First two days of "school"

Well, we finally started Mother's Day Out three mornings a week at our church (and Phil's office) and the girls LOVE it! Phil and I are in awe of how well they have done. We knew Lily was ready. The last 6 months she has turned into a social butterfly when it comes to other 4 year old girls and she has been bored around the house. Kate has not showed any signs of wanting to be anywhere away from Mommy. With both girls, we have struggled with extreme shyness, generalized anxiety and fears of being away from me. They got the best teachers possible who have worked so hard to make them feel loved and to have fun. The change we have seen in Kate is amazing since she started MDO. Phil and I keep looking at each other in amazement these last two weeks as she takes on, with grace, social situations that before would have really shut her down. Half way through the second morning, the school secretary called Phil and said, "You've got to come see this!" Both girls were talking and laughing in their class. They hardly ever talk in public. What a blessing!
Here they are leaving the house the first morning accompanied by their new school outfits, cool lunch boxes packed with hot and sour soup and Spiderman fruit roll-ups, pink backpacks and Mickey Mouse ("Super Mickey" as Kate calls him) ready to secretly hide in the backpack. Katie was SO excited about her school shirt. She has worn it everytime she has gone to school. It is a Mickey shirt with her name on it. It seems more important to her than Lily that she have her own idenity. When I put the shirt on her, she nearly busted at the seams. She said with the biggest smile, "Now everyone will know my name!"














Below are some pictures that one of their teachers took during the first day...














































The teachers let me come 15 minutes before the end of the morning and read to the class one of Kate and Lily's favorite books. This is the one they chose. They were laughing and so proud of themselves while I was reading it!




















Here they are leaving the house the morning of the second school day. I'm so glad they have each other!