I don’t know about you, but this summer just flew past! As my kids get older the summers get “easier” (sort of) and fuller.  We did lots of camping and cottaging and spent a pile of time with family and friends. I took some time off the brunt of my business social media and blogging for the most part to refocus and rejuvenate and at first I kind of panicked because, “Oh the algorithms will be so messed up for me” and “I’ll never be able to “get back into it” and blah blah blah, but it was GOOooooOOOOoood!  Good for me, good for my family, just good.  Anyways, now I’m starting to fall back into a lovely thing we loosely call “routine” and that also feels good.  Seasons, my friends: busy seasons, unorganized seasons, planned seasons, slow seasons, seasons are a beautiful thing.  Some are hard – really hard, and some are good and easy but they’re all part of the ebb and flow of life and I’m just starting to figure this all out.

Back to school is the start of a new season.  It can be a crazy and sometimes stressful time for kids and parents alike.  It’s also a great time to make note of some changes in your kids and…take photos!  The items that I’m about to share are nothing new, perhaps.  Anyone can throw “first day of school photos” in the Pinterest search and come up with a multitude of ideas.  These are some of the things that I really love doing every year at the start of a new school year.

Bye Summer / Back to School Cake

This is the first year that I’ve done this, but it was a hit and I’ll be continuing this tradition.  I’m a food gal, you’ll see that if you look at my Bio on my about page and as this blog continues to unfold a bit.  I love to celebrate, even small things, with a great meal and, of course, dessert.  Cake and candles aren’t just for birthdays, my friends!  I made this super tasty cake from Sprinkle Bakes to celebrate the end of a beautiful, busy summer and the start of the new school year.  Though, I didn’t have time for the cookie dough filling, so I just went with an easy chocolate ganache – you really can’t go wrong, and the smiles on those faces tell me that it was perfect.

Chalk Board Facts Photo

I love to be able to see different ways that my kids have grown and I’m not much of a “paper” collector, journaler or memory book maker (yet), unfortunately, BUT I do take photos.  Including a few fun facts about my kids in a photo of them at the beginning and end of the school year is my way of “journaling” those items until a later date when I maybe actually have some time to actually put some books together.

My general “go-to’s” on these chalk boards (because I’ve done so many, ya know, with my oldest being in Senior Kindergarten) are height, what they want to be when they grow up, who their teacher is, how high they can count, their friends and how old they are. My favourite feature is “this is how I write my name.”  It’s so sweet to see how their writing…or lack there off (see Judah’s example) changes through the years.

T Shirt Growth Chart

This was a pinterest find that I brought to my custom printing girl, Desiree, (she’s doesn’t have a website but you can check out her facebook page here.) It’s just a large tee with your Child’s highschool graduation year on the front and school years in the back.  Each year they take a photo wearing the shirt and put a hand print on the back.  This shows their growth year to year with the size of their hand prints as well as how they’re fitting into the shirt.  I think it’s super fun and an awesome keepsake for them to have.

Well That’s the extent of my new school year shenanigans.  Now I’m going to sit back, throw on a podcast, sip some tea along side a slice of back to school cake and dive into some serious work time and cleaning, because 2/3 kids are out of my house at the same time for part of the week, every week and it’s almost magical!  (Insert happy dance)  Hope that your kidlet’s first day back went smoothly!!