End of School and Orange Themed Teacher Gift

I can't believe another school year has gone by! 9 months ago Nathan was excitedly getting ready for 1st grade - remember this picture?

And now here he is on his last day....he's grown so much!



His thoughts on his last day of school:

Of course he wouldn't have so many great things to say about first grade if he wouldn't have had a wonderful teacher. And a wonderful teacher deserves a special gift for getting us to this point! Last year I used some subway art to make a teacher appreciation gift for his Kindergarten teacher {you can check that out HERE if you are interested}. I have spent the year pinning all kinds of fun gift ideas for this year's teacher gift and finally settled on one when I saw this adorable Orange You Glad It's Almost Summer Gift Basket from Shaken Together. I just thought it was super cute and loved how bright and cheery it was.  I decided to check out the Dollar Store for my supplies and found plenty of fun orange themed stuff. Altogether, less than $10 spent (including the white tub to which I hot glued some orange ribbon). The tag is part of a free printable pdf, from Shaken Together, where you can also find some more fruit inspired tags for future appreciation gifts. I love how it turned out! What do you think?

kitchen towel, flowers, reese's, orange flavored water, an orange shaped popscicle, fan, tumbler, and citrus juicer

Can't wait to see what Second Grade will bring!

First day of First Grade

Nathan started First Grade today. I swear we were just taking him to Kindergarten! And I know everyone says this but time sure flies.

{Like the sign? You can print your own at U Create}

He was as handsome as could be this morning, as you can see. He was only a tad nervous before bed last night so I prayed for him last night and daddy prayed for him this morning. I think he was feeling pretty confident as we were heading out the door. He even wanted to be a little silly.

Wonder what a first grader looks forward to? Let's hear it out of his own mouth:

Mommy made sure to pack a super healthy lunch to help his brain work overtime today as it tried to get used to a busy school schedule again. Peanut butter balls (with soaked steel cut oats, pepitas, sunflower seeds, and honey), carrots, celery, a banana {who sees the message?} and some rice leftover from last night (it was half white half black, hence the color):

Of course we couldn't do TOTALLY healthy today...we did a special Krispy Kreme run after school was done, mostly hoping the sugar high would help him be more willing to spill about his day (anybody else's school aged boys already barely talking? I need more details then "fine" when I ask about his day!).

Another first day of school in the books. I am willing to bet that this year will go even faster than the last and I will soon be writing another Kindergarten post as Jordan joins his brother at school next year. But until then, we are going to try to hold on for the ride and watch Nathan as he continues to learn and grow. Here we go!