Audrey's (almost) first day of school

We've been prepping Audrey for quite a while about her entry into her new French "school".  We were able to secure her a spot in the garderie, what seems to be a mix between a daycare and preschool by American standards.  From what we've heard, it's often hard to get a spot and the quality of care that is offered is exceptional.  We signed her up months before moving to France and have been looking forward to seeing her flourish in this setting.

For the past week, we've talked about this first day of school much more.  I tell her, "Remember, you have to speak French at school.  How would you say hello?".  "I know, mama", she'd respond with a snide smile.  "I say bonjour!"  Too cute really.  She was incredibly excited about the whole adventure.

So the day arrived.  We set an alarm clock (for the first time in 2.5 years!) just to make sure we wouldn't oversleep (which unfortunately never happens with the two kiddos). We can't stop talking about school while  eating breakfast that morning.  We jump in the car and take a 5 minute drive to the garderie. Parking right in front, her eyes light up when we show her the playground they have.  We get buzzed in by the director who seems a little surprised to see us.  "This is Audrey Sprauer" I say (in French of course).  "It's her first day here".  Silence...not a good sign.  Seems she failed to tell us that there's a bunch of administrative items that need to take place first.  School will have to wait it seems.  We have a brief chat with the director in her office where we are given a stack of paperwork to fill out and a long list of more paperwork that needs to be submitted.  Unfortunately, more than half of it are items we don't have quite yet : medical consent from her doctor (that we don't have), French tax forms (that are in the container of items being held in Customs in Belgium), and a bunch of other legal documents that were on our "do to" list.  Unfortunately for many of those legal documents, there is a list of other documents necessary to obtain each one. Sigh.

We leave with an appointment for later in the week to come back with as much of this paperwork as possible.  We exit the building with a stack of papers and a pretty sad girl.  She keeps looking back at the building saying, "I want school, mama". Heartbreaking.  That sweet, sad face put her dad in motion knocking off almost all those needed documents in less than 24 hours.  The first of which was a walk in appointment with a doctor who examined both kids and did all of Audrey's medical paperwork - less than an hour after leaving the school that morning!

Tomorrow we'll head out again with our stack of paperwork in hand.  We'll keep a the school talk to a minimum for now, until we have more certainty.  Here's hoping she'll be playing on her new playground next week.

So here is her (almost) first day of school picture we took.  To be followed by her REAL first day of school picture very soon.