the FIFTH day of school…

THIS was the FIRST year that i did NOT get a photo of my kiddos as they left for the FIRST day of school!

they started school on my birthday this year and i was SICK IN BED! great birthday! NOT! so rob took the boys to school and i was just TOO sick to even care if the photos got taken.

but, i couldn’t just NOT take photos at the start of school – i’d done it every year, i had to do something! so i decided to take photos on their first “dress” day, which was actually the 5th day of school.

every year, i have the kids stand in front of the house; you can see the windows and the front door in the background, so you can see how much they’ve grown from year to year. and i always take a photo of their backpack. although not so much with drew anymore, the backpack shows what “thing” that are into that year. this year, chris had a camo backpack – he saw it and just HAD to have it! last year it was bakugan. drew’s been through pokeman, yugioh and who knows what else. now, drew is at a point where he just wants a PLAIN backpack, so he’s not so much fun to photograph with the backpack. but he did have gym clothes hanging out of the bag this year, i thought that was noteworthy! like they couldn’t fit IN the bag?

so, here is my FIRST — FIFTH day of school layout…

all papers and embellishments, except the 2 kraft cardstock background sheets, are from REMINISCE’S new MAKING THE GRADE line. i LOVE this new line, the colors are just a shade darker than traditional “primary”. there is a nice variety of patterns and colors, so chances are they will match YOUR school photos. and there are also TONS of embellies! alpha stickers, quote stickers, apples, pencils, watercolors and book stickers, as well as cool 3D stickers too! i used a little bit of everything for this 2 page layout — i was going for a corkboard memo look. to keep the layout “grounded”, i used a LONG section of notebook paper across both pages. that  keeps your eyes moving across both pages. then, i just wanted to add fun little pops and notes like you would find tacked to a memo board. i mixed different patterns and colors, but if you’ll notice, there are a lot of horizontal elements to keep the layout from being TOO chaotic!

the “5th” in the title was made to look like a post it note – a little hard to tell in the photo. i cut down the square post in note sticker on the 12 X 12 locker journal sheet, and then scored it about 1/2″ across the top. i adhered the note only by the tab that i scored, then put pop dots under the bottom of the note so it would look like it was sticking up a bit – like a post it does. the 5th, is covering the “first” in the first day of school paper.

i had chris write his name on the nametag and write a note on the “what i love the most about school is” tags IN PENCIL – then i went over it with a permanent pen. {there’s a hint! don’t try letting your child write on the stickers in pen, have them write lightly in pencil – so you can proof it – then go over it with pen! }

i wanted to do something fun with the ruler, and i also wanted to feature 3 photos i took of chris while trying to get him to smile “nice”. so i decided to combine the two and added “measure the smile” with stickers to the ruler. then i used photo turns {remember those? i’m SURE you have some somewhere!} to point at his “rating”. the “GOOD” smile, gets a 10!

to add to the “memo” feel, i journaled on the lined background paper, adding fun little notes and arrows too.

we can’t always capture “THE” moment, but we can capture “A” moment! so whether you take pics of your kids the 1st day of school, the 5th day of school or the TWENTY-SECOND day of school, scrap those photos!