Matt was up super early and at church by 6:45 am, while Juliette and I slept in until 9:30 am. (It was nice!) We made it to church just in time, and after church, we came home and ate hot dogs for lunch. While we were eating lunch, I multitasked and worked on finishing up our weekend project. (See Monday's blog post.) Around mid-afternoon, I went and picked up the school-themed cookie cake I had ordered and when I got back, Juliette helped me out by dusting everything while I did some laundry. Around time to fix dinner (and set up for our back to school dinner), I sent Matt and Juliette away, so it would be a surprise when Juliette came back and saw the table decorated (and so I could mop and not have them walking around the apartment). They went to Wal-mart to look around and I decorated. (Details of what I did are below each picture.)
The circle garland was made out of card stock. Circles were hand cut (as they were a last minute addition and Matt had to reprogram our computer over the weekend, so my Silhouette software wasn't available at the time). I sewed the circles together on my sewing machine. We got "The Night before Kindergarten" and the 1st day of kindergarten card at Target. The "individually yours" cookie cake came from The Great American Cookie Company.

Each person had a "placemat" that was made out of cardstock and paper that I had on hand, using my Silhouette to cut on the letters, numbers, and apple. The pencil art and the notebook art came from a teacher's bulletin board pack that I bought at Target for around $3.

For the centerpiece, I used fabric I had on hand, wrapped three books in brown paper, tied with a ribbon I had on hand, and used apples that Juliette will be taking to lunch later this week. The mini-Composition notebook was something I had on hand as well and will serve as the place where we write down what Juliette (and any future kids) are looking forward to that year at school.
For dinner, I fixed Juliette's favorite: tacos and refried beans. If you look closely, you will see that I made little straw decorations also out of paper I had on hand, using the Silhouette to cut them out. Then I used white scrapbook stickers that I had in my stash to put our first initials on them. Total cost to do all this (not including dinner, since I would have cooked regardless): approximately $25. And the placemats and garland will be reused each year for our new annual tradition.

While we ate dinner, we talked about school and then I read "The Night before Kindergarten" while we ate cookie cake. Juliette told me I was the "best" no less than six times this weekend!

The fun had to end after dinner, though, as the end of our weekend was quickly approaching and I still had lots to do. I was hoping to get the kitchen and bathroom completely cleaned as well, but it didn't happen and I ended up only having time to completely finish the laundry, wash only the larger dirty dishes, and iron a shirt for Matt. I then called my mom back and talked with her for a little bit and then headed to bed, not looking forward to my 6 am alarm!

We've had a good week and I hope you enjoyed the play-by-play. Maybe I'll do this ever once in a while.