This was my baby’s first year of school. It was a huge transition for us. Before starting school she had never attended a daycare and we didn’t spend much time apart. When we attended orientation l told her principal that he would either love me or hate me because if my baby was going to be making the school her second home that meant it would be mine too.
I didn’t lie. I joined the Family Association, got elected Secretary, and became her class’ unofficial class mom. I regularly sent in gift bags for holidays and came up with fun ways for the littles to be part of the school community. This past nine months I have watched my daughter blossom. She’s always been my little superstar but now she is really coming into her own. She has forged friendships that I look forward to watching her cultivate for years to come. She has made a name in the school for herself. Teachers and staff from other grades know who she is and not just because I am constantly at the school but because she has found a community to welcome, accept and help her excel.
How could I not celebrate so much growth and change? Since she won’t be leaving the school she doesn’t get a Pre-K graduation. They will, however, have an end of the year celebration. JustaBXgirl has been practicing her songs and been planning her outfit for weeks. This mama has not been as on top of things. I knew I wanted to do something special for the class but I kept on putting off what that something would be.
I finally settled on gift bags because, well, I’ve done gift bags for all of the other holidays why not the end of school? What to include? That’s where it got a little tricky. I wanted to stay away from graduation gifts since they’re not graduates but still wanted to find small trinkets that would help them remember their first year of school.
You already know that Oriental Trading is my go-to for gift bag fillers. As always they did not disappoint. JustaBXgirl’s class is called the Sun Room so I got them these awesome sun glasses not to be confused with sunglasses! I also got them some bubbles because they’re all so darn bubbly (they’re four and five). A few more fun trinkets found in the clearance section made the cut but I knew I wasn’t done yet.
Did you know that season 3 of Hatchimal Colleggtibles is all about friendship? Yup, this season is about Hatch Friends Forever. How fitting is that? JustaBXgirl is all about her girl squad and her BFFs. Just like season 3 of Colleggtibles where you can hatch twins, squads an BFFs. And they’re still as cute as ever. We are looking forward to collecting the entire season and are excited to her friends off with two hatchimals each!
But wait, there’s more. I’m telling you, I am that mom. No idea how I’m going to top myself next year. Back to the bags. Not sure if you know this yet but another of our favorite brands, Mabel’s Labels, has a new product in stock. They now have Birthday Party Packs which are the coolest thing ever! You can order these for birthday parties, play dates, class gift bags and more! Each set includes five personalized name stickers and a personalized bag tag. Talk about making a gift bag extra special? What child doesn’t like seeing their name on things. And to make it better you can get six sets for only $30.
Talking about personalization, I found the cutest brown paper bags at Michael’s and had a 50% coupon to use. They had chalk labels so I had JustaBXgirl use some chalk markers we had around the house to label each bag. And voila, end of the year gift bags were complete.
