Ladies Who Link- Back to School Prep

I am loving all the Back to School link ups like always!  I love finding some new tips and tricks of getting back into the swing of things.

Linking up with Allie and her crew!

And Erika for Friday Favorites!

So, fall sports practices started yesterday, and I will say that I felt completely on top of my game!  I have 3 girls who have 3 different things going on at 3 different times, plus Brad is traveling most of this week.

Well that all hit the fan when I forgot to tell Emma to wear workout clothes and tennies for swimming practice.  Oops.  And last night I listened to the moans and groans of 2 very exhausted and overwhelmed teenagers for no less than 3 hours.  I contemplated opening  bottle of wine at 10:00.

So day one was a bit rocky, but we've got this!!  So here's what works for me, to keep everyone's schedules organized.

Rachel (a junior) is in volleyball, and also works part time.  Emma (a freshmen) is in swimming and Alayna right now has a summer academy class 3 days/week.

I couldn't survive without my Erin Condren planner.  I love, love, love this thing!

I color code each girl, makes it so much easier to see who's where.  I absolutely love looking at everyone's planner layouts.  I would love to get more into that, since I used to be a big scrapbooker.  However, mama ain't got time for that now...

I shared my post last week with the Workin Wednesdays ladies about how we back to school it.  My biggest tip will always be to plan, plan, plan!  Meal plan is at the top of that list.  I have my meals planned through October right now.  The night before, I do a little prepping like getting the meat together whether it's chicken that needs to thaw, or hamburger that needs to be browned.

Last night we had a school sports meeting at 6, and I don't get home from work until 5.  Creamy Sausage Tortellini was on the menu.  I had my turkey sausage browned and tortellini thawed, so all I had to do was make the sauce and let it all heat through, literally took me 10 minutes to get a yummy supper on the table!

Homemade granola bars are a must for when sports start back up!  I will post this recipe next week, but my girls devour these!

I like to post our menu on a small whiteboard I keep on the fridge so I don't get asked a million times what's for supper.  I also like to post an encouraging Bible verse every week.

Lastly, we have a blank wall on the side of our kitchen pantry that keep s a large whiteboard, bulletin board and a file holder.  

We put everyone's schedule on the calendar so everyone knows who is going where. 

I LOVE the file holder! I bought mine several years ago at the Container Store, similar one here. Each girl has a folder and when they bring home 400 sheets of paper from school, I weed them out and put the important ones in their folders.  Super easy for all of us to find their stuff!

The bulletin of course holds any and all invites or really important things we need to remember.  I would be lost without this command center!

So that's how we do back to school!

Workin It Wednesdays

It's time for another Workin' It Wednesdays with Shay and Erika!
Today we're talking all about Back to School, let's be honest, it's one of my favorite times of the year!




I love back to school for many reasons.

1. It forces my kids to have a schedule again.  Amen.
2.  It means fall is on it's way!
3. It makes me re organize and purge alllll the things!

I always feel like September is the "new" January.  I like to have my house cleaned from top to bottom and closets gone through.  It's just my thing.

Here's how we do back to school!

Give me all the decor.  I love decorating for back to school, but I make sure to not put it up until a week before, or the natives get cranky.






The night before school starts, we have Spa LaZimm.  I would make them a big bubble bath, and do facials, manis and pedis.  Now that they're older, they don't want to do the bubble bath, but we still crank the music, do our nails and eat cinnamon sugar sandwiches (why do they love those so??)



When I stayed at home, I always made sure to make a special treat for when they came home on the first day.  I still make a special treat, but not quite as elaborate, haha!





The first morning I either make pancakes in the shape of their initial, or monkey bread.  Love the excitement they used to have!!






Sometimes we would make a welcome gift for our teachers!




And of course, nothing is better than school supply shopping!  Alayna declared our school shopping day the best day of her life!!



Now, this year I will have 3 kids in 3 separate sports.  I may be freaking out slightly, but we'll get through it.  My main tip is to plan, plan, plan!
I LOVE my Erin Condren planner and couldn't imagine life without it.  I get everyones schedules and meals plans down.  I have my meals planned though the end of October which helps SO much!



I also have a large whiteboard calendar that I write all of our activities/appointments on.  Above that I have a paper organizer that holds folders for each of the girls, so I can put any important papers in there.  Makes it much easier so I don't lose things!

I also have a smaller white board on our fridge that has our weekly meal plan so I don't gt asked a million times what we're eating for supper!  Here's a post I did a couple years back about meal planning.

So there ya have it, we super organized and have it all together....at least for the first week, then it's all down hill, HA!!

Back to School!

