Leaving the house this morning to take Eliana and Karys to school, Karys asked me to come and eat lunch with her.

“Sometime”, I said and left it at that.

And then I decided to surprise her.

I mean, I better take advantage of the fact that she wants me or Carmi to come eat with her.

Since somebody else obviously decided that 2nd grade is the cutoff for parents having lunch at school.

So I went.

And speaking of Eliana… I was standing outside the school cafeteria doors waiting for Karys’ class to come when Eliana’s class lined up along a wall just down the hall.

And when Eliana saw me… oh. my.

If there had been a rock anywhere around, she most certainly would have crawled right under it.

Then… poor child… her class walked right by me on their way to the bathrooms. He.

She looked the other way.

Oh. I was so tempted to run up and give her a big hug.

But the humiliation would have been too great and she couldn’t have returned to school.

Karys, on the other hand, was very glad to see her daddy.

She sprinted from her place in line and ran straight for me but I waved her back.

Then I took her hand as she walked by. And we strolled in.

The little African-American girl behind us pointed to Karys and said, “She’s my friend.”

And Karys ran over to a girl waiting to pay for lunch who smiled really big as they chatted for a few seconds.

And another girl seated with a different class yelled, “K-a-a-a-r-y-s!”

The girl waved vigorously. So, of course, Karys bounded over to chat with her for a few seconds.

Yep. She’s our little social butterfly.

Carmi and I took Karys to school this morning for her first day of kindergarten.

She’s in a staggered start which means that only 4 in her class go each day for the first week.

They started on Wednesday with the rest of our schools and will stagger through next Tuesday.

Her first “official” day is next Wednesday.

But for today, she was all set to go.

She put on her backpack probably 45 minutes before we needed to leave the house. Every 5 minutes or so, she would walk up to me and say, “I’m ready.”

When we finally reached the school, one of her buddies from preschool had also just arrived.

So the 2 girls started a new chapter in their young lives walking hand-in-hand.

Karys received a very nice handwritten postcard from her Kindergarten teacher today.

Have I mentioned how excited and thankful we are that Karys has the same teacher Eliana had?

This note is just one example of why we think so much of her.

Karys is keeping me company and supervising while I mow the yard.

That’s some pretty good motivation right there…

Eliana and Karys both received their teacher assignments in the mail today for the 2010-2011 school year.

Carmi and I requested for Karys to have the same teacher that Eliana had in kindergarten. This particular teacher was absolutely wonderful and Eliana learned a lot in her first year of school.

So I was pretty stoked to look at the postcard and see that our request was granted.

What’s cool is that we traveled to China to bring Karys home, like, the week after Eliana started kindergarten. This teacher was a part of that whole process and now she gets Karys in her class.

The girls and I had to go to the “car doctor” this morning and get the oil and filter changed in one of the family vehicles.

While waiting in the lobby, a gentleman came in with a young boy - probably close to Karys’ age - in tow.

The boy was talking up a storm - “papaw” this and “papaw” that…

Karys said, “Daddy… do we have a papaw?”

“No, sweetie, you don’t.”

“We need to get one”, she said.