It’s hard to believe but the end of the summer is upon us! Though it feels as if summer just began, it’s almost back to school time and a collective groan will soon weigh heavy over the children. If you want to make this a special and fun time of year for your kids, then consider throwing an end of summer bash where they can really let loose.

This is a fun way to let the kids get in some time at the pool and really connect with their friends before school starts. This can be a great way to kick off a school year or to end a fabulous summer. Either way it’s all about creating and reliving memories, having some great food and drink, and just having an all-around fun time!

Splashing Games

No matter what age your kids are it can be a lot of fun to play some fun summer games. Set them up for some fun in the pool and make some championship games centered around it. Set them up for diving contests, searching for rings, and even swimming competitions. Allow them to recapture their youth again (that is, from way back in early summer) before the madness of school begins, and set up a fun competition for them like water balloon toss or even hot potato.

Your child is never too old to have fun with their friends and this is a great way to celebrate summer and leave their worries about back to school behind. You can make it that much more fun by offering ribbons for the winners and prizes for all participants. You can go for picture frames, candy, or just a simple goodie bag to remember the day by.

The Best Food and Drink Around

The food and drink may be the best part of this end of summer party. There are many great things you can make and none of them are hard to do. You can start off with fresh fruit kabobs – they’re not only healthy but they’re fun to eat so kids of all ages will appreciate this little gem. Set out fresh veggies and a ranch dipping sauce, as well as some hummus and pita. You of course have to be sure to put out summer favorites like chips and fresh salsa or even a taco dip that they’ll all love.

If you want a simple dinner then just go for hot dogs on the grill with all the condiments. Serve them up with chips and a nice pasta salad as that’s the perfect summer dish. Then you need to be sure that you have a great dessert like marshmallows that they can roast later on for s’mores along with a nice summer dessert like ice cream. Serve up a variety of ice cream to make it special and fun for this summer party.

You need some great drinks so go for different flavors of lemonade like raspberry and strawberry for a fun and special twist. If you have time, mix up some slushies that they can enjoy poolside. You can pick up an ice shaver from Hamilton Beach, but I actually have a margarita maker that works great for this (and it’s an opportunity to use up the rest of my Elmo party supplies from a birthday last spring.)

Memories of the Hot Days

Take pictures of them all summer long and of course at this fun little last of the year party. Then put this together into a quick little slideshow that they can watch as it’s set to their favorite music. This will allow them to reminisce on their fun days that they shared together all summer long. Print out pictures of the fun day for each of them to take home in a picture frame and they will never forget this summer or this awesome end of summer bash.

By Chris Molnar, editor of a theme party ideas website for kids and adults. He and his two kids greatly enjoy their massive five foot kiddie pool, but that won’t stop them from having a fun outdoor party this weekend with five screaming preschool friends, the hose, some water guns and slushies!

I have to admit that I take the easy way of buying school supplies and always sign up in the spring to buy the back to school boxes that our PTO sells. However, there are still so many things that we need at the house to start the school year. I had never considered Sam’s Club before for school supplies although I’ve had a membership there for as long as I can remember.

When MyBlogSpark, Sam’s Club, and General Mills offered me the chance to review Sam’s Club and do a giveaway for my readers, I jumped at it! Armed with a $25 gift card, I headed to my local Sam’s Club to focus for the first time on something besides food. When I got there, I immediately found the Back to School section, which sort of merged in with office supplies as it continued a couple of rows. The first thing that I saw was the selection of pencils. We go through an unbelievable number of pencils at home for homework. We had to choose between mechanical and regular pencils and ended up with the mechanical. Either was a great deal and for less than $6 would last most families the whole year. Beside the pencils were markers, which we go through almost as quickly. I scooped up a couple of packages for coloring homework.

Next I started thinking about what we use a lot of during the school year. For lunches, we go through an insane number of sandwich bags. We got a huge box of Ziplock sandwich bags (my brand of choice) and the bonus was that each of the boxes inside the big box all had Box Tops on them. The other big item that I bought was detergent. We go through twice as many clothes during the school year because the kids usually wear one outfit to school and then something different in the evening–either dance clothes, gymnastics clothes, or clothes to play out in the yard. I stocked up on the biggest detergent that I could buy because I know that I will go through a lot of it very soon.

Bananas. I forgot that I actually did buy some food. I saw those big bunches of bananas and couldn’t resist. Perfect for lunch boxes because my braces-wearing daughter doesn’t need them cut up.

