Back to School Banquet

For a few years I have noticed via social media a few families who do "back to school banquets" for their families as a way to celebrate, prepare, and get excited for a new school year.  Well, even though Kenadie does not need help getting excited for school starting (she's been counting down the days since day 67), I thought it would be a wonderful tradition for our family to start.....plus, I could use a little celebration to help me not be too sad about my kids going to school all day.  I miss my little minions when they aren't around.....

During our anniversary weekend, Garrett and I had time to counsel together and set family goals and decided to start having a family theme or motto for the beginning of every school year.  We want this theme to be something we can remember to strive for throughout the school year.  

This year we chose our theme to be this scripture:

Because we have some pretty frilly princesses on our hands, we thought that this would be a perfect theme for our girls this year.

We are all beautifully and perfectly made after the image of God and though there are many worldly distractions (wealth, popularity, acceptance) that will stand in our path throughout life, we must remember that we are sons and daughters of a King and must first seek for His Kingdom, or any "riches" we receive in life will be meaningless.  

I'm having this theme printed out and framed to hang in our home to remind us daily of our goal for the year. 

To drive the theme home about seeking for His kingdom and remembering who we are in our journey, we prepared a "fancy banquet" where we all wore crowns we had decorated ourselves, and toasted to the new school year in little crystal glasses filled with sparkling grapefruit juice.  

(Though I have several dozen "fancier" meals I could've prepared, I knew there is nothing my girls love more than Tortilla Taco Skillet and corn on the cob, so I had to oblige.)

We finished the banquet off with brownie sundaes in fancy sundae dishes.

The girls (and even Prince Soren) had such a blast (Lila wanted to do "cheers" with her sparkling juice every 20 seconds) and it was a great way to prepare for the school year.  

The girls miraculously fell asleep before 10pm (Alaskan summers do fantastic things to children's circadian rhythms) and woke up early so we could get Kenadie ready for school.

My big 1st grader was so excited to be dropped off in her class with her wonderful new teacher.
She's going to have a great year.   

Then we had to drive to the store to get Lila a ring pop, because it's rough having to leave your big sister at the really cool classroom and go home with just your boring mom and baby brother.....

Luckily for Lila, she doesn't have to feel bored for long; we registered her for preschool today and she insisted on getting a pretty picture of herself, too.

She starts school next Monday......I might cry.

Luckily I have this little man still to help me out around the house:

and then I feel a little better knowing that I won't be all alone yet.  He's pretty demanding, busy, and precious company for a mama to have so I'll still be pretty busy around here. :)

Here's to a wonderful school year of learning and growth for the whole family!