Joey's First Day of Kindergarten!

Joey's first day of full-day kindergarten was today! He was both excited and nervous, I think! I was nervous for him, sad for me, worried for Maddox, and anxious for all of us.  Joey has a uniform for school, so about two weeks ago, we broke the news to him that he can no longer wear "gym clothes" to school and would have to wear "church clothes" every day.  We told him that there is rest time every day and that he can nap at school if he wants - or he can just rest.  We told him about eating lunch at school and told him his first meal would be chicken nuggets and tater tots.  He had no idea what tater tots were! He got to visit his classroom the day before school started so that helped too!

Joey's teacher is his cousin, Mrs. Coppola, so that helped ease the transition quite a bit. He knew three kids in his class from other activities.  And, there are 11 Coppolas who go to Sacred Heart already, and we saw about 8 of them before we even walked through his classroom doors. I must say - that was a huge help for him, but also for me. I knew that there would be lots of cousins looking out for him and talking to him at recess and at lunch!

As for his first day, here's some of the things he told me:
* He played Spiderman with Hale. But, after just playing with Hale for awhile, he told Hale that he should probably go find some other friends to play with, so he did. Then, he went and played with Hale some more.
* He never got in trouble once.
* Collin sat at his table and Collin got in trouble 10 times and they had to call his mom and Collin no longer sits at his table.  (I found out that this was a true story acutally).
* Gabe got in trouble a lot, too.
* Georgia sits at his table and she never got in trouble one time.
* He ate chicken nuggets and tater tots for lunch. He was not going to eat his cookie because it had so much sugar in it, but his cousin, Julie McMurray who is an associate at Sacred Heart, told him he could eat his cookie if he brushed his teeth tonight. Then, he ate the whole thing!
* He sat by Hale at lunch.  (Okay, I just found out that you can sit by whoever you want at lunch, which scares me a little....I hope everyone found a friend to sit by...these are the things that stress me out....)
* He saw Rylie and Ashley and Anthony and a bunch of other cousins, and he high-fives his cousins when he sees them in the hallway, and he and Ashley have a secret handshake they do.

Sounds like he had a great day! As soon as we walked through the door, the church clothes came off and the gym clothes went on! I am looking forward to washing two outfits every day for the next 13 years.

Here are a few photos from his first day!

(As for the rest of the family - I didn't cry, but had a few tears well up; Maddox cried; and Joe was just anxious and nervous for Joey....Joe apparently does not have fond memories of his first days of school so he kind of broke out in a sweat at the sight of kids at school, but by the end of the day, I think he was feeling alright about Joey's first day! Joey is going to the same school that Joe did - so I think the memories were coming back for Joe pretty strongly.  I might send Joe to the school counselor, instead of Joey one of these days!)