I skipped my bucket list last month, because it would have looked like this…
That would have been a boring post, right?? 🙂
August is TOMORROW!!! As much as I love the lazy days of summer, I LOVE getting into a routine! This is what we have planned…
Last year I turned 30, so Tab went all out and had a 30th birthday party with some of my very favorite people!! This year I won’t have a party, but we’ll still celebrate. 🙂
We’ll also celebrate THIS guy!! (Our birthdays are just 8 days apart.)
We’ll have our VERY LAST SWIM of the summer. Usually by mid-August, my kiddos are ready to hang up their towels…literally!
Bring me a TISSUE!!! THIS girl is going to Kindergarten!! I know she will have an absolute blast, but I will miss her like CRAZY!! We will ALL miss her like crazy! She is the peace maker, the Bowen-sitter, and my helper! Seriously, it’ll take me and the boys a while to get used to her being gone!! (Ok…I only typed like two non-sappy sentences and I’m tearing up! I’m gonna be a HOT MESS!!)
If you haven’t read this blog post, go read it now!! I read it yesterday morning and walked around the house sobbing! Seriously! hahaha!
And…Mamas, I need some HELP!!! What are your first day of school traditions?? Please let me know what you do!! I need some great ideas!! Thanks in advance! 🙂
And…we’re pretty much a circus act no matter where we are!! But…the Slaughter circus is heading to see the real circus!!
I’m soaking up the last few weeks of summer, before we all start our new normal!! Hope you’re enjoying your last few weeks too!!
And…please let me know about school. What do you do to make the first day special?? Thanks girls!!
Yay!! I'm so glad you asked them about what to do on the first day of school! I've thought of a few traditions I think the Shulls will have but I would loooooove to hear other ideas! Woohoo! And on that first day of school, us and the boys are going to go have fun. We can't just cry all day! 🙂
So here is the thing…every year on the first day of school I cry like a baby…and then I sit home depressed for a week. While moms are pulling their hair out waiting for their kids to be back to school I am the opposite. I LOVE having them home…and miss them terribly when they are gone…;(. When Brooke started kindergarten..22 years ago (yikes) she asked me to make her cupcakes for the when she got home after her first day of kindergarten….fast forward a gazillion years later and it's still a tradition and the funny thing is my two older ones who aren't in school anymore still get super excited about this tradition. I love how something so simple like a special batch of cupcakes means everything to my kiddos and each August they really look forward to it!!!
Love this tradition!!!
As I was thinking about what I do on the first day, I realized it all revolves around food! I always make pancakes for breakfast on the first day before school and then I make cookies while she is gone for a snack when she gets home! We always pick out the first day of school outfit well before the first day and we lay it all out the night before. And of course we take a lot of pictures 🙂 Good luck! I send my last baby off next year.
Thank you so much for sharing!!! Love a fun breakfast and a big treat after school!!
Just read Andrea's post on the Kindergarten Kick Off dinner and now yours about first day of school traditions and I'm having a hard time holding it together this morning!
My youngest daughter, Bailey will be in 2nd grade so it wasn't that long ago that Kindergarten rolled around. I wish I could say it will be easy, but it was hard for me. After you've spent every day for 5 years with this little person and now you have to send them off to big school…definitely pulls at your heart strings. I still have a difficult time with Bailey now going to the 2nd grade.
First day of school I take lots of pics. I always do one with a sign that says 1st day of school(grade) and then make sure to take one on the last day of school to compare.
We also like many have a special breakfast depending on what my girls want.
Most importantly the first day of school I PRAY with my girls and then I come home and Pray some more. Praying for guidance, strenght and safety for another year. During the school year on Fridays we go eat breakfast at Bojangles(Is there a Bojangles in TX?)and we go inside instead of the drive thru. It requires getting ready a little bit earlier, but so worth this time to talk and enjoy your little ones.
Sorry, I was long winded this morning! Prayers for Ebby Lee as she embarks on this new journey.
