Ever Started Kindergarten

On August 14, Ever started kindergarten at Palmquist Elementary. I took her shopping for some clothes the preceding Saturday. Turns out she's been living in hand-me-downs and really needed some. A yogurt stop seemed important.

She could not have been more excited about starting school. 

Bear wore Missy's old backpack when we dropped her off that first day. 

This girl is my "Angel Face."

I'd been telling Wren that after she potty trains (and gets a little older), she can go to school. As we were dropping Ever, she said, "Mom, may I potty train?" Whatever motivates her!

One more first-day shot, this time in the classroom:

Susan invited us to join her family for a special first-day-of-school dinner. I didn't get a good pic, but she had crowns for Ever and Luc. She talked about their theme for the school year ("Be a little better") and gave each of them a printout out of it. Last, she gave them cute little wooden wall hangings with their first initials ("E" for Ever) to hang in their rooms. It was really nice.

Because I saw someone else do it, the following week I took a picture of Ever in front of the school sign.

Ever's teacher is Dawn Tesluk. She seems wonderful. She teaches through song a lot, and I love hearing Ever sing all these new little ditties. 

On the first day, Ever came home and told us about a new friend she made named Leela. At back-to-school night, we found out that Leela lives up the street from us. They moved in a month before school started. The girls are obsessed with each other. We've started carpooling in the mornings, and we've had a couple of playdates. It's been great. 

A friend in the ward, Rene Clark, has been having her son, Saiji, pick up Ever after school and walk her to the back gate, where I wait in the car in a residential area. It has saved me from having to deal with the complete end-of-day chaos at the front of the school. Without this arrangement, I'd have to park far away, unload the littles, and walk to the kinder gate to pick up Ever. I did it for a few days, and it was kind of a nightmare. The school is not set up well for pickup and drop-off. Rene is a lifesaver. 

Palmquist's kindergarten is half-day, which is not enough for Missy. Their after-school program (or before-school program, in the case of P.M. kinder) is called "BASE" - Before and After School Enrichment. It's run by a local non-profit, and it's really cheap for what you get. Ever did a week in June and seemed to like it for the most part. (It's offered all day through the summer.) They do sports, education, and arts. I signed Ever up for two days a week as of the start of school. She's in P.M. kinder, so morning BASE doubles the amount of time she's in school on those days. Leela started BASE four days a week (every day besides early-start Wednesdays), and I think a combination of wanting to be with Leela and feeling as if she was missing out on lots of things they were doing on the days she wasn't there made Ever request to go more. I just bumped her up to four days a week like Leela. It's kind of lame that I have to pay for more "school" time because Palmquist happens to be half-day, but I'm really glad it is offered and seems to be a good program. They have an app where they post pics of the kids' goings-on, so I stole some photos of Ever and her projects:

Leela and Ever