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Congrats to Melissa from Sadieville, KY for winning the Wee Alphas print from Wee Society in my recent giveaway! Thanks to everyone who entered.
Right now, there's still time to enter the Back to School giveaway I have going on with TheFind where you can win a $50 Visa or Am Ex gift card that can be used anywhere! Deadline for entries is Wednesday, September 4th.
Back to School for us is only a couple days away. I just remembered had to get Chloe a backpack for Kindergarten. Doing a quick search on TheFind's new iPad app took mere seconds and gave me tons of results and store/price options for the Skip Hop Zoo style backpack I wanted. (I ended up choosing the ladybug. Cute, no?)
TheFind has a powerful shopping search that helps you look through every store and every product to quickly find you the best prices for back to school. Shopping with TheFind app is so much easier than comparison shopping from your computer. No more multiple browser windows or tabs open! I also love that you can fire up the app and literally start shopping. Just sign in with your Facebook login (or guest if you so choose) and you are pretty much ready to go with your shopping search!
Download TheFind app for iPad
Giveaway
To celebrate Back to School, TheFind and Coquette Maman have a fantastic giveaway for you! Shopping is hard and even if your little one has already started school, there's always something you need to buy – shoes (ah, their growing feet!), clothes or lunchtime goods. Here's your chance to win a $50 gift card for your online Back to School shopping! (Gift card will be a Visa or Am Ex card you can use anywhere.)
Rules:
Simply leave a comment to this post to enter. You must enter your email address in the email field. (Your address will not be viewable when published.) By adding your email address you will be subscribed to TheFind's shopping newsletter and from time to time receive emails on what's new TheFind. The contest will culminate in a grand prize drawing for a $100 gift card, to be chosen at random from all of the entries from participating bloggers. Deadline for entries is Wednesday, September 4th at 5pm PST. The grand prize winner of $100 will be chosen on Wednesday, September 11th and will be announced on September 12th.
Nordstrom Rack at 555 Ninth Street in San Francisco is now stocked with plenty of kids clothes! (For you new moms, there are lots of baby clothes too.) The folks at Nordstrom were nice enough to give me a $150 gift card to shop and check out all the cool kids' goods. A few days ago, my little fashionista Chloe and I took a shopping trip over to get her some new clothes for Back to School. Pictured above are the items we picked out together. She had a lot of input on what she wanted and we had a lot of fun. There was so much to choose from with lots of brand names you know and love.
Nordstrom Rack
555 Ninth Street (between Bryant Street & Brannan Street)
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 934-1211
Hours:
Mon-Sat 10am - 9pm
Sun 10am - 7pm
My girl probably grew about an inch or more this summer so we needed to stock up on jeans. We got two pairs in one of my favorite kids brands, Tractor. They make the best pants. I got a dark jean color and a floral pattern for her. These retail for $50 and over and we snagged them for just $29.97 and $23.97. I loved the colored jeggings by Joe's Jeans so we picked up a pair in Magenta for only $19.97 (regular $48). Let me tell you, this is going to be my go to place to pick up new pairs of pants. I don't have to wait for the anniversary sale and they have all the pants that are in fashion so I don't have to skimp on quality.
Hello Kitty cuteness was on display as well as sparkly tutus.
There were also lots of great clothes for boys. I love these striped Hurley hoodies – a staple for our foggy SF weather. I didn't get any photos of it but there were some great North Face fleece jackets for boys and girls floating around the section, mostly in toddler sizes.
You can't go back to school without a backpack, right? There were plenty of backpacks and mini-backpacks that were about $30 and under.
If you're a new mom and not yet ready for back to school, you'll enjoy the array of baby clothes that you can pick up. It made me nostalgic for the days when I could simply pick whatever outfit I wanted to for Chloe.
And if you are lucky enough to have some alone time to go sans kids, the handbag section is packed with some cute bags from Michael Kors, Rebecca Minkoff and more. Chloe didn't have the patience for me to look at my things so I'll have to go back by myself another day.
Shopping at Nordstrom Rack's kids' department was a breeze. Back to School shopping should always be this easy. Plus it's great to have free parking to shop somewhere in SF!
Disclaimer: Nordstrom provided me with at $150 gift card to review the shopping experience in this post.
I am super excited to partner up with my friends at Wee Society to present to you this fun Back to School giveaway. Win this unframed 18" X 24" Wee Alphas alphabet print (retail value $40) featuring letters hidden in their quirky characters such as Alexander the Angelfish, Biki the Buffalo and more. Your print comes stamped with a shiny metallic gold foil Wee Society seal. It's a great way to brighten up your kid's room!
Giveaway Entry Rules
This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. Simply leave a comment to this post to enter. For an extra entry point follow both Wee Society and Coquette on Facebook. (Let us know when you leave your comment that you are also following us on Facebook.) It's that easy! All entries must be received by Tuesday, August 27, 2013 at 5pm PST. Good luck!
