You know how sometimes you try to do something, and it seems like the odds are stacked against you?  Technical difficulties around here have had me banging my head against the wall and keeping this post in my draft folder for three weeks.  Ugh! The universe was not smiling down on this one, but I’m persevering and you are still getting it, just late. Better late than never, I hope.

This year I have 6 kids at school, at three different campuses. I am probably going to lose my mind before the year is out, But I have been surprised at how well we’ve all been doing so far actually.

 

Breakfast was canned cinnamon rolls, a rare treat at our house.  Everyone was so excited, they hopped right out of bed.  Mostly, anyway.

 

Enthusiastic pictures taken at dark thirty a.m.

That’s a little better. 🙂

The little kids were super excited to take first day of school pictures, just like the big kids. I was done after dealing with several emotional girls, and non-cooperational boys.

But on to the fun part: the decorations! I pulled out stuff I already had and called it good. The pencil vase was 39 pencils around a mason jar with a couple of rubber bands to hold them all in place. The chalkboard banner I had to redo three times because I couldn’t seem to spell it right.  English major fail.  The wooden apples are from my collection. Fun fact: when we got married, I picked out dishes with apples on them (because I liked the colors and the gingham around the edges, I’ve always been a sucker for gingham) and got everything with apples on it.  Being a sentimental hoarder, I still have a lot of it. The school book under the whole apple is a vintage Dick and Jane.

I updated my magnet board with a little more color.

And broke out the primary colored banners and pillow to celebrate back to school.

 

We needed some inspirational words for a new school year, and this is what I chose:

I think that was always the hardest part about school for me, trying to remember to be and example can be a little daunting when you are a kid and don’t have it all figured out yet. Oh wait…I still don’t.  Maybe I just need more practice. 🙂

After school, we had pizza and watched a movie (Angry Birds) for family night. Low key is for me. At least on the first day of school.

Do you have any back to school traditions that your family celebrates?