Back To School Dinner

Back in 2010, we started a new tradition in our family (that I totally copied from my friend Jenn). A day or two before school startes, we have a big back to school dinner for the kids. The kids get to pick what they want to eat (dinner and dessert), there's sparkling grape juice in fancy glasses, and we decorate the table up nicely. Not only is this dinner a time of celebration, but we take time to set goals, pray for the new school year and our teachers, and choose a special verse for the year. The kids love it and are already looking forward to the next one. (Is it really just around the corner?!)

I'm sure you can find tons of wonderful ways to decorate and make this your own. Here are some pics from our 2011 dinner.

I made placemats out of colored paper.

Saw a similar centerpiece idea on Pinterest and put my own spin on it.

The kids requested (for the second year in a row) that we have spaghetti and meatballs.

The kids write down things they want to accomplish this year...

and the things/people they'd like to pray for.

This has been a great new tradition that our family really enjoys. What does your family do to prepare for the new school year?

Holey Jeans

Boys play hard. At least my boy does. He is forever jumping, falling, sitting, and sliding on his knees, and it shows. Anytime I buy him new jeans, they only last about a month before the knees (particularly the right one) of his jeans totally give out.

Needless to say, this gets expensive.

So the other day his newest pair ripped, and I'd had it. I got online in search of some sort of solution (because trying to get a five year old not to be so hard on his knees is next to impossible). Luckily, I came upon this idea from The Frugal Girls, and yesterday I decided to give it a try. I bought two sets of patches (just over $1 each) and two pairs of jeans. I ironed the patches onto the inside of the jeans, and behold, we have jeans with reinforced knees! If this works, I am STOKED.

When I posted about his jeans on Facebook, I guessed by all the comments that this is a pretty widespread problem. Do you have any tricks to extend the life of your kids' jeans?

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentines Day! I just got the kids off to school a while ago with their giddy hearts and bags of treats. Typically for Valentines Day, the kids and I stop at Target one afternoon so they can pick their box-o-Valentines. But this year, (inspired by this that I found on Pinterest) I decided we'd make our own Valentine cards, and (even with me putting it off until 5:00pm on February 13th) it was pretty easy!

1. Grab your camera and head go outside with the kids. Find a nice backdrop and have them pose with their fists out towards the camera. (Full disclosure: this portion took me the longest. My kids were being total goofballs and couldn't stand still!)
2. Go download your photos and pick the best of each kid. Using Photoshop or something similar, add text and/or decorations to the photo.
3. Send to your favorite photo lab (I like MPix, but in this case since I procrastinated so long, I sent them to CVS 1-hour photo).
4. While waiting on the prints to be ready, go pick up whatever treats you'd like to attach. We opted for pencils, since no candy was allowed, but suckers and such could work equally well.
5. Once you have the pics in hand, sit down with a pair of scissors or a pen knife, and carefully cut slits at the top and bottom of the kids' hands.
6. Put the pencil (or sucker) through, and you're done! I promise you'll have very happy kids!