It is mid August and we are in full swing with, all things “back to school” over here!

I love the joys & magic feeling of all things “back to school.” It’s just a fresh season of new beginnings, routines, fun activities, football season, and it also means fall is around the corner (my favorite!)

Today, I’m recapping our back to school preparations + Brewer’s first day in the twos room on Monday + week night recipes + my “back to school” tips

Let’s back- up to Sunday when “back to school” grocery shopping became a family affair!

After church, we stopped to do the grocery shopping as a family. Lidl will never be the same, lol! Brewer wanted his own buggy to do some grocery shopping too. He was zooming up & down the aisles. It was for sure an adventure + such a sweet time with my little helper!

Here’s the recap of our wild adventure 😉

Mama’s, let your babies help with those everyday tasks! They’ll love it and your heart will too! I love this boy so much it hurts!

Monday morning, I let Brewer pick out his breakfast- a pop tart lol. No worries, he had some fruit and French toast too!

Then, he was ready for his first day of 2K- aka, the two year room at his weekday church program!

I love seeing these back to school boards!

I knew Brewer probably wouldn’t quite understand the question “what do you want to be when you grow up” so I told myself I would write whatever he says! When I asked the question, his response was, “DADDY!” It was the sweetest thing ever!

Shop our back to school board: Here!

Sweet boy was ready to hop over to the 2K room with his sweet friends!

Brewer is using the same bag and lunchbox from last year because they’re in great shape!

Shop those things: here

I snapped a photo of his precious classroom!

Harry knows I like keeping fresh flowers on the kitchen island and this past weekend he brought flowers home that he picked out! They have added happiness to all the “back to school” things this week!

For dinner on Brewer’s first day of 2K, I made his favorite- baked spaghetti!

I’ve been making this recipe for years that I got from my friend, AnnaVee. It’s such an easy week night dinner. I think it may even become our “first day of school” dinner tradition. I’ll share the recipe, here:

Ingredients:

-1 lb of hamburger meat

-1 pack of pot size noodles

-1 big jar of spaghetti sauce

-1 1/2 packs of cream cheese (I use a little less because I don’t want to over do it!)

-1 small bag of shredded cheese (I use monterey jack and cheddar cheese!)

Directions:

-preheat oven to 350

-boil water and allow noodles to cook while you brown the hamburger meat

-drain the hamburger meat and return to pan and add the spaghetti sauce, you can allow it to heat for just a minute but the sauce will heat in the oven too

-drain noodles and return to pan and add cream cheese, mix it together well (you may want to add the cream cheese to the microwave for a minute prior to this step)

-Take your oven safe deep pan or an aluminum throw away pan (I use a large, full size pan) and layer the pan with sauce, noodles, sauce, noodles, sauce!

-Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. When 5 minutes remains, add the shredded cheese to the top of the spaghetti and allow it to finish baking.

That’s it! You’re done!

Here is another easy weeknight dish that I made last night:

Chicken Caesar Salad!

So easy and so yum! I love a good salad dinner, especially in the summer time.

I don’t have a real recipe for this.. Just season & grill some boneless, skinless chicken breast, then toss together with salad ingredients: lettuce, Parmesan/ Italian style cheese, croutons, and Caesar dressing!

It’s a win around here!

Not necessarily Brewer’s favorite but he had leftover spaghetti! We also have other things on hand for Brewer when needed because he’s for sure going through that “picky” stage.

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It’s been a really sweet & smooth transition back to school! My work is also in full swing again as well. Everyday I’m thankful for the job I get to do as a teacher.

More tips that helps our family with all things back to school:

-I do the grocery shopping on Sundays or I’ll do grocery pick- up on Monday mornings.

-I plan out our dinners for the week before going to the grocery store. I never go without a list.

-Strong morning routine. I love waking up before everyone else in the house. I have quiet time and I’m ready to take on the day when Brewer gets up!

-Strong bedtime routine. I say this as a Mommy & a teacher! Our littles need their sleep! routine, routine, routine.

-Stay organized!

Gosh, I’ve written so many blog posts about organization. It’s part of who I am. Lol. Every now and then someone will say to me, “you do so much! I don’t know how you do it.” I don’t feel like I do a lot at all!! I just try to stay organized and plan ahead to make things happen!

I’m type A about having things in order! I keep a detailed planner and we have a family calendar in the kitchen for things that Harry & I should both know. When I get my school calendar, Harry’s work event schedule, or daycare event dates- they go straight in my planner! That way I’m only looking in one place to see what is happening. Then I relay things to the “family calendar” if it’s things Harry should know too!

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Okay y’all, that is what our “back to school” has looked like this week!

*I’ll be back on the blog, tomorrow!*