Sort of "Back to School"

It's been awhile since I have sent a child "Back to School" so my traditions are a little different! Since we do year around school, I wanted to try to come up with a few back to school traditions of my own to help set us into the next year. 

The first thing we do is take a two week break (which we are currently in!)  This gives me time to get lesson plans together and allows the kids time for a few fun events and playdates.  We have crammed alot into this past week and have one more to go!

First, we had Dad's 35th birthday celebration!  The kids thought he needed new Lego's.  Here he is putting them together with them.

The birthday celebrations continued with Johnna Katherine turning 5!  We had an awesome celebration that lasted for DAYS!  I am sure I will blog more about it on my own blog so I won't go into too many details now! (http://thiswaytothepoolhouse.blogspot.com/)  Here are just a few of my favorite shots!

 She had her party at Build A Bear Workshop.  All of her TX cousins joined us for the celebration.

Another fun treat for the kids was a "Back To School" Skating Party sponsored by my church's librarian.  She is AMAZING!  She did a month long reading contest. The kids could get prizes for reading 10 books.  My kids went to town.  Total they ready well over 120 books!  THANK YOU, Mrs. Ruthe!!!!! Besides the weekly prizes, they got to go to a fun skating party.

 We had a rare treat - Dad took us to see a movie!  It was super fun.

 We also got a lot of Cartee cousin time in.  We knew they would be heading back to school soon so we wanted to squeeze in some fun things. What is more fun than taking 9 kids to Costco on a Saturday!?  (This was Jane Madelynn's first buggy ride!  She didn't make it sitting up long but she sure did have fun.)

 Because of Jane Madelynn's G tube, she has not been able to swim all summer long.  Since the summers are sooooo hot in Texas, I haven't even taken the other kids. It was just too hot for her to be on the side of the pool.  However, we got one quick trip over to the pool this week since she can sit in a bumbo seat now.  We just splashed her with water and kept her covered!

 Lottie did a good job distracting her with food!

 We ended this first week off with the final birthday celebration for Johnna Katherine Mae.  Since she is 5, she got to get her ear's pierced.  She took cousin Isla for support. 

 What is better to numb the pain than fried mushrooms and cheese fries.  It was the Cartee's first trip to Snuffer's. Yum!

Oh! Wait I am suppose to be talking about Back to School Traditions.  But I have another week off!