In 2007, Austin began 3 day kindergarten, and Sydney morning pre-school.
Dylan was an energetic 2.5 year old, Stella was cooking nicely, and I had my first taste of being a school mom... getting us all ready and out the door by 7:40am.
That particular year, Austin began school @ 8:05am and Sydney @ 9:00am. While we don't live too far from school, we don't live right down the road either. So as the year began to play out, I would find myself trying to figure out what to do with that 55 minutes of time before I dropped Sydney off for pre-school.
I didn't like to use that time to grocery shop or run errands, because that's how I spent the 2 hours that Sydney was actually in pre-school, before I had to come pick her up again. I didn't like to go home during pre-school either, b/c ultimately, I had to leave to pick Austin up again @ 2:45, and I didn't like to make that many trips back and forth to school.
And so, we discovered the joy of Panera Bread in the morning. "Nilla Bread" as Dylan endearingly referred to it in his 2 year old voice...and still does to this very day.
We became regulars as the year wore on. My order was always the same. 1 coffee, and 2 chocolate chip muffie tops. We grabbed our tray from the same cashier week after week, and Sydney would take Dylan by the hand and lead him over to the pop machine to get a water for each of them, complete with a lid, straw and coffee cozy.
We sat perched on the bar stools and smiled and waved at every last person that walked through the glass doors. Remeber Dylan's curls? It was hard not to smile at him :)
Eventually Stella arrived, and we moved our business over to a booth. We sat across from the same elderly couple nearly every week, and they clearly thought we were amusing. It's easy now to paint a happy, quaint picture of Nilla Bread, but truly our time was hectic, loud and often harried...as Stella didn't enjoy being ripped out of bed and made to wait for her bottle, Sydney had a mind of her own, and Dylan never stopped talking or moving.
However, to this day, my middle kids still speak fondly of our Nilla Bread stage.
When a Panera Bread sign is spotted, I often hear "Mom, remember when we used to always go there? When can we go there again?
Good times, and fond memories...tho I didn't apprectiate them at the time. Such is life, isn't it?
Fastforward to today.
I found these pictures tucked away on the camera roll of my ipod. I'm pretty sure that Krispy Kreme will have the same nostaligic effect on these 2 in the years to come, once they are in the school system, and not the carefree litte rascals they are today.
Perhaps we visit the fabric store in the adjacent parking lot a little too often, but these 2 will ALWAYS let me know when the light is on. Can't say "amen" or "please" but a certain little 2 year old can most certainly say "donut" and "kwispy kweme".
Happy Wednesday all~
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