Back to School Celebration

My first born started kindergarten yesterday. I don't believe it! {sniff, sniff} She was a little nervous to start kinder because it's full day (8:15 am-2 pm), at a new school, with a new teacher. So we decided to have a back to school celebration the night before school started to help her get excited for her first day. We didn't do anything fancy, just decorated with some stuff we had around the house already, but she definitely had fun & felt extra special. It turned out great!

I used my Silhouette to cut out the ABC, apple & 123 to hang on the wall:

We covered the kitchen table with the roll of paper from our easel. The girls thought it was so fun to color all over it & they couldn't even wait to start:

We also added a basket of apples & the alphabet letters from the fridge to decorate our table.

We made some cupcakes-Kaylee picked out the Funfetti cupcakes & frosting & I made some simple apple toppers for them:

We also made her favorite dinner-spaghetti, zucchini & garlic bread. We talked about how fun school is & then we got her school supplies ready & picked out her outfit for her first day. Then my husband gave her a father's blessing & I can tell it really helped her to feel comforted about starting kindergarten.

I have been seeing so many cute chalkboard signs all over Pinterest lately for various things-as an announcement for pregnancy or engagement, showing how far along you are in a pregnancy, sending a birthday or holiday message & even as a way to document what grade your child is in. I love the chalkboard idea! So I went to Michael's a few weeks ago looking for a plain, small chalkboard to use. Of course, they didn't have any. But I did come across this plain, inexpensive clipboard & I got an idea. I simply taped off a nice rectangle, painted it with about 3 layers of chalkboard paint & then embellished it with a cute apple stamp layered with a punched circle & scallop circle & then tied a little piece of ribbon through the hole.

Here it is:

It was so simple & cheap to make & we can use it year after year, girl after girl as a fun way to document the beginning of each new school year. I love the idea of having them write their own names on it so you can see how their handwriting changes as they grow!

And here she is on her first day of school, our brand-new kindergartener:

She looks so grown up!

Aidynn & I sure missed her during the day!