE it. Two of the Moms just had their kids graduate and head off to Kindergarten this year. The other two Moms still have their kids in there (now classmates of Ella's). So with a good reputation, great pricing, very experienced teachers, great curriculum and nice facilities, we decided to go for it. You can learn more about them here.

Today was Ella's first day of her LAST year of Pre-K!! OMG! She was very excited to go out shopping yesterday with Daddy for her back to school outfit. He let her pick out ALL of it, down to the shoes! She was so excited to show me her outfit, and was telling me "cover your eyes" Mommy while she got it all laid out before me. How cute. Here she is all ready for school:



Daddy and Ryen came to see her off too!



It was a family affair:



She was quick to choose a cubby and shove in her new bag:



And she posed next to this cute sign...




...right before erasing the entire thing with her hand so she could write on it!!!! UGH! LOL

And poor Bunny... My Ryen stood outside defiant and refusing to leave. Screaming and crying "No I play with Ella!!" I felt so bad. So I gave her a lollipop at 9:15am and she forgot all about her big Sister... ha ha!



And I started a tradition of taking the same photos every year when it comes to the first day of school. So I can look back over the years and see how she changes each year. A simple photo of her walking towards school with her backpack on her back...



And this photo is the one that shocked me most of all tonight. The one from the front. I look at that photo of Ella from this time last year and she looks SO little. She still has some baby fat in her cheeks and knees and she looks so short and so young. And then I look at her today and think holy cow, where did my baby go? In just one year she goes from that to that????? I guess I didn't think it was gonna shock me as much to see it side by side. :'( (sniff sniff)