Where'd Everyone GO?

This is Kolea. This is the perfect picture to describe how she felt all morning. You see, Gabriella started Kindergarten this morning. Hunter has already been in school for a week! My sweet little girl is all alone at home with mommy. I'm not as fun as brother and sissy.

Every few minutes Kolea would ask me "a Ella go?" I would respond, "she went to school!" And then she would ask, "a Ha-to go?" ('Hunter') I would tell her the same. She would go off and play for a few minutes and then come back asking the same questions.

Kolea was lonely for her two best friends.

Hunter began FIRST grade last week! I can't believe I have a 1st grader. He was pretty excited and went to class w/o incident. These pictures are from the second day of school b/c I was so awesome and FORGOT the camera on the first day of school!

BUT... funny story: When I picked up Hunter after school on the first day a woman in the classroom was talking to me... She wasn't the teacher I'd dropped him off to so I asked her, "are you a TA or something?" She said "No, I'm the afternoon teacher!!" Welcome to Hawaii, you never know EVERYTHING up front. So Hunter has two teachers and they are both wonderful!

K- that's only part of the funny story... Mrs. Heimuli, his afternoon teacher said to me (with such surprise in her voice) "Hunter is such a good kid! He's very bright and on the ball! He's really good!"

I had to laugh b/c we'd just cut his hair in a mohawk over the weekend and he wore a shirt to school that said "Part Time Trouble Maker!" Hahahaha! Just goes to show, "you can't judge a book by its cover." All I could do was smile and agree. Yes, (despite appearances) he IS a very good boy. Love you Hunter!

And then there is Gabriella. Her first day of Kindergarten finally arrived! Last week she had a meeting with her teacher to assess her abilities. This week she only goes for 3 hours today with a quarter of her class, and on Friday with half of the class... then next Tuesday with the whole class! And THEN they continue to go after that. Talk about easing them into it!

She did great and we didn't have any tears- by any of us! Although, Kolea had a hard time leaving big sissy behind =( That's the back of Kolea's head as she's trying to figure out why there's no seat for her to join Gabriella! Have a great day Gabriella, we love you!!
Hunter and Gabriella are just over two years apart (their b-days are 6 days apart in December.) If we were on the mainland, she would still have another year of pre-school before she started Kindergarten, but not here. Since she will be 5 yrs old before Dec. 31st she is enrolled in what they call Jr. Kindergarten (and they are mixed in with the 5 yr olds.) She will attend this year and depending on how she does, she will either go on up to first grade or re-do Kindergarten. It's kind of crazy. Had we been here two years ago, Hunter would've done the same thing.

So I guess I kind of look at it like a free pre-school and if she does extremely well, she'll just move on up! But it'll be crazy if she's in first and Hunter's in second! Oh well. We all just do the best we can. =)