On September 2nd, 2008, Samantha passed one of the biggest milestones in a kid's life - she started kindergarten. She loved it from the start! Because the bus ride to school is filled with much older children, we decided that I would drive her to school and let her take the bus home when only kindergarteners would be riding. So, Kyle and I took her into the school for her first day. She was excited, but clearly a bit overwhelmed, not able to follow her teacher's instructions to put her name tag on the attendance board and unable to concentrate on finding her locker. I was glad that I was there to help her settle in. I didn't stick around - it's discouraged by the adminstration anyway - but I was able to help her find her locker and settle into her class with an activity. We picked her up that first day, and heard about her great day! She had three kids from pre-school in her class, her very good friend Holden and her pre-school friend Maya had recess with them and she had made new friends in her class. When I asked her how it went she shouted, "I LOVE kindergarten!!" No surprise.
After dropping off my firstborn to her first day of school, I held it together. I got in the car and prided myself on my tear-free walk out of the school. Running into an old co-worker that I hadn't seen in 10 years had helped to take my mind off of things. But, as I drove out of the parking lot, a flood of emotion washed over me and I let out an "Oooh, Kyle, we're leaving our Samantha." It was partly playful for Kyle's sake - partly. But, my kids can always be counted on to know just what to say to cheer up their mother. Kyle started laughing and said, "Momma it's ok! Everything is fine, ok?"
She's done very well in kindergarten this year. Her reading has really improved and she's able to read a sentence quickly now, without having to sound out most words. She's able to count by 10s and 2s, and she's able to add larger numbers now. Her teacher had wonderful things to say about her at the conference. People told me when she was a newborn, "Before you know it, she'll be in college", and I'd laugh politely and mindlessly comment on how quickly she was growing. But those words are starting to really sink in now.
Each year, we've given Samantha a birthday party with her friends. But this year, we decided to mix things up a bit and give her a choice. She could have a birthday party and invite her friends, or she could spend a day at Splash Universe. Splash Universe won easily, despite her concern about receiving less presents. But, after I assured her that she would still get gifts from us and the family and she'd still have cake and ice cream, she was sure that Splash Universe was her choice. So, we invited their cousin Jacob along on Saturday for a little extra company and fun. We decided to book a room at the attached hotel Friday night and so we headed down after Jason got home from work with the promise of grabbing a quick dinner and then heading straight to the pool. Never has Samantha been more excited or annoying. She asked every five minutes, "Wh
en are we going to get there???" and when we stopped at Wendy's for a quick bite, she griped the entire time "What is taking so long??", "Do we HAVE to eat? Couldn't we skip it tonight?", etc. She even got Kyle going. But once we got to the pool, she was all smiles.
On Saturday, we headed down to the pool and met up with Jacob, Corey and Toby. The kids had a blast. Samantha loved the huge water slides. She even went down them by herself since she was tall enough. She loved running over when the bell rang, indicating that the giant bucket was about to tip so that she’d get completely drenched from the splash. She also had a great time making her way across the logs. The kids saw very little of each other because Kyle wanted nothing to do with any of that. He tried the big slide with mom, but didn’t care to do it again. And he hated the huge bucket and the water it dumped. When the bell rang, Samantha ran toward the splash and Kyle ran away from it. He was enjoying the smaller slide and floating in the river with dad. But, when they finally met up in the small pool in the middle of the river, they had a great time playing together. Never have I seen three more exhausted children! It was a really fun way to celebrate with my big girl. 
