Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Back to School {continued}

Our 1st days of school were a success!  Rylee is officially a 1st grader and Addyson is off to Pre-K!  Even though Addyson hadn't attended her 1st day of school yet and I didn't have all of my photos uploaded I wrote this post last week sharing some fun Back to School ideas.  Now that the 1st days for both girls are behind us I have some more photos to share.

Here are our 1st Day of School photos:

Rylee the 1st grader!

Addyson the Pre-Kindergardener! 

And here are some photos of our special Back to School breakfast table set-up:

Each of the girls got a new book and a card from Mommy and Daddy.

DIY placemats, pencil bundles and an apple
at each place setting.
Last year when I was the Chair of the Parent/Teacher Committee at our preschool I purchased this printable party package to use for a Welcome Back breakfast for the staff.  One of the great things about these printable packages is that you can save the files and use them later too:)  So that's what I did!  The patterned paper on the placemats is from the printable package.  I just glued it to a sheet of yellow construction paper - and voila!  A fun placemat!

Another element from the package was an alphabet pennant banner.  I only used some of the letters because stringing all 26 of them seemed like too much work the night before school was set to start.  I used some twine to string the letters A-H along with the apple pennants on each end and I hung the banner on our bannister.  Perfect for picture taking!

Unfortunately you can't see the banner that well but it's there:)
And the kids thought it was fun!

Happy New School Year to everyone!



Thursday, August 16, 2012

Back To School {Again! and Already?}

Wow! - the summer flew by and here we are again ready for Back to School.  Sort of ready.  School supplies are purchased, ice cream socials have been attended, backpacks and lunchboxes are ready to be filled, the pantry is stocked with goodies for lunches, 1st day outfits have been chosen and I've been mentally preparing myself for earlier and more chaotic mornings for the past several days (somehow just thinking about waking up earlier doesn't make it any easier though).

Today was the big day!  For Rylee anyway.  Addyson has to wait until tomorrow for her 1st day of school (Pre-K!) but she was excited for today anyway:)  She wants so badly to do everything that Rylee does!

We are so blessed that our kids absolutely love school - everything about it really.  Both of the girls love to learn (the little man hasn't started school yet but I hope that he has the same love of learning that his big sisters do) and they adore being around friends.  I am so happy that they have such a great desire to succeed and learn everything that they possibly can at such an early age.

So even though my kids don't necessarily need that extra push to get them excited about school I still try to do some special things to make this time of year as exciting and fun as possible.  Here's what I came up with this year!

Of course we alway take the annual 1st Day of School photos, but last year I found these great printable signs (and they are free!) and I thought it was a cute way to make the photos more special.  Also, this way there is no question about what year it was or how old they were when the photo was taken.  With 3 kids I need all the help I can get!  I even went ahead and downloaded all of the signs (they go all the way up to 12th grade but by then I doubt if my kids will want their pictures taken anymore!) for future use.

I haven't uploaded any pictures from this year yet but here are the girls holding their signs last year:

Free printable signs from I Heart Naptime

This year we also bought each of the girls a new book (school related stories) and left these along with a card at their place setting on the table so that when they sat down for breakfast on the 1st day of school they had a little gift waiting for them.  I dressed up each place setting with a homemade placemat, an apple and a little bundle of pencils tied with red ribbon.  
In the center of the table I used this subway art sign found here.


To make lunchtime extra special I wrote a little note and placed it under the sandwich box and also added a surprise - a small bag of chocolate chip cookies with a tag that says "You're One Smart Cookie".

Since Addyson's 1st day of school isn't until tomorrow I haven't had a chance to upload all of my photos but when I do I will be sure to post them.  In the meantime here are some other cute Back to School ideas:

Photo from eighteen25

Photo from Amy Atlas

Photo from Party Pinching
And check out my Pinterest board for more Back to School (and/or Teacher Appreciation) ideas here.
Wishing everyone a wonderful school year!!!