School Supply Shopping... we aren't in Kansas any more folks...

Does any one remember when you were in elementary school and that first day of school we went with our pencils, a few notebooks, and maybe a folder or two... oh and don't forget about the trapper keeper :) The only school shopping I remember was getting my new clothes, book bag, and sneakers... oh and really quick while we are on that topic- did any one else have their "school clothes" and their "play clothes"? When I got home from school I was to change into my play clothes right away so to keep my school clothes nice and really for school. Now my daughters wear their "school clothes" all the time and we even buy new clothes during the year... whoa that is not what happened back in the day when we grew up {unless it was birthday or christmas}.

This all just takes me back to my elementary years when yes... things just seemed more simple. Take for example this past week I took Kendal and Madison to Target (DUH) to get their school supplies. Armed with our lists in hand and the twins in the double cart we hit the school supply isle. Things started off great until Charlotte decided the milk from starbucks looked better all over hear head rather than in her belly... (yea that great start I mentioned earlier lasted 3 whole minutes) So a quick change and wipe bath for Charlotte and a trip to the car to get the stroller and Kendal to move all the supplies we had gotten in our 3 minutes to a new cart we were ready to try again. Things went some what better... but here are a few of my favorite things about school shopping {wink...wink}
1. Oh you need WIDE RULED NOTEBOOKS..... let me see if we have any over the 1 Million COLLEGE RULED NOTEBOOKS.
2. You need a box of 16 count crayons.... let me see if we have those... nope just 12, 18, 24... great thanks
C. You "ONLY" need 12 gallon size bags.... but wait I don't see 12 in one box...looks like its 50
4. 2 green highlighter.. oh this is easy... MOM There are only packs with 5 highlighters and 1 is green... really now I must spend $8 just to get two green highlighters

And the list goes on.... and really goes on

But we made it and the kids have fun picking out stuff they will never use because it goes into a stock pile and then at the end of the year my children bring home things I did not buy for them during school shopping - fun.

Now let me just say to my teach friends and others for that matter- I am fully aware of how the school supply shopping goes and why we need to buy so many of so many things and hey I'm cool with it. I know how it works so I make sure my kids don't get too attached to certain things I know they won't likely be using as their "own" its also good lesson for them to learn why we need to buy so much and we only use some of them.

So while school supply shopping is crazy and pretty hectic its one those times my girls look forward to every year {last year it put me into labor and I was in the hospital for 5 days!!} this year we had the milk incident. I am excited to see what next year brings for school shopping and our growing children.

Shop on Friends and mamas when you finish that school shopping and you send your kids back to school.... enjoy your own "Back to School" shopping!!