Autumn is Here! Blog Hop

Welcome to the August Back to School hop hosted by Kathryn. If you did not start at the beginning, I suggest you start over there at her blog.... http://www.creationswithkathryn.com/

This is stop # 10! So glad you joined us. I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do for this blog but when my chidren came home for the first day of school and just threw their bags on the floor, a light bulb went off! We now have a foyer that we can finally have our own BACKPACK STATION!

As you can see, there are three crates and since I have 3 kids this is perfect for putting bags in.  I need to find another crate seeing as how my nephew always comes over :) So his bag is on the floor next to it.  As soon as they walk in, they take their folders out, place them in the bin on the left so that I (the mom) can ck them after dinner. If they have homework, then I'll know soon enough if they didn't do it. I also have my daughter place her shoes in her bin. She's notorious for loosing them.

I found these amazing magazine holders from a dr office at a thrift store this past weekend.  Immediately I thought, BOOKS! I had planned to put this in the boys room but then didn't have a good solution for our library books. This is perfect because it's like having a library shelf at home. I'll go to the library when they are at school and find a few new books, then when they get home, there's something cool that they didn't pick out themselves.  They also place their school library books here too. Don't know how many times we've lost those!

This sign was made using my cricut and the colorbok line from walmart. I took a 4 photo frame (held 4-4x6's) and altered it :)  I painted the outside brown and added all the insides.  I used the Storybook font for all of it.  I'm not a huge fan of these colors but the more I look at it, they grow on me.

I found this great little "school" note on Pinterest a few weeks ago and LOVED the idea.  Don't know how many times I've had to frantically run around the house to find a piece of paper to write the school teacher a note real quick. These were pre designed at 8.5x5.5 size and were color.  To save a little $ I resized them to 4.5x5.5.  Then I added my name and contact info at the bottom before printing so I didn't ahve to write that over and over again.  This form covers everything from absences/tardies, to pick up/leave early details, to $ enclosed and to what it goes to. Then there is a small "other" section. First day of school was hectic enough, but I still had to write out 3 notes to say which bus they needed to ride..... used to take me 10 min to write 3 notes, this took me less than a min for all three kids!!! Def recommend this printable.

These are my altered mini notebooks from the Dollar Store. I added some cardstock, patterned paper from scraps, and names and *walla*, instantly personalized book journals.  When someone gets a new book from the library or school, I have them write down the name of the book and I write the title. This away when I look on the floor and see "Dora" books thrown about and not where they go, I know whos' responsible for it. ALSO, my kids take the AR test at school, sometimes they forget the # or the title before they get to school. Now the older ones can take their ittle notebook that has all the details written down and there is no more forgetting!

Next you are heading to.... Leah at http://leahscarddesigns.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by!

Kathryn
http://www.creationswithkathryn.com/
Janice
http://www.cricutconfessions.com/
Lissa
http://somanycrafts.wordpress.com/
Yolanda
http://www.craftyscentiments.blogspot.com/
Nicolette
http://www.beyondscrapin.blogspot.com/
Denise K.
http://deesdesignsfrommyheart.blogspot.com/
Michelle
http://peanutbutterandjellydesigns.blogspot.com/
Denise P.L.
http://vindeeloosthisnthat.blogspot.com/
Tina B
http://ollieanddextersmommy.blogspot.com/
Krista - YOU ARE HERE!
is http://scrapaleupagus.blogspot.com/
Leah - GO NEXT!http://leahscarddesigns.blogspot.com/
Monica
http://scraps2treasure.blogspot.com/
Shannon
http://purplelionpaper.com/blog
Sigrid
http://lovescrapreflect.blogspot.com/
Jessica
http://thatzuneek.blogspot.com/