1st Day of School Traditions!

Our summer breaks FLY by since they are only 8 weeks long.  But even so, my kids are always excited to go back to school!  I set my alarm at 6:30 thinking I would be the first one up and able to get everything ready.  Little did I know that Blake had set his alarm for 6:00.  All of the kids heard it and by the time I rolled out of bed, they were already dressed, lunches made (except for Chloe's) and backpacks were by the door!

Luckily I had decorated the kitchen the night before.  We always have a big breakfast feast on the 1st day of school.  This year I thought it would be fun to make some place settings for the occasion!

 Little Miss Chloe is starting Kindergarten and isn't the slightest bit nervous!  She gets to have Mrs. Moore as her teacher.  Blake had her too and we LOVE her!  I don't know what Miss Kate will do all day though without her best friend!

 Blake is starting the 3rd grade this year with Mrs. Milot.  He is excited that three of his good friends are going to be in his class!

 And I can't believe Hayley will be in 5th grade!  She has Mrs. Shields and Mrs. Chaffey. It makes sending Chloe off to school a little bit easier knowing that her older brother and sister will be there to help her out! 

I told the kids that I want them to make new friends today.  I always tell them to look out for the one kid that doesn't have any friends and invite them to sit by you at lunch or play with you and your friends at recess.  To bribe them, I told them they could get a quarter for every new friend they could tell me about after school.

TEACHER GIFTS:

We couldn't send the kids to class empty handed, so we carried on the tradition of making Teacher Treat jars for each teacher.  They had asked their teachers at Meet the Teacher night what their favorite candy was.  And we printed off the Treat Jar lids from eighteen25.  And voila!

We also dressed up their hand sanitizer with their teacher's initial. With gifts in hand, we were off to school.

 Chloe with Mrs. Moore.  She is due in just 3 weeks and excited to be having her first little girl!

 This is my favorite picture.  Could that grin get any bigger?

 And here is the picture that always melts my heart as I'm leaving the room and she looks back one last time.

 As soon as we got home, Kate asked, "Does Chloe have to go to school again tomorrow?"  Poor Kate.  She is sure going to miss her sister.  Good thing Lauren lives nearby and can help keep her company this year!

And for my YW, I made up these 7-UP bottles with 7 UP-lifting ways to have a great first week of school.  I am dying to know how everyone's first day goes! 

Our last tradition of the day . . . . to go out to eat as a family so we can hear all the details!

AFTER SCHOOL UPDATE:

They all LOVED their new classes and had a great first day.  Each of them made a new friend or two.  Chloe was excited to announce that she'd made two new friends today and was anxious to collect her quarters.   Here's how the conversation went:

Me:  So how did you make friends today?

Chloe:  I just asked them "Do you want to be my friend?"

Me:  That's great.  How did you choose them?  Did they seem nice?  Or pretty?

Chloe:  No...They just seemed lonely.

Awww, melt my heart.  That's my girl.  I hope she always has that desire to seek out the lonely and to be a friend to everyone!  She made her mama proud!

Kate's Ice Cream Parlor Party



I was so excited when Kate chose an ICE CREAM theme for her 4th birthday party!  



This was the invite that we made.  The cone is actually a cone wrapper from Michaels and we filled it with cherry gumballs when we delivered them.

The buffet table included pre-scooped ice cream in four different flavors, homemade ice cream sandwiches, chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and ice cream cone cupcakes.  Oh yes . . . and all sorts of toppings for their sundaes.





     These kids were ready for some sweets!  Good thing the best grandmas in the world were there to help scoop and serve quickly before everything melted!



 




 One of Kate's favorite gifts was the dollar bill chain she received from Grandma L.  She wore it like a feather boa and she kept saying "I'm the richest person in the world!"

We kept the games simple . . . Pin the cherry on the ice cream cone,

Sweet Shoppe Bingo - and used M&Ms for the markers,

And at the end of the party, we gave them each a "cone" to catch balloons that were dropped from upstairs to create their own ice cream cone.

As for the party favors . . . I found ice cream bowls in the dollar section at Target.  We filled them with an ice cream cone full of bubbles, an ice cream shaped notepad and of course, ice cream flavored lip gloss. 

Such a sweet party for my sweet Kate!