Back to School Banquet

With Brynlee starting Kindergarten this year it was our first year of "real" school so we celebrated with a Back to School Banquet. It was such a fun night as a family and this will definitely be an annual tradition for us. 

I had fun making a lot of little decorations and trying to make it a special night.

The table runner and fabric bunting were things I sewed earlier this year and the vase of fabric flowers was an old craft from a few years ago.

Josh and I decided to focus on kindness as our back to school theme. To go along with the theme I made this painting with one of my favorite quotes from Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin. It's from a wonderful talk on kindness that he gave in General Conference in 2005. We're going to hang this painting in our home as a reminder this year to be more kind at school, at work, with our friends, and in our home.

While I had my watercolors out I made a little cake topper as one more reminder to be kind :)

 I also painted some simple name cards for the table.

(Sometimes I try to put my art degree to good use! Ha ha!)

 After a yummy dinner we watched a Mormon Messages video on kindness ("Lessons I Learned as a Boy" by President Hinckley) and then Josh shared a great message with us about looking outward and finding ways to help and serve those around us. 

 I am notoriously bad at making cakes, so it was somewhat of a miracle that I made a cake and frosting from scratch and it actually turned out fine! The back to school miracle!

As a side note, that will be the last time we eat dinner with a big chocolate cake right on the dinner table. When Mya noticed the cake she wanted nothing to do with her dinner! She just kept chanting "Time for cake! I need chocolate cake now!"

After dessert Josh gave Bryn a beautiful back to school blessing that encouraged her to work hard in school and be a good friend. Mya sat by for moral support and she wanted a back to school blessing herself, but that didn't happen :)

 We don't do big things like this all the time, but it was pretty fun to plan this fun night and to have such a great time with Josh and our girls. I love being a mom!