I love the fall, in fact it may be my favorite times of the year. Don’t get me wrong. I have LOVED the long summer days that we’ve had in the NW this year. I love swimming at the outdoor pool, I love playing in the yard in the sunshine, riding our bikes and playing at the park. But I love the crisp fall mornings, sweaters, soups and back to school. It is probably the teacher in me but with the start of the school year everything feels fresh, it feels exciting and I feel ready to take on new projects.

But this fall is a little bittersweet. My little guy will be headed off to Kindergarten and already I miss him. He is so totally ready to go to school and super excited. He went to an hour long orientation and came back wanting more. But selfishly I’m not ready to let him go. I love our days together exploring, learning, hanging out. I am so blessed to have spent the last 6 years at home with him. Now don’t get me wrong. We have our days and moments that are less than picturesque but as a whole its absolutely wonderful.

We are starting to get ready, trying on pants to see what we need to buy, we have a shopping date next week to pick out the perfect backpack and lunch box and of course doing some of our last summery things, one more trip to the outdoor pool, another black berry picking adventure and maybe even a trip to the state fair.

As we head into the start of school I’ve been thinking about and looking at ways to mark this time, remember it and scrap it. As a child we always had our picture taken on the first day of school outside in front of the house and I will definitely be doing that but what else???? I do a yearly birthday interview, maybe self portraits and handwriting samples? I’ve started searching pinterest for ideas. I love the idea of a single book that goes from K-12th where everything is all together….. but there isn’t much room in those….. maybe a book for each school year? Or maybe the memory boxes I’ve been doing for each year ….http://aliedwards.com/2011/08/love-these-memory-keepers.html

Here are a few links that looked inspiring to me

http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2011/11/school-days-memory-keeping.html

http://www.beckyhiggins.com/blog/2011/08/back-to-school-personal-yearbooks/

What do you do for your kids?