Yochien Time

My babies are officially gone for a good part of the day.  Calista and Beatrix started Yochien which is Japanese preschool/kindergarten.  The bus picks them up right in front of our house at 8:10 and drops them back off around 2:30 five days a week.  It is so weird being in the house alone.  I can't not even think of a time I've been home alone since Tucker was born!  It is so crazy.  I miss the kids a lot.  All of them actually, not just these two.

They are super cute in their uniforms though.

They have tons of stuff they need to bring to school.  I'll take a picture of what is in the bags someday.  But it is mostly their gym clothes, back up clothes, indoor shoes and a ton of lunch supplies including a water bottle, dishes, a placemat and two hand towels.

These are their winter uniforms, in July they start wearing their summer ones.  They are almost exactly the same but short sleeved and the skirt has a faux button on the front.  Oh, and the hat is different.  

The uniforms cost about $470 per child!!!! Not to mention the $100 in supplies we had to buy.  Luckily the school got the idea I did not want to pay that much and found some preowned uniforms I could buy from them for $70 per child.

This next picture is of them in their gym clothes, they have a short sleeve version of these as well.  They have been wearing these to school everyday this week.  But I think later they go in their fancy uniform and then change into the gym clothes at school.  I actually have no idea.  I sent them in their fancy uniform the first day and then saw the bus pull up and all the kids had their gym uniforms on.  So not only do my girls get to go to a school that is %100 in a language they do not understand they have a mother who doesn't understand either and keeps doing things wrong.  I get so many papers and flyers all completely in Japanese it is really hard to figure everything out.  Then on the first day the bus came early so I wasn't waiting at the road and their teacher had to walk them all the way to our door.

They have gone a couple days already and seem to really love it.  They both were happy to go and came home happy.  They say they really like it.  Today and yesterday morning though before getting dressed Beatrix keeps saying she doesn't want to go.  She has some Easter eggs that she wants to play with instead of getting ready for school.  I think she likes school but she doesn't love her reduced play time at home, especially in the mornings.