I also have a Sam’s Club “Plus Membership” coming and the cool thing about those is that if you upgrade between now and August 13, you get 150 Bonus Box Tops! Box Tops are huge at our school because we not only save them but we our classes compete to collect the most. Sam’s Club carries many different brands that have Box Tops, and the only thing better than Box Tops are Box Tops in bulk.

Now that I have gone on and on about Sam’s Club, how about I give away a $25 gift card??

To Enter:

1) Leave a comment below telling us what Back to School item you most want to buy from Sam’s Club (one entry).

2) Twitter about the contest and leave a comment below with your Tweet (one entry).

3) Sign up for our newsletter on the right and leave a comment below (e-mail will be verified) (one entry).

4) Blog about this contest or post the contest in your giveaway section and leave your link to the post below (two entries).

Drawing will take place August 26 at noon Eastern. Must be a US Resident, age 18 or older to enter. Winner will be notified via e-mail and have 24 hours to respond or a new winner will be selected.

*Thanks to MyBlogSpark, General Mills, and Sam’s Club for my items and the prize as well!

Edited: Congrats to our winner–Cheryl F, the Lucky Ladybug!

School shopping is upon us and people are looking for Back to School deals more than ever this year. Between the clothes, shoes, supplies, and book rental, the first month of school is an incredibly expensive time. If you are sending a student off to college, it is even worse!

So I ask all of you, what is the best back to school deal that you have gotten or seen this year? I’ll share mine with you! I cashed out for $200 in Kohls gift cards from saving up my credit card points. (It’s a card I pay off every month, so no worries about the interest costing me more than the cards!) I then went to Kohls during their Power Hour sales and saved about 50% off of $500 worth of clothes. I then had a 15% off coupon on top of that. After applying my Kohls gift cards, the final balance was $37. And I got a voucher from the “Get $10 when you spend $50″ deal that I get to go back and spend $40 this week! It was almost like getting $500 in clothes for free.

Your deal may not be quite that big, but what’s the best you have seen this year? Let’s all share so that we can save on back to school together!

My daughters had their first round of Parent Teacher Conferences this past week and I was traveling on business. It was strange for me not to be the one preparing for the meetings, but I knew my husband could handle it. Here are some tips that I gave him to get ready for the conference.

1) This sounds basic, but know the teacher and what classes your child takes. Understand if they rotate to art, music, PE, etc. so that you can be sure to ask if there is anything you need to know about those areas in addition to regular class.

2) Look over any documents that have come home in the previous weeks very carefully. Look for any indication of what the teacher has planned for the conference and what the “rules” are. For example, we are not supposed to bring our kids with us.

3) Review the grades so far for the semester. See if there is any subject in particular that you need to talk to the teacher about or if there are any particular types of work that your child does not do well on. For example, do they seem to do worse on tests although their homework is fine?

4) Make a list of questions in advance so that you don’t forget when you get there. Conferences are generally very short and to the point. There isn’t a lot of time for chatter for you to think about questions. If you have them written down, it will ensure you do not forget anything important.

5) Be sure to ask if there is anything that you can be doing to help whether it is in the classroom or at home. Does the teacher need more volunteers? Should you be encouraging your child to read more on the weekends? What role are YOU playing in your child’s education.

Although I wasn’t at my daughter’s conference, I was able to listen in through the speaker on my husband’s cell phone. It wasn’t perfect but having given him the tips above, I felt good about the results.

As the co-president of my school’s PTO, I am always looking for new ways that we can raise money without having parents constantly pulling out their wallets. We call it “Painless Ways.” With our school getting less and less tax money, we are trying to be creative to ensure that our teachers still get what they need and our students have the resources they can use. Some of the things that we do include collecting Box Tops, recycling, and “trash for cash” (things like used printer cartridges).

Just this morning I learned that we could get our parents to donate My Coke Rewards points to the school and turn those points into things like balls for the playground and art supplies. I’ve never been one to collect the points because we just don’t drink enough pop in our house to save up. But imagine if everyone in our school was collecting the points and donating them in a huge chunk together?

I called up my PTO co-president and before I could even explain the whole program, she was excited. We went to the website and registered our school. A letter will be sent to our principal in the next 15 days confirming that the school wants to enroll. After that, we will add the link to My Coke Rewards from our PTO website and start publicizing it in our newsletter.

If you volunteer in a school, I really encourage to get creative in finding ways to raise money for your school. It’s not all about selling gift wrap door to door anymore. Engage your school community in fun and easy ways–taking advantage of corporate programs like My Coke Rewards whenever possible. I’m excited to get this up and running for Harrison Parkway Elementary!