Back to Homeschool Day

This year for our back-to-homeschool day we had three special meals. For breakfast, we had the girls' favorite breakfast: caramel rolls.

I used red placemats that tied into the color of the day (a Waldorf practice that we are going to try doing again this year). We used the china plates and nice water glasses to hold our beverage of choice (orange lemonade or chocolate milk).

Each of the girls had a name marker at their place setting with their name and what grade they currently are in.

It seems like yesterday that they were in early elementary school. This year, Olivia is in sixth grade...the last year of elementary school.

 Sophia is in eighth grade...the last year of middle school.

For lunch, we went on a picnic.

I took a look at the ideas I had pinned on Pinterest for picnics and chose some of the items to take along. Some of the items were included in our sandwich while others we had on the side including:

- Salami slices and/or meat sandwiches
- Variety of cheeses either on the side or in the sandwiches
- Pickles
- Chips
- Potato salad
- Special rolls to use for sandwiches
- Fresh fruit (grapes)
- Water

We enjoyed feeding the seagull that was hanging out near our table.

The girls played on the swing for a while. Notice the seagull who is sitting on the post. It flew up to watch them after we were done feeding it.

We took some pictures to mark the first day of school - on the dock at the Forest Lake beach, by the maple tree with its changing leaves, and by pots of beautiful annual flowers in shades of purple.

For dinner, we had Hawaiian Bread Sandwiches that were delicious.

Also enjoyed orange lemonade. It's from a recipe I found on Pinterest.

I had hoped to do a more elaborate meal and table setting like I saw on Jen Lund's blog.

However, with homeschooling during the entire day (9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) there wasn't time available to create special table settings and a a time capsule. And, frankly, I was tired. It was a fun and interesting transition back to homeschooling, but tiring.

We just continued with our theme of red place settings with the china plates and nice glasses.

All in all, it was a great start to the first day back to homeschooling!