a "BACK TO SCHOOL " Theme Dinner. . . .

I have found that picking a menu and then carrying it out thru decor is the most fun for me.  I love to have my children and their families over for a Sunday Dinner or a Jim and Shirlyn Allen Family Dinner centered around a holiday, birthday or special event coming up.  For example in late August we held a "Back to School Theme Dinner".  The tables were covered with large plastic "primary colors" tablecloths or the various colors of their combined schools they would be attending.  The head table was covered with a school-bus themed cloth tablecloth I made and the center pieces for the school kids tables were old lunch boxes, slates with chalk, ABC flash cards ect. with individual place cards made out of lined index cards with three holes punched in them to resemble note book paper and their name printed on it.  The centerpieces for the adult head table were vases covered with pencils and inside laminated school pictures and school events of the parents that I've collected thru the years. Also a ruler, flash card and a daisy.  The meal was easy to prepare, this time it was CostCo's frozen Lasagna with a tossed salad, garlic toast and Texas Sheet Cake.  But it could have just as easily have been something we've had in the past like mac n cheese, hot dogs, chips and cut up fruit.  Anything just to have my family together making memories and recalling times past.