School shopping

When I was little my favorite time of the year was school shopping. When Brandon was born of course I bought him a ton of clothes but there was never much of a purpose. I just bought cute things. Slowly you learn the mistake in that. For instance buying cute little outfits with pants shirts and jackets when your kid is crawling is mostly pointless. No one really sees it, it gets dirty, the little jackets get in the way and it's a lot of shit to deal with during a diaper change. This time around Codi has mostly lived in onsies and footie jammies. He still has all of Brandons cute outfits which are handy for photos or dinners out. I would have saved a lot of money had I known that with Brandon.

Now that Brandon is older and walking and potty trained there is a lot of different things that come to mind when shopping. For instance, overalls while cute are now OUT! they are way to hard for kids to take off to go potty. Same goes for belts. I firmly believe in the adjustable waist pants now! I am presenting to you my must haves for school shopping this year!

First off, since Brandon is potty trained he gets to wear big boy undies. For the longest time he only wore the Hanes boxer briefs in red and blue. Last week I went to Gymboree and found these little boxer briefs. They are $7.00 which is very pricey for undies, but if you go on the sale rack you can find tons for $3.49. Anyway, I brought home two pairs and now that is all Brandon wants to wear. I've been slowly collecting them all and we now have all designs minus the pirate ones (which I want BAD) because they still don't have his size.
Also on my list is hooded sweatshirts THAT DO NOT ZIP. Last year the zip up hoodies were fine. Then Brandon learned to unzip his fucking shirts. This means that he can just unzip it and toss it any ole place. At school this is a bad thing because other kids take them, they get lost, or since he doesn't know how to zip it back up he will go outside in the cold with out a jacket since he doesn't quite understand asking the teacher for it back. When I went shopping yesterday I was on a mission for these. THE ONLY place I found them were at Gymboree. They were $20.00. I bought two and plan to buy two more in a couple more weeks if they go on sale. Currently Gymboree is having a sale on a ton of items where anything $12.50 - $20.00 is only $10.00 and anything $21.50 - $30.00 is only $20.00. They had some great jeans for only $10.00 there.
The next thing on my list of must haves is clothes for school. My school requires you to leave TWO changes of weather appropriate clothes there at all times. This drives me nuts because I don't want to buy nice stuff and have it just sit at the school. I also like to keep some clothes for him at work, and in my car, and have some stuff to leave at my parents house. For this I go to Walmart. I did everything in one color so you can see they sell everything in sets (they even had tees and shorts that match for summer).

These long sleeve shirts are very soft and only $3.50. They are sturdy yet soft and wash well. I buy two of each color usually.
These pull on pants rock. They are soft and also ONLY $3.50. I don't care if Brandon gets them muddy and gross and I don't mind leaving them at school, work or families. I also love just having some really cheap pants around for playing in the sandbox or with his sidewalk paints. Not pictured are the matching sweats which are only five bucks. Would you believe these stupid cheap sweats are my FAVORITE toddler sweats of all time! They are soft, don't shrink and last forever. I buy a gazillion of them a year.
These are the matching sweatshirts. They are $3.50 also. I like to have a few of these around to throw on under his jackets, keep in my car or just wherever.
I'm sure a lot of people are absolutely against shopping at Walmart for kids clothes. For someone like me who prefers Gap, Gymboree, and Dillards Walmart is a stretch. However some things I just love getting there. They have great socks, undies, and kids wife beaters (A shirts). I always stock up on the wife beaters for winter as a second layer under long sleeve shirts.

For shoes this year there are two pair I'm really feeling for winter. We bought these Sketcher Nollies. I loved the brown coloring because it matched a lot of clothes I bought Brandon. I also love that they are Velcro so he can put them on with out help from the teachers.
Every single season we get a new pair of black converse Velcro shoes. He will probably own these until he moves out and can buy his own shoes.
Finally we get to real clothes. I prefer to buy all Brandon's jeans at Baby Gap. Yes they are expensive but they last. I pay $24.50 - $30.00 regular price for them. I realize that seems pricey but I have two boys so I need thing that will last for Codi. So far every single pair of Brandons Gap jeans look as good as the first day I bought them. They also have amazing sales. Right now there are some jeans down to $19.99. However if you go in throughout the season you can find jeans and shirts from $3.99 - $6.99. I buy stuff a year in advance sometimes if I like it enough. Here are two of the pairs of jeans I got him this year (we got more, these are my faves)

