Chewbacca Mystery Reader

Sonia's daddy came to Lakeside today to be the Mystery Reader....  dressed as Chewbacca!!  First, all three of the kindergarten classes gathered in an empty classroom.

Mrs. Keith quieted the kids down by saying "One, two, three, eyes on me!"  The kids obediently responded "One, two, eyes on you!"  Impressive.

"Wait, did you hear something?  Do you think our mystery reader is in the... bathroom?!?!"

"Maybe if we knock on the door, the mystery reader will come out."

"Chewbacca!  What are you doing here?"

"AARGHGHUUGHGHAAARRRAAGHGHRRAAHHGGRRR" (which means "Hi, kids!" in Wookiee, of course)

"My goodness!  So, kindergarten...  Whose mom or dad do you think is in this Chewbacca costume?"

A few kids ventured guesses.  Sonia wisely kept her mouth shut. She's kind of hidden behind the little girl in the red & white dress in the front row.

Reese, of course, had to stand up and yell out that she could tell it was a dad from the shoes.  The kids holding their hands over their ears were pretending that the Wookiee roar had hurt their ears.

Mrs. Keith told the kids to put their hand on their head if they thought their dad was the person in the Chewbacca costume.  Hilariously, a lot of kids thought it might be their dad!

Unmasked!!!

"There's my daughter!"  The look of unbridled glee on Sonia's face is awesome.

"All right, now Sonia's daddy is going to read us Dragons Love Tacos. Put on your listening ears!"

The kids listened with rapt attention.  Notice the one little boy doing the sign of the longhorn....  They puff out their cheeks, put one finger over their lips, and do the longhorn sign with their other hand when it's time to be quiet.  I think he forgot he was still doing the quiet signal because he was so into the story.  The kids laughed in all the appropriate places.  Mrs. Keith told me that she thinks Andrew is a fantastic reader!

"All right, now-- do you think this story is fiction or non-fiction?"  He reminded them what fiction and non-fiction are, and still about half of the kids yelled out "NON-FICTION"!  Kindergartners are hilarious.  After seeing how adorable Andrew was with all the kids, Mrs. Keith told him she'd hire him as a substitute teacher any day.

Andrew posed with just Sonia's class.  While getting into position, a bunch of the kids petted him and felt the furry costume.

BEST DADDY EVER!!!!

(So sorry that a few of the pictures were blurry!)

First day of kindergarten!

I can't believe how grown up The Great Sosini is!!  First day of kindergarten at Lakeside Elementary School in Coppell, Texas.

Isn't that pencil skirt hilarious?  As you can tell, our sweet baboo is really, really excited about kindergarten.

Daddy and his mini-me:

Sonia and her unshowered mommy.... I was just about to walk 6/10ths of a mile there and back (1.2 miles total) in nasty humidity.  Shortly after this picture was taken, I changed into shorts. It's not a good sign if you're sweating while just taking pictures.

As soon as we walked in the building, we ran into one of Sonia's favorite people in the whole world, our neighbor, Aidan.  She is in fourth grade but is SO sweet to her little kindergarten buddy.  She and her mom were handing apple-shaped cake pops out to teachers and administrators.  That is hardcore!

Once we got in the classroom, it was time to unpack her backpack.

Mrs. Keith is her teacher!  It's amazing to think that Sonia will graduate high school in 2027. Only 13 more years of hard work....

Backpacks get stashed in their cubbies.

Looks like she's about 45 inches right now (with shoes on, anyway).  I wonder how tall she'll be on the last day of school!

No tears were shed from either of us at drop off.  We're tough cookies.

I hope you have a wonderful year in kindergarten, Sonia!