3 Tips for Throwing the Perfect Back to School Party

It's almost back to school time! Do you know what that means? Back to school shopping...the hurried reading of summertime books, hair cuts, the arranging of babysitters, transportation...And last but not least - throwing a Back to School Party!

In preparation of my back to school party, I did a little virtual shopping and made a bit of a wish list for the things I'd love to see in my back yard at the end of this summer. Kmart has a wonderful outdoor patio catalog, and they currently have a ton of items in the patio department on sale in our local Kmart. I absolutely love #KmartOutdoor - over the years, I've acquired so many wonderful pieces for my patio and backyard - like my 20 foot above ground pool, which is always the life of the party at the Quillen house!

We've recently rebuilt our above ground pool and our backyard is once again party ready - but of course I always want more fun stuff in the back yard to make our parties more fun!

In preparing for our back to school party, I realized that I needed to make things simple. Everyone in the family is really busy getting ready for back to school, and I am no exception. Angeline begins high school in two weeks!

HIGH SCHOOL, people!

Here are 3 simple tips for throwing a killer back to school party that will make it easy for you and your attendees to attend and have a fantastic time.

1. Send your invitations through an electronic invite program, like Evite or Facebook. 

I created a Facebook invitation and invited my sister and her three children, my aunt and my cousin, my cousin and his four children and my sister in law and three nieces and nephews. Doing everything electronically makes it so easy for guests to RSVP and makes it easy for me to keep track of who's coming so that I can prepare for the party. Each time I am working on the food or seating arrangements, I have a a head count just by pulling up the invite on my iphone!

2. Keep the food simple!

With the back to school rush, don't try to cook elaborate meals. Just throw some burgers and hot dogs on the grill and serve fruit and veggie platters.

3. Provide entertainment and a pretty seating area for your guests.

We are lucky in that we were able to get our pool back up before our Perfect Outdoor Summer Sendoff party. If you do not have a pool, think about outdoor activities like a Slip & Slide, water guns or even a little wading pool for the little kids. You can find a ton of options in the #KmartOutdoor section - that's where we bought our pool two years ago!

Outdoor seating is so important. We currently have a large patio table with chairs, but we always need more seating in the backyard because our family is so large. I loved shopping through the Kmart Outdoor Living catalog, it gave me so many ideas for new seating arrangements!

I especially love the gazebos in the Kmart Outdoor Living section - we really need one of these! It gets so hot in Miami during the late summer that family and friends often huddle under our mango trees for shade. I'd love to have a gazebo or canopy on the patio to make the outdoor experience more enjoyable for our guests!

While we do have one table already, I would love to add to our patio furniture for additional seating. I just love the options available in the Kmart Outdoor Living catalog online. I found so many pretty options, and a lot of them even match my current patio set (probably because I bought it at Kmart three years ago)! You can see all of the items I looked through in this Google+ story.

This little bench is only $29.99 and would be perfect for sitting next to the pool for the kids to leave their things. I'd love to have this and plant flowers around it for an extra special touch!

I am a Kmart Shop Your Way Rewards member and I follow Shop Your Way Rewards on Twitter to find out about special deals! I love taking advantage of extra savings when I shop at Kmart, and redeeming those rewards!

If you haven't already signed up, I highly recommend it!

You can also keep track of special savings on the Kmart Weekly Deals website!

I created this little Polyvore inspiration board with some of my favorites - I especially love the high back patio set with the umbrella and the Amherst Bistro set and bench. Those would look adorable on my front porch too!

You can visit the Kmart Social Circular Website for lots of ideas on how to transform your outdoor space to make it more like your indoor space - warm and inviting! The Kmart Facebook Page is always full of great ideas and tips as well!

UPDATE: So, I went ahead and made a visit to my local Kmart to shop their outdoor sale - there were so many things were on clearance! Even though summer isn't even over yet in Miami, many things were marked down 50% and more. I really wanted a gazebo, but there was only one left and it was damaged. Sad panda.

But, I did manage to find this awesome Jaclyn Smith patio umbrella for $29.99 - it was marked down from $99.99! And the base was on sale for $10.00!

Disclaimer: Key Limes do not come with purchase. LOL

This will have to do while we are saving up for a new patio set and gazebo for in the yard and a deck next to the pool!

I am a member of the Collective Bias Social Fabric Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and Kmart. #KmartOutdoor #Cbias #SocialFabric