Kicking off the school year

Our school's logo

The last of our books for the 2014-2015 school year arrived at the beginning of August and the kids were EXCITED!  So excited that I was quite frankly shocked.  They kept asking me when they could start and what they could do.  In an effort to delay them, I suggested that perhaps they could name the school, come up with a mascot, pick out some school colors, etc.  

They got right to it and even designed a logo with my help:Tom Thumb suggested that the mascot be a cat.  Red then drew a picture with two cats with intertwining tails with the letter N floating between them (N is the first letter of our last name).  We found the clipart online and I did some finagling to get the N to be purple and yellow, the school colors that they chose.  Guess who chose which color!  Ha ha!  They named our school N_____ Academy, even though Tom Thumb was still pushing hard for it to be named Cat Academy.  

Red even picked the school motto.  She selected it on her own from the Dr. Seuss book "Oh the Places You'll Go!"  The quotation is:

I think it is a brilliant motto and very fitting with what our goals are.

Then, they suggested they wanted a school grand opening party---complete with snacks and balloons.  We ended up at Party City where they each got a balloon with their grade number on it and a whistle (I'm already regretting the whistles).

We also baked cupcakes and frosted them purple and yellow in celebration of the school colors.

We're off to a great start with a lot of joy!  Hopefully we can maintain that spark and momentum as the year goes on.

How did you kick off your school year?  Do you have any family traditions that start it off on a good foot?