first day of kindergarten, second, and fifth grade

Sending them to school this year felt harder than ever for several reasons.  One being that we had the most amazing summer.  Two being that Mia was starting kindergarten.  Three being that we were moving 2 short days after school began and we knew chaos would come along with the move.  

The kids were all so excited.  Tyson's favorite day of school is the first day and after that, he is kind of over it but Avery gets crazy excited each year and loves it everyday.  Mia had been counting down the days until she was a big girl in school so she could not wait for it to actually happen.

It was a rude awakening that morning to actually have to wake up to an alarm clock and get everyone ready for the day.  Whew.  They all have tired eyes in these sweet photos.  Serious tans and tired eyes.  Both signs of a beautiful summer.

Avery's teacher team this year is awesome and we could tell from our first meeting with them.

After the first drop off of the day, everyone was in good spirits.

And then we moved on to the second drop off.  Our big second grader.

We loved his teacher right away too.  She has a great laugh and gives hugs.  My kind of girl.

The girls, especially Violet was not excited to see her bubba go.

We had some time in before dropping Mia off since she is in morning kindergarten.  She was more than happy to let me take one million pictures of her because she was proud and excited.

She was sporting french braids since Mommy finally learned how to do them and her newly pierced ears with pink hearts.

She was so excited to be wearing a special school dress designed by Mommy and sewn especially for her by Grandma.

Seriously, I cannot even put her excitement into words.  It was precious.  She reminded me so much of Avery when it was time for her to start kindergarten.  I love their enthusiasm for school.

And then it was finally time for Mia to go to school.  I cried like a baby as we walked out and her teacher hugged me and handed me some tissues.  It physically hurts me to leave them at school each year...but especially that first year.  It's rough.

Oh, how proud we are of our babies and how thankful we are for incredible teachers that become part of our "village" and build into them in so many ways.  Summer will always be my favorite though.