I can't believe that summer is over.  It went by SO fast, but I have to say it was a pretty awesome summer!  However, I am ready for things to slow down, and I have already started saying no to weekend plans.  My house has suffered, haha.

Here are my babies this morning...9th grade, 7th grade and 4th grade, *sigh*.  I cried when they left, I just can't believe that Rachel is a freshmen.  I know that the next 4 years will fly by, and I am NOT ok with that.  

I was up bright and early making them this cream cheese crescent bake, my dad has made it a few times and it is so good!  This is the first time ever that I am not home on the first day of school, and I am feeling very sad about it.  I have no special snack for them, and although I know they will be just fine, it's one of those things I always had for them.  Here are some things I've made previous years:

On Saturday we had a 50th anniversary party for Brad's mom and dad, it was so fun and we had a great turnout!

However, I am completely shot, and this weekend we are gone again, but then after that we are HOME every weekend!!  Yahoo!

Back to School Traditions

Today I am linking up with Andrea and Stephanie to talk about Back to School Traditions!

I love, love, love back to school for many reasons:

I love getting ourselves organized again, and being on a schedule.  I LOVE the no routine of summer,but I also love being on a schedule.

September is like January to me, it's a fresh start.  I like to get all my fall deep cleaning done, closets cleaned out, etc.

I do love knowing that my girls are using their brains for more than just playing Minecraft or on Instagram...

So here are some of our back to school traditions!

  One thing I started when Rachel started first grade, was to have a spa night.  The night before school I make our bathroom (I call it Spa La Zimm)a relaxing oasis and we do facials, pedicures, manicures and snack on little shaped sandwiches, fruit and kiddy cocktails.  It's become a little less the older they get, but we still do manis and pedis and drink fancy drinks.  Look at how little they are!

The first day of school I always made them pancakes in the shape of their initial.

I also liked to make their teachers a little gift, this year I had them make apple stamps on cardstock for note cards!

I love finding special treats for them to have when they come home.

Emma's first day we made this super cute bus cake.

Another year I made these apple cupcakes (these got featured on a blog I used to frequent!)  I have also done a pencil brownie and whoopie pies too.

And if you know anything about me, you know that I decorate for every.single.holiday.  I still do!

I love how my back to school decor turned out!

I also take each of the girls school shopping, just them and I.  It's such a nice time to relax and enjoy each of them without having a sister there, haha!  So there you have a little idea of how we celebrate back to school!

Friday Favorites: Graduation Edition!

Linking up again with Erika for Friday Favorites!

Yesterday was the last day of school here, and also Rachel's last day at Kennedy.  Ugh, so many emotions going through me right now.  Happy and oh so proud of this lady, and very sad to think of how fast time is going.  I know that the next 4 years are going to fly by, and I'm not ok with it.  I am just trying to soak in this time with the girls, they are at such fun ages right now!

Last day of 8th, 6th and 3rd grade!

The school always does such a nice graduation ceremony.  The kids pick 2 students and 2 teachers to deliver the speeches, I think we were all in tears at this point!  Then the 8th graders did a song,
(Bruno Mars "You Can Count on Me", more tears.   I surprisingly held it together quite well.

Once they get their diplomas, all of the teachers from K-8 stand in a line to shake the graduates hands, Rachel had a hard time holding it together.  The pic below is of her and "Grandma" Darlene.  She volunteers in K and 1st grade, and the kids absolutely adore her!

Pics with my mom and step dad Bob.

Brad's mom and Dad.

Notice how much taller than me she is.  She got about 2 inches on me, crazy!

After the ceremony, the 8th graders go bowling, so all of us parents took the day off and went over to Nordines for brunch.Everything was so good!  I absolutely love these ladies.

We left their house around 1 to come home and get things ready for Rachel's party.  She invited 15 kids to come over after school to hang out.  I made a big batch of sloppy joes, and we had drummies, meatball, chips and snacky stuff.

And of course cake, you gotta have cake!

All of us nerdy moms took pics of the kids coming down the driveway...Poor Rachel was an absolute mess!  She was sobbing because it was her last bus ride home from Kennedy.  Poor kid!

I love this pic of the girls, and Kama (Nordines yellow lab)!  The kids played volleyball, bean bags, basketball and ate.  We let her invite both boys and girls, the boys came later on after baseball.  Brad got a bonfire going for them and they played night games.  Brad and I loved listening to the laughter, they really had a great time!

They finally left around midnight, and Brad and I were exhausted!  4 of the girls spent the night, we didn't hear any talking though, I think the emotional day wore them out, haha...

We are lucky that all of our girls have some really awesome friends, and we're also lucky that we hang out with the parents, quite the fun group!