This giveaway is now closed. Thanks to everyone who entered!
Wee Society is now updating their Facebook page with weekly printable activity pages. This week features a coloring page of their quirky character alphabet.
Related Posts:
Wee Society Celebrates their First Birthday with DIY Crown Project + New Letter App
On Friday afternoon, I got to experience what it's like to be a kid again at the circus. Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus' Built To Amaze is in the Bay Area for the next few weeks. I haven't been to the circus in decades so it was fun to experience the modern circus and share it all with my daughter.
A few of us Mommy Bloggers got a special treat to visit with the Asian elephants and see 7 year old Mabel do her painting magic. I had never been so up close to an elephant before and it was pretty amazing to see how social and fun they were with each other and us. The elephants love homemade bread and it was funny to see Mabel try and grab another loaf when her trainer walked away.
Here's Mabel's finished painting. Pretty good!
The pre-show to the circus is an hour before showtime and lets everyone get down into the circus floor to experience all the fun first hand. What a great concept! From acrobats to horses, we could see everything up close. The clowns were hilarious and I loved how diverse they were. When showtime started and the Ringmaster announced this was "The Greatest Show on Earth", I saw the smile on Chloe's face and knew just how special the whole evening was.
Upcoming Schedule
Oakland - Oracle Arena August 15-19
San Jose - SAP Center from August 21-26
San Francisco - Cow Palace from August 29-September 2
Sacramento - Sleep Train Arena from September 13-16
Stockton - Stockton Arena from September 20-22
Visit ringling.com to purchase tickets.
There's a new kind of board book in town! TouchThinkLearn books (Ages 3 and Up) by Xavier Deneux (published by Chronicle Books) brings a new dimension featuring raised die cut shapes for kids to explore and learn. Kids can not only see the image and say it's name, they can also trace the shape. The illustrations in the book are beautiful and the design is ingenious. The book is very sturdy unlike the many pop up flap books that I have ended up tossing out from all of the ripped pages after just a few months.
Right now the first two books of the series are out: TouchThinkLearn: Colors ($10.79 at Amazon) and TouchThinkLearn: Opposites ($10.79 at Amazon). Later in Spring 2014, look out for Shapes and Numbers. For your older youngsters (5-6 year olds), this book is great way for them to start reading words and learn basic spelling.
The TouchThinkLearn books make the perfect gift!
I have gone through a few different kinds of lunch bags for Chloe and I've found the lunch bags at Pottery Barn Kids to be the best. I love that the lunch bags designs feature a wide variety of adorable prints for girls and boys and they are not tied to any commercial character. Chloe has the retro lunch bag in a previous butterfly pattern. I even got it embroidered with her name too which is a nice touch. It's the perfect size for a kid to carry. I chose the retro size lunch bag since it was easier to stack up her small plastic containers to sit along with a thermos of soup or juice box. After a year of daily use in school, it's still in perfect shape. I asked her if she wanted to pick a new lunch bag for Kindergarten and she refused. She loves her butterfly lunch box. Gotta love that!
Tip: I saw this on the Today show last year. There are so many germs at school that it's important to wash their most used school items such as their lunch bag or backpack. I have been washing Chloe's retro lunch bag each weekend and it is still in such fantastic quality.
Get free shipping for a limited time on all lunch bags at potterybarnkids.com.
The Wee Society celebrates their first birthday with lots of cool new things! First up is the Wee Wishing Crowns, a DIY project where kids can make and decorate their own crowns. The pdf comes with instructions and printable templates for your little ones to have plenty of crafty fun.
One of Chloe's favorite new apps is the Find Your Special Letter App (free download through August 8th on iTunes). She loves finding the letter shape within each animal. The extra little animations on each page are too cute! Kids can also choose their favorite letter and trace it to practice their writing skills. My favorite letter is "U" for the Unicorn where the rainbow colors animate. The app is just filled with beautiful design and illustrations you and your kids will enjoy.
"Mommy, owie!! Stop!" is what I often hear from Chloe when I'm trying to brush the tangles out of her hair.
Lucky for the both of us I just discovered the Tangle Teezer. Ignore the cheesy name and just read today's NY Times article called "A Truce in Hand-to-Hair Combat". It tells the story of the inventor Shaun Pulfrey, a British hair colorist who originally created the computer mouse-looking brush for professional salons so that just color-treated hair could be brushed without breaking the strands. Pulfrey sought investment help by going on a British TV show for entrepreneurs but was shot down but the judges. Instead, UK parents saw the brilliance of the invention for brushing kids' hair and the massive traffic/orders ending up crashing the Tangle Teezer web site.
I have a feeling now our mornings will go smoothly with this new brush and am excited to try it out. I'll report back on how it well it works.
Get the Tangle Teezer for $9.99 at Target.
