K-12 Memory Boxes

Thanks to Pinterest, I have once again created an awesome organizational tool! As we prepare to embark on our newest journey of our first born entering Kindergarten, I was having some anxiety about making sure important things he does in school don't get lost in the shuffle of everyday mail and junk mail that makes its way through the house.

I first came across iheartorganizing's post on Pinterest with these super cool file boxes and just HAD to make them. I also used these cute tab printables from SissyPrint for my folders!

These were so easy to put together. I even made my daughter one and she's only 3 1/2! Its all ready to go for her when she starts school :-)

1) Find yourself some bins that have the slot inside to hold hanging file folders. I found mine at Office Depot:

2) Create your file folder tabs using the this linky to download the template from SissyPrint (they are customizable, so once you download them, you can add your own text.  

3) Click here:  iheartorganizing and in her post about her bins, she has a link where you can download her copy of what she calls the School Paperwork Coversheet. I printed 13 copies; one for K-12th grade and glued one to the inside of each of my folders. There is a space on the sheet where you can put each school year's photo, the school year date, teacher's name, and school name!

Now I have to clear a space in my closet to store these and add to them as the years come and go :-) These boxes ended up being way bigger than I planned, so I pan on adding one of those durable shoe boxes to put arts/crafts that can't be "filed" and other mementoes or pictures. 

A re-cap of sorts...

So I am officially the WORST blogger EVER!!

Needless to say, the end of 2012 and most of 2013 has completely sucked. I took time away from blogging, and in reality, I should have never left. We have had an extremely emotional year, and cannot wait to welcome 2014 with hopes of a new and exciting year. Setting aside all of the ugliness this year has brought us, some highlights of our happy times:

APRIL: We took the kids to Disney World earlier in the year and had a BLAST! Our best friends joined us after a few days and it was a good time as always with them.

MAY: My oldest niece graduated from high school! Sooo exciting :-)

JUNE: The birth of our new little niece, Mariella. She's my baby sister's baby and is a total spitting image of her :-)

Now...??? As we're wrapping up summer and getting into September, our little man will be entering KINDERGARTEN! What the what!? So we're all super excited for him. Later this week, we get to meet his new teacher at the school open house! Stay tuned as my upcoming blog posts will highlight the memory boxes I made today, lunch ideas, our homework station, and all the fun things that come with having a Kindergartener! 

Our 2012 Elf on the Shelf collage

Big apologies for not posting anything since December 2012. What became the next 7 months of our lives, have some major components I would just like to forget.

What I had intended on doing with our Elf, Gaspar, was to share with you his journey here at our home. We are getting close to counting down the days for his return!! 

Here's a quick snapshot for those of you scouring the internet (like I did and still do) for new ideas for your Elves! 

Meet Gaspar

This year we decided to introduce the Elf on the Shelf tradition to our Christmas festivities.

We read the story to the kids on November 30th so that we could officially introduce our Elf on December 1st.  I have decided to blog about his journey here on the blog so that we could look back at his little shenanigans every year :-)

It was up to the kids to give our Elf a name. It started with "Flame" and went on to include some pretty bizzare and random names like "Finarfin."

Day 1: Perched in the Christmas tree

During their nap, our Elf went to comedy school... (thank you Pinterest for the awesome Elf on the Shelf ideas). The kids love jokes and got a real kick out of this.

After dinner on our first night with our elf, we decided to give the naming process another try. I explained to the kids that Santa gave them the job of naming the Elf so it had to be up to them. In the end they decided on "Gaspar." The name of course comes from the Disney show, Gaspard and Lisa.

Day 2: Up on a shelf. (He was sitting on top of the fish tank but fell off at some point during the night. Thankfully I noticed that he was on the floor before the kids woke up and quickly set him on a high shelf.

On my own

What a wild few weeks! Let me just say that hubby and I had so much fun in Dallas!! Pics to come soon.  I missed the kids like crazy, but we left them in good hands so we know they had a good time.  Here's a video of me at the convention in Dallas on their Casino night... don't blink. You might miss it!

 

The sad thing is that I could have sworn I had the greatest grip. Thanks for the free adult beverages :-o

On to other news... last week was my last week at work. I resigned from my position as a Vocational Consultant for a small agency I have been working for and opened up my own company where I can do the same exact work I've done for the last 8 (almost 9) years without any drama. There was a lot of tension in our office and a lot of back story that left me feeling like I was already on my own anyway. I'm only into day 3 of being my own boss and the work is already flowing in :-) I will be contracting with 2 of my older employers in the Private sector of rehab and contracting with the State of Michigan's rehab services department. I've put in some long hours getting myself prepared and will start meeting with clients at the end of the week.

Y3W: Heading to Dallas!

This coming Wednesday, the old man and I are heading to Dallas for 4 days WITHOUT the kids! Ahhhh!! I'm super excited but super sad that we're leaving the kids. We had a choice to bring them, but that would have added $1000 to our trip because of airfare. A huge thank you to our family and friends who have rallied together to help take care of the kids in our absence. We know they will be safe and will have loads of fun. I'm sure we I will miss them way more :-)

So why are we going to Dallas? My husband is a HUGE aquarium hobbyist and each year the Marine Aquarium Conference of North America (MACNA) hosts a weekend long conference at a different host state. Last year it was held in Des Moines. We took the kids with us last year and only my husband attended the conference. I just hung around the hotel and took the kids to the museum and the zoo. There is going to be so much to do there so we're heading down 2 days before the conference to get a little sight seeing in!