Starting School Party

Our five year old Thomas will be starting school in August.  Having three older brothers, he has been waiting for the time to arrive.  As it approaches he is getting cold feet. Just recently he has decided he would like to stay in Kindergarten after all!! So to get him warmed up on the idea again I am going to throw a 'starting school party' with his little German friends who will be transferring to the same school as he will.  We will be on holiday in England for 2 out of the 3 weeks holiday they get from Kindergarten - in a little boys life, that is a looooonnnnngggg time! This will be a good way of getting them together before so that we can strengthen their friendships.

The apple invitations have been made and given out you can read about that here.  Here's a quick look at how they turned out.

I've been gathering ideas on Pinterest.

http://pinterest.com/pin/139400550936820136/

I am thinking these would be fun to have as centre pieces and i could have a line hanging across the room and I could peg up their art creations.  I am only going to have 6 or 7 kids attending ... I think I can monitor that many so it doesn't transfer onto my white walls.  =)

This idea has to be my favourite ....

http://pinterest.com/pin/139400550936820082/

This morning I finished the jam that was in a similar shaped jar to this ... so now I have to buy more jam for the jars!! =) I already have the straws.

I'm in the process of making some bunting ... I'll post more on that as soon as I have time!! 

Have you had any successful starting school parties and would like to share your ideas?