Anna has talked nonstop about THE approaching day.

The day she will start preschool.

Every afternoon, as we wait for Paul to get off of the bus, she wears her backpack.  As I lead Paul into the house, asking about his day at school, Anna pipes up saying "I had a great day at school too.  Got a LOT of homework mom," as she follows closely beside her older brother. 

Tonight was open house.  The night we got to see her classroom.

"Mom, we are going to go to MY school and we are going to look for the door that has MY name on the list!"

You can tell she really looks up to her brother!

In fact, she BEGGED Paul to go with her to the open house because she wanted to show him around her new school and introduce him to her Teacher.

The brand new school that houses the Kindergarten and Preschool

Playground in the middle of the school for the protection of the little ones

showing off for her big brother

"Mom, my name is at the TOP of the list!"

"this is where I will be learning all kinds of stuff."

"this is where I will play kitchen with my friends."

"This is MY cubby Paul.  My cubby!"

the preschool wing of the school

"Mom EVERYTHING is MY size!!!"

Her first day is set for Thursday.

I am not nervous at all about her heading out into the world to learn more about how to be social.

However, I am a little nervous about how I am going to be, emotionally, that day.

I have been her sole caregiver for over 4 years.

Fearing that I might have a major crying spell when I arrive at an empty house after dropping BOTH of my children off at school, I have arranged a nice long walk with my friends.  I'm sure if I need to hold their hands and cry they wont look at me strange, instead they'll probably pull a big wad of tissues out of their back pockets.  

I'm excited for Anna because she is so excited.

At four years of age she has expressed to me how much she loves staying home with me but how BADLY she wants to start preschool so that she can make "lots of new friends" and "learn all kinds of new things."  

I'm excited for this new transition in our lives.

I'm excited that my children are so excited about learning!!!

It makes my heart smile.