Ever since Queen Bee was a little tiny baby bee and starting preschool, over 15 years ago, we have been doing a special "Back to School Dinner" for her on the first day of school. With her leaving to college this week I've been looking back and reminiscing on all of the fun memories these dinners have made. I highly recommend that you start this tradition with your kids. It's been one of my very favorites (and one of her favorites too, she even asked me if we were going to do a Back to School dinner before she goes to college...Umm- Yes, of course we are!).
I wanted to share with my readers this week some of the fun pictures and details from our dinners to hopefully inspire you for your own. We usually invite some of our extended family to participate but you could just do this with your immediate family if you'd like. We start the night with a special dinner where we talk about her first day of school. Then there's a back to school fashion show, where she models her favorite back to school outfits for everyone. Finally during dessert, each of the kids starting the school year get to make a wish for the upcoming year and blow out a candle that's stuck in an apple. Over the years we've tried adding different elements, but these are the things that we've enjoyed the most.
The above pictures are from our dinner when she was going into 11th grade. It is always so much fun to come up with a decor theme for the dinner each year and decorate the table. This dinner my theme inspiration came from this beautiful pink mum I saw at the grocery store that reminded me of the color of a pink eraser. I then built everything around that. Throughout the years, some of the things I've used to decorate that have basically become back to school dinner decor staples are; large lined paper, a bundle of pencils, washi tape, books, a globe, and composition books. I just go around the house and gather things we already have that will work with my theme and try them out.
I look forward to sharing more of these moments with you this week. I'm even considering throwing in a picture of the dinner where Queen Bee and I both were lunch ladies in hair nets. I think that was her favorite.