I loooove waffle shirts. They go great under hoodies, and jackets. They keep him warm but not so warm that they are hot when he is inside for class. They come in tons of colors and at gap if you buy more then one they are only $9.00 each. I have bought these every year for Brandon and each shirt still looks new so I'm happy knowing they can be passed right down to Codi.
I got a couple of these waffle shirts also. They were $16.50 so a little pricier. I love them because they are fun colors and can really tie an outfit together. This shirt can go with browns, reds, and denim.
Finally I love to hit up Old Navy for some fleece. I got there right on time and was able to find these fleece jackets for $9.90 and the pants for only $7.90. Fleece is so versatile. It is soft, and warm. It's great to put on under snow pants. I like it also because it is comfortable. On days he is feeling a little blah I like to put him in his fleece. It's nicer to nap in at school plus durable. Old Navy really does good with fleece. I have all of Brandons fleece sets saved for Codi. They wash well, don't bunch and are stylish.

This is basically what I spent my weekend doing. Putting together a great winter wardrobe. Here is a breakdown total of what I got and why.

*6 pairs of jeans. (1 from Old Navy, 1 from Gymboree, and 4 from gap all adjustable waist) (one for each school day and a weekend day if needed that way I can make it one week with out having to wash jeans)
*2 pairs of pull on pants, sweat shirts, and long sleeve shirts from Walmart (to leave in his class as his change of clothes)
*2 pairs of fleece pants with matching jackets from Old Navy
*8 waffle shirts total (4 from Old Navy ((2 for $12.00)) and 4 of the above from Gap) I buy a lot to make outfits look different. Same jeans different shirt.
*1 pair of super cute Corduroy pants. (For dressier days, dinners out etc)
*2 sets of sweat pants and hooded sweat shirt (One from Gap and one from Babies R Us for $9.00)
*2 hooded non zip sweat shirts in basic colors (camo green and brown)
*2 hooded waffle shirts from Babies R Us.
*4 pairs of jammies. (I got 2 at Babies R Us and two at Walmart) (I have to admit I bought stupid matching jammies for Codi, I've never been that mom but just think of the pictures of the boys in matching jammies SQUEEEEEE!)
*8 new A shirts from Walmart in various colors
*8 new pairs of boxer briefs from Gymboree and Walmart
*Socks. I got 4 pairs from Gymboree in fun colors an styles. A ton on sale for $3.00 at Gap, again in fun colors. Finally a few standard pairs from Walmart in calf and ankle length so he had variety.
*6 Cute fun long sleeve shirts from Walmart and Gap (mostly Gap) just to change things up.
*6 pairs of finger gloves ($1.00 for a pack of two at Walmart)
* 2 beanie's ($1.50 from Walmart)

I feel between the jeans, sweats and fleece pants Brandon has a full arsenal of pants for the year. He is also set shirt wise. One of the other things I forgot to mention is that I LOVE to get a couple plain color waffle shirts (white, brown, and black) to layer under his T-shirts. I spend a lot of money on good T-shirts there is no reason to waste them. Not to mention you can actually pay extra for that look at stores, so why not create it myself and spend half the price. 3 of the waffle shirts I bought above can create at least 20 different shirts when combined with Brandon's T-shirts. Here is an example of the. REALLY. CUTE. SHIRTS. BRANDON has, so can you see why I would layer them and reuse them during winter?

Still on my list are snow boots, pants and a winter jacket. I also want to get some more cute beanie's from Baby Gap but they didn't make it into the budget this time. I don't have to buy anything else again until next summer. I also didn't buy anything for Codi. Well not true, I got the two cute pairs of matching jammies and one little matching sweat suit because Babies R Us clothes are buy one get one 50% off so I grabbed a little one for Codi. Other then that, since I buy everything of Brandon's in high quality it has all lasted and I don't have to buy ANYTHING for Codi AT ALL! So while it seems like I spent enough now, keep in mind I only have to shop for one kid! (My mom also went in halves with me at Gap, had she not I would have spaced my shopping out over the next 4 weeks, two pairs of pants and shirts per week!)

(Before anyone thinks Codi is getting screwed my mom did pick up this super cute outfit for him from Gap, and I also got him one really cute little sweat outfit so he did have two non hand me down outfits)