Within three days we went from celebrating 10 years of being married, to the first day of kindergarten. Talk about a cause for celebration (and a lot of preparation getting ready for Iris’ big day).

On Thursday, Iris stayed with my mom while Todd and I went to the parent kindergarten orientation. Realizing this was the only time we would have together to celebrate our decade of marriage, we stopped randomly at Herman’s near our house. Treating ourselves to a rack of ribs, drinks, and actual adult conversation, we were stunned to find out that a kind person paid our full bill! The waitress wouldn’t tell us who it was, but whoever bought our meal had no idea that we were celebrating our anniversary and the fact that now, ten years later, we have a little kindergarten. Pretty crazy how the universe works sometimes.

This morning we dropped Iris off on her first day, my eyes periodically filling with tears while hers were as wide as can be, taking it all in. She was all smiles as she waved goodbye, which was her polite way of shooing us out of the classroom. We made our way to the school cafeteria, where the PTO hosted a “Boo Hoo Breakfast” for all the kindergarten parents. After drowning my emotions in a cinnamon roll and orange juice, we made our way to the car and off to work.

All day I kept wondering what she was doing. At 10:45 on the dot, I knew she must be heading to the cafeteria for (a very early) lunch. At 10:51 I logged in and noted that her lunch account had its first purchase, making me relieved that she figured out the lunch system on her first day. I took off a little early from work so that I could pick her up shortly after dismissal. I wasn’t sure what kind of girl I would get, but assumed that she would either be very ready for me to be there or mad that I came so early. I am happy to report that I got the latter (I made it up to her with a trip to CVS). I told her she was in luck because every day after this on, I’ll be getting her at our normal time.

I tried not to ask a million questions when we got home, but I was able to piece together the following facts about her first day: her class followed clues from Pete the Cat to tour the school, she only ate a little bit of spaghetti but loved the cheese sticks, was amazed that she gets CHOCOLATE milk at lunch, made a few new friends but can’t remember their names, and has proclaimed her teacher to be the BEST teacher ever. She can’t wait for day two of kindergarten and I can’t wait for a few new details about her day.