A Final Craft Day and Open House

Over the last month, our little group of friends has been getting together for a craft day every Monday.  It has been a fun way to keep the kiddos occupied and get them geared up for a new school year. 
First it was painting "hot rocks" to use with chalkboard tic tac toe boards at Jensa's:

(Ty decided he would rather read books and play with cars. :-))

Next up was watercolor jellyfish at my house:

"Find it" bottles at Jaimie's:

And we wrapped up our little craft sessions today with polymer clay animals at Shannon's:

Then it was off to the girls' school for Meet N Greet.  Josh goes to Twin Falls for work on Mondays and there was no babysitting co-op, so I toted my whole little crew along for the festivities. (4 kids under the age of 8 + 1 mom + 1 cadillac sized sit n stand stroller + entire student body/parents swarming the hallways?  Yes, it was just as fun as you are picturing it!) Oh, and Tyler may or may not have flipped the power switch on Kaylee's teacher's surge protector which turned off her computer and overhead projector (with instructions for the parents) while I was filling out her paperwork.  Oh yes, I was that mom.  Luckily the room had almost cleared out by that time and her teacher was super sweet about it!

Both girls couldn't wait to meet their teachers and see their cubbies.  Kaylee was especially excited to have her own desk for the first time! (Post edit: when I came in for her 2nd grade parent meeting I was very impressed to see her desk so tidy... notebooks piled neatly by size, pencils lined up in her school box, and everything secured in their boxes.  It's quite possible this little girl inherited a few of her Mama's OCD tendencies.  Not quite sure how I feel about that! haha)

We finished off the night with a special celebration dinner complete with sparkling cider (they got to each make a special toast about what they were most excited about) and then made some back-to-school no bake cookies.  I've been using a microwave recipe lately which means the girls can practically make it themselves.  We got them all tucked into their beds but they had the hardest time falling asleep... they were just too excited for tomorrow to come!

 

P.S. While we were in Kaylee's classroom, we overheard her teacher and another mom from her class last year talking about how great a group of students they were and then her new teacher said, "And can you believe those parties? I would always sneak out and peek through the door window because I heard other teachers and parents talking about how awesome they were!  That room mom was amazing."  As soon as she heard that, Kaylee stood up from what she was doing and with the biggest, prideful grin shouted, "That's MY mom Mrs. Katsumoto!"  Haha... oh yes, my daughter still thinks I'm cool. 

 For now anyway. :-)