Kindergarten insanity

I'm adding this to my list of things to blackmail Andrew with later in life. Andrew turns 5 next September which makes him eligible for kindergarten in Loudoun County - just barely (by 12 days!). While I do believe that Andrew will go to public school when he enters 1st grade, I feel like he needs to go to a private kindergarten. Loudoun County only does half day kindergarten, which means that Andrew would go to school for 2.5 hours per day and then be bussed over to Creme for after school care where I would still pay the same price for after school care as i do for him to go full time to kindergarten at Creme. And Andrew is terrible with change, so I don't want to send him to a new school for one year and then move him again when he goes to public school.
So, today is Creme's registration for 2008 kindergarten (beginning September 2008) and it's based on FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE. Bear in mind that there are 54 kids in the 4 year old program now and at least 12 transitional kindergarten kids (kids who turned 5 after 9/30/2007), so the competition to get on of the 24 spots in the kindergarten class is tight. Last year parents showed up to stand in line at 4 am and the 2 classes were filled by noon. Olivia and Alexa are also eligible for and need to be at Creme kindergarten next year. As soon as the papers came out, TAG, Jen and I had e-mails flying around trying to plan for times to start camping out in order to ensure our kids get one of the coveted positions. We initially had planned that we would break the night into 2 shifts - the guys would handle midnight to 3 and then the girls would relieve them at 3 and remain until the kids were registered. Then, Jen realized that she was on travel - which meant that poor Brandon would have to pull both shifts.
Here's what ended up happening - Colin drove by Creme at 8 pm and 10 pm to see if anyone was waiting. Dan got in line at midnight and called Brandon and Colin each hour to give them the status on number of folks showing up. By the time the phone rang for the 2nd time at 2 am, I was awake and decided to head over to keep Dan company. By the time I got all the cold weather gear loaded into the car (it was 26 degrees here this morning!) and got to Creme building it was close to 3 am. I think Dan was very happy for some company. He was the first one to arrive and there was one other parent there before I arrived. Shortly after 3 am the parents started pouring into the parking lot with armloads of blankets, candy, donuts, coffee and chairs. Someone brought a radio and there were a couple of bathroom/coffee runs to 7-11 and Starbucks. TAG brought her camera and took pictures of all of us in our wintery weather gear. We were all very orderly - someone even created a list of everyone who was signing up in the order they arrived. By 5 am, there were 24 parents waiting patiently for Creme to open their doors at 6:30 and begin registration. I'm so thankful that is over...although the director of curriculum made a comment as i was registering about the letter that I would receive from the executive director that makes me nervous again. I guess I won't feel better until that stinking letter arrives next week!