And so it begins...

The first day of school. I can't believe Meredith is in kindergarten. I thought I would be fine, drop her off, no problem. Alas, there were tears. And they didn't come from Meredith...

Meredith was so excited - I think she started a countdown the day preschool ended.

We found out that her morning class will have 5 of her friends from preschool in it. Add to that a few neighbor kids and she knows just about all of the 14 kids. Add to that the fact that Meredith can handle anything you throw at her. So she's fine. She's better than fine.

These are the girls we walked to school with. From left, Brooke, Ashley, Meredith and Gretchen. Yep, they held hands like that the whole time.

Now you can't see it in this picture, but I'm getting teary-eyed. The kids standing in the hall are 6th graders. They're holding welcome signs and high-fiving the kindergarteners. And there's fanfare music playing. It was a really special touch that I'm sure was lost on most of the kids. But hey, it got me.

True to form, Meredith did exactly what her teacher had explained last week and got her supply cubby and headed off to find her name at one of the tables. The teacher politely told all of the parents to go home, and the school bell rang, officially kicking off Meredith's school career. I just hope today's excitement stays with her for a long time...