XOXO,
April
We do a few little fun things. Last year a friend hosted a boo hoo/woo hoo breakfast so after dropping our kiddos off we met up for a little mommy time.
We always go for a milkshake after the first day of school. We share one while she tells me all about her first day of school. She has already started asking about our milkshake date for this year.
When she started K last year I decided each year for fall school pics I would dress her in the dress/outfit she wore on the first day of school so I would have a sweet pic to remember that first day!
One of our traditions happened accidentally. Our school gave each family an oak tree to celebrate the school. We have pictures of our family planting the tree. I take first day of school pictures in front of the tree. It has been such fun to watch the kids and the little sapling grow into mighty oaks. Best wishes for a successful school year!
I will have a 6th grader and my other baby girl will be going to Kindergarten!! I normally wake up really early, and make a special breakfast, and then I will wake her up with a special mommy song ,I can't sing, so the sound of me singing and hugging & kissing all over her gets her up, with a smile-ha! I like to make sure that their mornings are stress free and we aren't rushing around, running out the door. So I will get them up a little early so they have time to eat and such. Enjoy these moments!
This year I will send off my youngest son for his senior year. I have 3 boys and can't even believe the journey is wrapping up. Anyway, our tradition is on the night before the first day of school my husband and I go into their rooms when they are tucked in for the night with a special snack and lay with them and talk about the coming year and how proud of them we are. Best wishes for a wonderful journey!
the night before they get new pjs!
we have a family dinner, usually pizza, then we introduce a family motto for the year!!!…also a word they want to work on like "kind".. or "helpful"…i stick the words on vinyl intheir rooms, or bathroom mirror to remind them!… I.also have milk and cookies waiting for them!..i sawa cute thing on pintrest, where you takea pix ofthem holding a chalk board frame with what they wantto be when they Grow up..too cute!
I always let mine pick a new outfit for the first day of school and we go shopping together for their favorite items to back in their lunch. We typically celebrate at the end of the day with a dinner out so we can hear all about the first day! When I had my 3rd there was a big group of us with a child going to kinder and one of the moms organized a meeting spot for all of us moms to meet after dropoff for coffee and that was such a great idea…helped us all support each other on that first day!
I gave Gretchen a chunky necklace last year on the first day. I bought her one for this year too. She wore the necklace last year every day for two weeks, because she said it reminded her of me. We bought the book The Night Before Kindergarten (I think that's what it was called) and read it the night before… I drew a big "K" on our fence and took her picture out there and then again with the little chalkboard that we have. Hopefully, I'll have time to do that again this year! I didn't work last year at the beginning of school so it was easy, this year, i'll be getting 3 of us out the door- yikes!
This is an end of the school year tradition but it's a great one! I teach kindergarten and every year I have a couple parents who will secretly ask me to write a little message inside the Dr. Seuss book "Oh, The Places You'll Go!" The parents will have all their child's teachers k-12 write in the book and then give it to their child at their high school graduation. I don't have kids yet but I can't wait to do this for my kids one day!
Love that!!!!
We plan on homeschooling but I could write a note each year?!
I always took a picture on the first and last day of school, and put them in a small photo album (one for each child). I also had my son and daughter sign their names next to the picture and included some other information: date, school, height, weight, whatever you wanted to include. The signatures are precious.
The night before school, we lay out clothes, make lunches together, and read "back to school" books that we get from the library. (Look for The Night Before Kindergarten for your little one- we love that one! We also like Adventure Annie Goes to Kindergarten and Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten.) Every first day of school, we have the same special breakfast- butterscotch monkey bread, fresh fruit, and chocolate milk or hot chocolate! We plan an extra 15 minutes for pictures, then we walk to school as a family (we only live four blocks away). I always put a special note or picture in the first day of school lunch box. I'm a work-out-of-the-house mom, so we don't have after school treats, but we do go out for ice cream after dinner as a family to celebrate the first day. Traditions are so much fun! Hope you find some great ones for your family!
