School Shopping Lessons Learned

Yesterday, Mom and I took Ella shopping for all her new school stuff.

I NEVER take my kids shopping because I spend way too much time

trying to keep the tantrums and begging to a minimum to actually remember

what I came for in the first place. This is probably my fault since my kids are good

 kids, but don't handle long shopping trips well because they have never had to.

Even before we left the house I heard Mom bribing Ella with $1 bills to clean her

room and the promise of a few more and a toy if she behaved and tried on any clothes

that we need her to. This probably won't win me parent of the year, but you do what

you have to when you are asking your five year old to power shop all day and try on

a millions pants, shoes, tops, backpacks and so on. There were several small fits

thrown and lots of differences of opinion for sure. When the day was over, she chose

makeup and lots of it as her gift for tolerating the long day. She started applying it before

we were out of the Mall parking lot and this is what she looked like by the Holland exit.

 Then we stopped at Carl Ray's to pick up Rydie. Big thanks to Aunt Polly for offering to

keep him all day. When we got home, Ella woke up and wanted to give Grandma Cindy a

makeover with her new makeup and another 20 minutes later my mom was blue and pink

and glitter all over. And this is what the kitchen looked like after bags were unloaded

and all tags clipped. Boy, this starting school stuff is exhausting but still lots of fun.
Next time I will just take her measurements along.