How to Celebrate the First Day

Sometimes, I read about other people's traditions and I get a little jealous that I didn't already know about it. There are a few things I've been able to adopt from early on that I can truly call traditions in our family. Every Christmas, the kids open a present on Christmas Eve. This present is new pajamas and that year's ornament. Every summer, we go to the Indiana State Fair and visit the coppersmith in the Pioneer Village. We get cookie cutters made of copper from the kids' hand prints. This is the annual birthday gift we give my mom because her kitchen is decorated in copper. And now we have started First Day of School Traditions. Some of these are things I picked up from others who were already going through the first day back thing. Some are things I saw other kids doing when I was growing up. To be honest, I don't recall any first day of school traditions when I was growing up. Maybe that's part of why I want it to be an exciting event for my kids- because my memories are full of gaps when it comes to starting school each year. First, shopping for school clothes. Nothing starts the year off like a new outfit and new shoes. Second, Teagan got to choose what we did for dinner. She chose the Pizza Hut pizza buffet. Third, we read The Kissing Hand at bedtime. Fourth, Teagan got to choose breakfast- we had cinnamon rolls. Fifth, we took pics on the front steps with Teagan holding a sign stating her name, grade, the year, and the name of her school. Sixth, after a quiet dinner at home (made up of everyone just chowing down on what sounded best to my hungry and tired bunch- dinner was mostly fruit for the kids), we ended the evening with homemade root beer floats. Those are traditions I think we can keep up with year after year.