Summer is still in full swing here in New Jersey, as our kiddos don't go back until early September, but in many places the first day of school is right around the corner!
I love the idea of creating new traditions. Traditions were so important to us as a family when we were growing up - I lived for them around the holidays and special occasions! How fun would it be to start a tradition of decorating a super special breakfast table for the kiddos to wake up to on the first day of school! I imagine lots of love and laughter happening as they take in all the magic you have created for them with gorgeous place settings and fun treats to help them get ready for their first day. It's something I bet they would look forward to year after year.
I will share some of my favorite ideas below to help you create a festive table set up full of first day of school fun!
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Can't go wrong with balloons...
I put together a really easy and smaller garland to make a big impact. This garland only used 8 balloons of each color, and I color blocked them (meaning I kept all the colors together when building it). My favorite party might be adding in mylar or foil balloons to my garland- it make such a big impact and really tied the theme into the balloons. I included the "ABC" for my school theme, but there are so many fun back to school balloons out there, so get creative.
Create a table with themed party supplies....
A great place to start when decorating a party table is with the paper goods you will be using. In this case, since it has the potential to be just for the kids, you could totally use your every day dishes and call it a day, but you know I can't keep anything simple!! I have linked SO MANY options for paper plates that fit with the school theme in my back to school party planning guide- make sure you check that out here! I used plates that looked like composition notebooks, and layered turquoise plates on them, but red and just about any other color would work too!
Then I paired them with cups that have lines reminiscent of notebook paper, and added a red napkin with a pencil die cut across the plates. How cute, right?!
I added little treat bags next to each place setting that had a fun paper pattern on them too. I used my printer to print on them, but you could easily just draw blue horizontal lines and then one red vertical line to mimic the same pattern. I think these would be so cute if the kids got their hands on them and decorated them!
Because I literally could not stop with the treats, I added popcorn in these ADORABLE treat cups along the table as well. I know you will agree with me that they needed a spot on the table!
I added in printables galore, from place cards, to signs, cupcake toppers stuck in everything on the table, lol!
I include all these printables in my back to school party planning guide.
As far as the rest of the table, I added in a bunch of school supplies I picked up at the Dollar Tree like a ruler, pencils, and erasers. I added in some of my home made confetti mix I crafter up- it was super easy! I used these Fiskars confetti hole punches to punch a bunch of paper in pink, turquoise, and yellow. I added in some red start confetti from Dollar Tree and some chunky glitter in red that I had on hand. I also added some cut up red paper shred and gold confetti from the Dollar Tree. I love the way it came out and I love the extra sparkle it added to the table.
Don't forget that I too have now been blinded by the disco balls I see in every party set up these days, and I felt the need to include them in this table scape due to their fun and shinny nature! Safe to say I love their presence among the confetti.
Centerpieces are easier than you think....
Centerpieces don't have to be elaborate, or anything fancy really. I just used my stack of waffles, my school themed goodies, and a pennant from my back to school party design guide. So you read that right, I basically just used food as my centerpiece! That's my kinda centerpiece!
Oh, I almost forgot about that cutie globe, its from the Target dollar spot. It was one of my favorite things on the table!
The treats I created were so cute, and so easy! Those wafer pencil cookies were inspired by Kristen Sellentin on Instagram. I just had to give 'em a try and it was so easy to make a bunch! The red apples are little mini donuts I dipped in red chocolate- I was surprised with how cute they came out!
I hope that you found some inspiration for creating a new tradition with your kiddos! Do you already do a special first day of school breakfast? I'd love to know in the comments! And be sure to come back soon to catch a blog post on some fun teacher gift ideas and first day of school gift ideas for the kids.
