Our Back to School Party Tradition

Before becoming a mom, I truly didn't realize just how important finding good friends would be. Once I had my first daughter, I quickly realized how isolating motherhood could be sometimes and I honestly would have been swallowed up by it at times if it wasn't for the ladies I have grown to love and respect who walk alongside me on this motherhood journey. For the last five years we have been getting together frequently for playdates, parties, and mommy and me book clubs and today we celebrated our second annual Back to School party as we get ready to send our littles off to kindergarten and preschool.

When we first started playdates our first littles were just babies, just learning to toddle around and here we are ready to send them off to kindergarten. Its truly bittersweet. Our littles are the very best of friends and it makes my mama heart so happy for my kids to have such sweet and special friends to do life with.

I never got around to sharing out party last year so I thought I would share both parties with you today! It's such a fun time to get together with friends and I certainly love putting together a themed get together.

When you are a teacher/homeschooler, finding decorations for a Back to School themed back is pretty easy. Chalkboards, apples, pencils, rulers, globes and more helped give our playroom and kitchen a fun schoolhouse feel.

Last year we dined on dino nuggets, fruit, and mac-n-cheese and this year we had a "potluck" style kid friendly lunch and everyone brought something to share.

I created some chalkboard style food signs to help add some additional schoolhouse charm to our food table.

The kids table last year was super fun to put together. I loved creating the table coverings. I simply used rolls of brown and white butcher paper to create a cute table"cloth" and ruler and then printed chalkboard style name signs for each child to know where to sit and added a basket of our Learning Resources apples for extra decorations.

 Year 1 each child got a little lunch bag with a little snack inside for them to take home with them.

And year two, I printed off some coloring pages that I own from Krista Walden on TPT and my littles and I made some homemade crayons from old crayons we had and tucked them down inside the bags which I created using brown paper bags.

Apple plates, "smart cookies" and colorful napkins and utensils in my Rae Dunn Teacher mug to finish off the decor!!! 

We had such a fantastic time playing and having fun with our friends before heading into a new school year. So thankful we have the opportunity to do this and look forward to our yearly tradition!!!