Guilt Trips, Day Trips, and Shopping Trips (Back-To-School)
  

Guilt Trips, Day Trips, and Shopping Trips (Back-To-School)

Well, it happened. Tuesday night (a week ago), it finally happened. I could sense that it was coming, and I wasn't too sure why it hadn't hit yet, but I wasn't surprised at all when it did. It was the back-to-school breakdown.

My baby is starting kindergarten. It was the last week of summer. We had a rough day on Tuesday & I was feeling that mother-guilt. Wednesday & Thursday contained a total of 6 dentist appointments between the 4 of us (one of which meant 3 fillings for me- which stresses me out). The reality of how few free days we had left in our summer was hitting me. The frustrations of the day were hitting me. The dread of all of the dentist appointments to come hit me. And on top of it all, the overwhelming (-ly dramatic) sense of dread and unbearable sadness that is the awareness of your children growing older.. was just washing over me.

Truly, isn't it amazing the level of emotion that comes with mothering? Sometimes I know I'm being a bit extreme/dramatic when I feel a breakdown of this nature hitting, but I can't help myself!

We got through the dentist days and Friday came and I was still a bit raw, emotionally, but thankfully I was getting together with my parents that day and they helped me to pull off a fun day for the girls. We went to a splash park, we went out for frozen yogurt, and Talia even got a back-to-school haircut (basically, we chopped half of her hair off- it's half the length that it was before). I felt better after Friday.



Yesterday was the true last day of summer, and Ken started the day off in a great way:


He left board games on the table with a note telling them to wake him up :)

Then we went to visit my parents, my brother and his wife, and one of my sisters & her husband. Then my parents & my family hit the local fair where Katrina was a superstar, having won 1st place for her colouring job, and Talia earned a ribbon for a drawing as well. I entered some of my photography & was excited to have won a couple of special prizes. The girls each went on a ride, we watched some shows, and had a great last-day-of-summer.

So today, when we got Talia to the bus for school, I was feeling like I could handle it all.


What a difference a week can make! Are all of your kids back to school now, too? Katrina will start on Friday, but tomorrow we get to have a little meeting with her teacher. So, there's still that- the first day that I send both of my kids to school and come home BY MYSELF.


So, how did your back-to-school preparation go?
What are your back-to-school traditions?

I had a few that I thought would be great to start this year that just didn't happen. Maybe I'll fit them in this week- we'll see how it goes. I did get out shopping with the girls though, and got Katrina a backpack & lunch bag and some clothes for both girls.


I like back-to-school shopping (brings back fond memories from when I was the kid going back- the freshness, the newness, the excitement of it all), but Talia isn't a big fan of trying things on lately (it's just a hassle to her- there are more fun things to be doing), so it was a challenge to get her interested in shopping. We did have a couple of successful trips, though. One of which was a trip to Sears- I was given a $100 gift card to spend on back-to-school stuff at Sears, and was looking forward to it! I knew that Sears had started selling Carters & Oshkosh clothes (which I tend to like), so I was excited to take a look at those.

When we got there, we found out they had a sale on their shoes (which was sweet because each of my girls still needed running shoes). We found a pair for each of them! (Katrina needed Velcro and we found some cute New Balance shoes for her) and Talia got some lace-up Reebok runners.

The girls spotted some T-shirts that you could colour with special markers that came with them. (You colour them, then wash them, then colour again, several times). They were on sale for like $5 each and it became apparent that we would not be leaving without them- their Daddy was converted ;) They've been having fun with those!



I did find some jeans that I really liked for Talia there, too, but they were not on sale (it's hard for me to pay full price ;) and I had a feeling I could get her some jeans for cheaper if I waited, so we left them behind. We also got Katrina some jeggings and a cute Carters top, and Talia got a sparkly silver belt.
(Not bad for $100 total, I'd say!)

I had Katrina try on her new outfit for this photo & she did not want to take them off
(even though it was a HOT day!)

She is modeling her new clothes on the left, and practicing putting her shoes on by herself on the right)

Another thing I was reminded of is that Sears has a KidVantage lifetime wear out warranty which covers children's apparel and footwear as long as a child in the family continues to wear the size! They also have a Price Match Guarantee (more details at the KidVantage link above).

Don't miss the Sears "Back We Go" Facebook contest that's going on right now! (Click here to like the Sears Facebook page & click on the contest tab to enter for a chance to win one of 5 weekly $500 Sears gift card prizes, and a daily $50 Sears gift card to put towards your shopping!)

Disclosure: I am part of the Sears Back to School Blogger Campaign with Mom Central Canada and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.


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1 comment:

Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment- I love reading them! :)
~Heather Lynne

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