Five-year old breaking down daily before school and at bedtime

For around a month now our five-year-old daughter has been breaking down crying and sobbing at least once per day it seems. It mostly seems to be related to when she has go somewhere with school being the most common. Last weekend, she threw a fit because she didn't want to go over to a friends house (my wife was going to be there with her). Yesterday, it was that she didn't want to go out to lunch with us and her grandma to celebrate my birthday.So getting her to leave is like 15-20 minutes of wracking sobs but in pretty much every instance once she gets to the place, she's either already calm or calms down within 5 minutes and proceeds to have a fantastic time. She does fine in school and seems to enjoy it. She always has fun when visiting her friends or when she visits her grandmother and aunt.On top of all that, pre-bedtime 15-20 minute freakouts are also common as well as occasional breakdowns just when she doesn't get her way, though the latter are usually more short-lived.It seems to have kicked off a month or so ago when she caught a nasty stomach bug and was out of school for three days right before spring break. So she ended up being out of school for like 12 days straight. The week after break was fine, but starting the week after that this issue has been pretty constant. Last year in pre-K she occasionally had some attachment issues going to school, though it was usually just at the door to her class instead of a meltdown before we leave the house. The first part of the year in Kindergarten she was 95% of the time fine until this started.We felt like it was linked to her getting sick -- she has this "security bucket" she likes to bring everywhere in case she throws up. She's had that for a longer time but recently she's wanted to bring it to school too. We've tried several times to get her to talk about what's bothering her but she usually just shrugs and says she doesn't know. She says she's not afraid of anything but won't give any other possible reasons beyond, "I don't want to go."Anyway, we're out of ideas and our patience and emotional energy is being tested. My wife works at the school which is literally 3 minutes away but she was late almost every day last week because of issues trying to get the kid out the door -- not to mention the emotional toll of delivering a sobbing child to her classroom every morning.If anyone has any ideas or insight, we could certainly use some help!TL;DR: For about a month, daughter melting down every day before school and bed and often before going to any other location, with or without us. Once she gets to school or wherever she's always fine. Help? via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2qMqLgp