connolly ranch field trip!

i drove jack and two friends to their first-ever kindergarten field trip on thursday!  (i got my fingerprints done and submitted my car insurance so i am a certifiable school mom that can drive other people's kids - i am SO grown up!!!!)

connelley ranch is in beautiful napa -- only curse to my grown up status was that i couldn't stay and play in the napa valley after the trip, but since it's only about 20 minutes away (with traffic!), i know i can make it back any time.  the ranch is the home to goats, sheep, chickens, and ducks as well as organic produce and huge composting vessels.  the kids were a little nervous about the animals at first, but after a nice talk about POOP (to be referred to as manure) and the niceness of the animals, they dove right in!

yep, that's my son holding a girl's hand.  and not 'cause he necessarily had to....
this is ann-marie.  she was in our car.  she and jack giggled and whispered the entire drive to
and from the farm.... 

getting restless

singing a cute song

off to have the poop manure talk

the two jack g.s  - the other jack g. had his shirt on backwards - poor kid
aren't the tie-dyed shirts a great idea?!?

they may stray for a minute, but marley and jack always end up next to each other :)

oakland zoo!

maddy started preschool!

and she loves it most days - this was her first, she's so tiny yet so BIG!

her classmate is definitely rocking a serious mohawk for a 2year old!

jack's first day of kindergarten!

jack was excited, but tentative the first day of kinder.  there were tears, all around, but he had a blast, loves his teacher, and mommy, daddy, and maddy managed without him for a few hours.  i'm past-posting, so i can say now he's an absolute kindergartner, and even though there were tears more than once (and some bribing in the first few weeks), jack has settled in 100% and is LOVING school!!!!!!!

pics from the big day:

tomorrow's the big day!

so jack starts kindergarten tomorrow.  i haven't cried-cried (ugly cry) until a few minutes ago when i retold the conversation jack and i had after his nighttime book and cuddling.

here are some jack quotes leading up to and including our conversation tonight:
-is today the first day of kindergarten (every day for a month - i finally made a quick and dirty check off countdown for him because my answers weren't tangible enough!)
-where are you, daddy, and maddy going to live while i'm away at kindergarten? (made me so sad and explained that we weren't going anywhere)
-so it's like the same as preschool long?
-is kindergarten elementary school?
-it's kindergarten, then 1st, 2nd, 3rd...12th (all without any errors), then what? (me: college)
-what's after college?
-when i'm 16, maddy will be a big girl!
-i'll be 20, then 30, then 40...then 100!

last week we had kinder assessment and we were SO nervous!  turns out we are a-ok parents because he knocked it out of the park!  phew.  to add to my nervousness, the kinder teacher was a colleague of mine when i taught (so i would've felt even more embarrassed and sad had he not passed!).  jack let his potential teacher know that he prefers 'jack' not 'jackson'.

today we went to school to check the teacher assignments.  i am SO happy he has the same teacher that tested him, i know she's fabulous from my years teaching with her.  i actually taught HER son.  so that's either payback for me or her.  not sure ;).  i'm super excited because he's also in the same class as marley and another friend's son (he is also a jack g. - that'll be interesting!)

 i took quite a few pics of him in front of his room during the assessment day and today checking the list.  i have a sneaky suspicion i wouldn't get these cute shots in front of his class and their parents tomorrow!