Yes. Tell me what to do to make the first day of school special for the little guy!!!! I'm thinking the moms need to meet for lunch for an afternoon margarita. I'll bring the Kleenex. 🙂
Birthdays and school starting…What fun! My little guy isn't in school yet, but I am hoping to carry on the tradition of making him a cake or cupcakes to come home to on his first day. My mom always did that for my brother and I and we looked forward to it every year 🙂
I always make a special breakfast and have a sign at each kid's place setting that says good luck in third grade, sixth grade, etc. I also stick a special note in their lunch on the first day. We take lots of pictures and cookies or a special treat for after school. My kids are getting older (jr high and high school) but we still do these traditions every year.
With my oldest being 19 and headed into his second year of college we have carried on the same first day traditions with my other two children. We take a picture in front of the school sign! Now everyone makes these cool "first day" signs for the kids, we didn't have that. And it did become harder when my oldest hit junior high and was bussed, so the pics were at the Front door. We always gear the kids up with the school supplies! I have a container that I keep supplies in and every year stock up on items I know they will need when the prices are low so I have plenty throughout the yeAr. I have no less than 20 boxes of crayons at all times(I buy a few boxes randomly at Walmart when they are 25 or 50 cents each). The kids get so excited for their new backpacks and pencils! I have a new 6th grader and my ou gets is heading to 1st grade! It doesn't get any easier with the more kids you have! I miss them terribly! But I volunteer alot at their school so I get to see them often! And they love it! I can't tell you how being present in their school has helped me and them! I love knowing all the staff and my children are so proud when they get to say that their mom put on a great event! You will cry that first day! But you have a great group of friends that will know exactly how you feel to help you through it! Good luck!
The first day of school picture – I wake up and go decorate our sidewalk in sidewalk chalk with their grade, so we can take a picture by it. Then the same at the end of the year, to show how much they grow and change. One of our favorite things we started. 🙂
Swimming is our summer agenda too! Can't wait to hear all of the back to school traditions!
Sounds like your August will be pretty fantastic and I hope your daughter's transition to kindergarten goes well for all of you. 🙂
On my girls' first day of kindergarten I decorated our entry and front door with streamers and balloons and a welcome home sign. They both loved walking up to the decorated house! Then we shared warm cookies as a family and talked about the day. And my husband greeted them at the bus with a small bouquet of flowers. It's a special day so make it memorable!
I commented and it didn't show up so I'm posting again(may just take longer to show up). Then again, it's probably user error…this wouldn't surprise you a bit=) So I stink on the first day of school. It's true. We take a few pics and hold my ugly hand made signs but Jake has never wanted me to make a big stink that early in the morning. Sooooo, we make a big after school production. Ice cream, Sonic, donuts, park with friends, burgers and fries, milkshakes. You name it, and if it's unhealthy, they get it. We do the same thing after the last day of school and I take pics at both so I can see how they change. This year I'll be sobbing with you because I'm losing Josh. So. Sad. Hang in there momma's!!! Once you, and they, get the hang of it, school becomes a beautiful thing ha!!
Man oh man. The link to the other blog post? I didn't even get through it…I'm a mess. And my oldest still has 1 yr of Preschool left! Can't wait to see some cute ideas for the first day of school! I know it's just preschool, but we always take a picture…not very creative, huh? 😉
I am a second grade teacher and with my own kids I read "The Night Before Kindergarten", "First Day Jitters" (cute book about someone who has jitters before the first day and it turns out to be the teacher who is nervous too!), and you MUST READ "The Kissing Hand" and then kiss your daughter's hand so if she misses you during the day, she will have her kissing hand.
I know it's hard on the mamas, but what an exciting time for your "babies"!!! And us teachers always take care of everyone's babies like they are our own kids, so your sweet girl will be in good hands.