My girl, my first child who was born about a minute ago, started preschool this week. It was a big day for her and she was pumped so I was pumped too.

Today I dropped her off for her second day and on the way in she said, “It’s okay, I don’t need to hold your hand.”

OUCH.

Good thing I was holding her baby brother, the boy who isn’t happy unless his clammy baby hand is holding a fistful of my hair, otherwise this mama may have shed a wee tear right there in the parking lot.

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Since I was pretty sure the first day would be anxiety-free for her, I wanted to make it special. I was so committed to finding some fun activity to commemorate the first day that I wrote “1st Day of School Traditions” on a post-it and stuck it on my bathroom mirror.

Then I forgot. (Post-it FAIL.)

During Sunday breakfast, I realized that I had no game plan and pulled something out of thin air.

“Tomorrow is your first day of school! Let’s have a special dinner to celebrate. You get to pick our meal!”

“Yay! I want cheesy noodles and hot dogs with salad for you and Dad!”

So our Sunday night feast came and went. I made sure to charge the camera batteries so I could get a good first day of school photo. It did occur to me before we walked out the door on Monday morning to include her brother. It might seem odd if he popped up in school photos out of nowhere in 3 years.

Dinner was fun and the photos are sweet, but perhaps we could crank up the festivity on this event a bit. I loved the first day of school growing up. Some people get into Halloween. Some people plan their 4th of July shindig for weeks. For me, the first day of school comes in right behind my favorite holiday, Christmas.

Since I was caught without a plan, I thought I should do a little bloggy research before we really need to be on our A-game in two years when kindergarten begins. Here are a few of my favorites...

A sweet backpack date from Make and Takes.

These would make an adorable desert for that back-to-school dinner—Apple Pops from The Crafting Chicks.

I’m going to do this TODAY! Back to School Time Capsules from Make It Do.

A great list of back-to-school traditions from Life As Mom.

Tips on taking that first day photo from Jen Price of DFW Mama.

In my internet travels I came across this post about public school from Carrie of This Mama Makes Stuff. I wholehearted support her message and am encouraged by her conviction.

Happy back-to-school! I’m off to enjoy another cup of coffee in my quiet house. :)