First Day, Last Year

Today was Jillian's first day of her last year of preschool. To say that she was excited would be a gross understatement. This girl loves her some school. This year we decided to enroll her in Kinder Challenge, which is designed for kids who are at least 4 1/2, and focuses on reading. It is 4 half days per week and a more structured classroom setting for kindergarten prep. In addition she is taking two enrichment classes--Young Explorers with Mrs. Jones (learning about countries/cultures around the world) and J.A.M. with Mrs. Batterson (Jesus and Me, a class that uses drama, imaginative play, and hands-on storytelling to bring Bible stories to life). If you put it all together (and add lunch buddies), you have a preschool schedule that looks like this:

M and T--11:30-3
W and Th--9-3

I think it is going to be one nice last step towards full day kindergarten next year. This is Jillian's third year at Kingdom Kids, and I have nothing but wonderful things to say about the school, the teachers, and staff. She has met some great friends, and it's fun to see the same families return each year. The bonus of this year is that she and her BFF, Ella, just happen to both be in the afternoon KinderChallenge class. Those two are pretty giggly together...good luck with that, Mrs. Schimek!
Now that I've recorded all the facts I want to remember, I'll get to the good stuff--pre-drop off pictures.

I love how she allowed little sis to join in on the pics

This series of pictures is so "them" right now. Jillian is always trying to wrangle A, and A does not like it one bit. You can see the jaw clenched expressions that are so typical of her as she shouts "No, Jee-Yan!"

"Leave me 'lone, Jee-Yan!"

This is Jillian's current favorite picture pose

I started to question Jillian's outfit choice, and she quickly pointed out that she did in fact match because every color of polka dot on her shirt has a matching butterfly counterpart on her skirt. I couldn't argue with that, so we just went with it.