Back To School Dinner 2016

Yesterday was the first day of school, and as is our tradition, we had a special Back To School Dinner to celebrate.

You can find last years Back to School dinner here, and the year before that here, for more inspiration.

This year, I went with a bit of a book page theme.  The table runner was made from some old books.  I ripped out some pages, and sewed them together on the sewing machine.  The book pages set the tone for a mainly black and white colour scheme.

The placards were some sweet library card inspired tags.

For the bottles of water, I used some cute numbered gift tags I picked up at Ikea.

And on the straws, some cute “school days” flags I made.

The table was really very simple.  I always think of apples when I think of back to school, so the simple centrepiece was just a line of fresh apples.  They smell so good!

In the background, I decorated the buffet with a back to school theme too.

In keeping with the book page theme, I made some pretty book page tassels.

The book page tassels were simple to make from some old books, and with some black and white washi tape.

It was fun to use my vintage globes and few other school supplies to set the tone.

We had pasta for dinner -a real favourite around here.  And for dessert, a few school inspired treats.

You can see how I made the Book Page Sugar Cookies and Marshmallow Pencil Treats here.

We traditionally have an apple dessert for this special dinner, and I had great plans for one this year.  But I used all the apples on the table and ran out of time, so I picked up some apple fritter donuts and decorated them with some book page pom pom picks.  I haven’t had an apple fritter in ages -boy were they yummy and so easy. 😉

We had a great time hearing all about the first day, from choosing a class pet (hermit crabs and fish are in the running) to not being able to find the washroom, to who they sat with on the bus.  It was a great family time, and one of our favourite traditions.

With a Back to School family dinner, life really is a party!