This post is sponsored by GapKids. Check out all the fun Shine On activities at your nearest Gap store. For event dates and locations, visit Gap’s Facebook page and join the conversation on Twitter with hashtag #ShineOn.
It’s back to school time all across the country.
Except for here.
In Virginia we don’t start back until after Labor Day. There’s, like, a law. When we first moved here, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. Because of the late start, school ran well into June.
After a few years, I decided I liked the September start. It felt like we got to use summer up. To catch all the fireflies. To swim in the pool until our hair smell permanently of chlorine. To select all the perfect peaches and tomatoes from the farm stand by the highway. To get thoroughly sick and tired of each other.
When Labor Day fun passes, everyone in my house is ready to start gettin’ all educated and back in the routine of our normal activities.
September and back to school time feels like the true start of a new year, much more so than January. New books, new (closes eyes; inhales deeply) school supplies, and new outfits. When I was young, it was the only time we really shopped on purpose.
My girls and I will look for cute new fall outfits at GapKids. The girls are so tall that this is probably the last year we can shop at GapKids for them.
While they are looking forward to shopping in Juniors sizes in other stores, I’m nostalgic for the pretty dresses I bought for them at GapKids when they were little. I’d have to anesthetize my older daughter to get a dress on her now.
During weekends in August, some GapKids stores are hosting “Shine On” Saturdays.These events will include art projects planned by Merrilee Liddiard of Mer Mag. Here’s a blurb about what you and your kids can expect:
This month, select GapKids stores in stores in across the country will host Shine On Saturdays events. From creating geometric masterpieces on canvas using paint and tape to colorful, custom journals to get kids ready for back-to-school, the projects help kids express their creativity!
I’m severely craft impaired. It’s not a genetic condition, because my mom and all my kids are really good at the arts and crafts thing. When I was little, I painted a picture of what was supposed to be a kitty, but turned out looking more like a raging hell-beast. I was lucky to avoid a psychiatric evaluation after that art class.
At least I didn’t draw naked astronauts like my brother did. To be fair, he was just worried about how you’d go to the bathroom during a space walk.
Anyway, GapKids has super cute skinny jeans for girls in great bright colors. And their clothes for boys are manly (boyly?) and durable, but still adorbs.
Don’t tell him the clothes are adorbs. Just forget the word adorbs altogether.
In the southern Maryland/northern Virginia area? Check it out!
GapKids Shine On Saturday events in the Washington, D.C. Area
Saturday August 11 — GapKids in Georgetown
10am-1pm
1258 Wisconsin Avenue NW
Washington, D.C.
Saturday August 18 — GapKids at Montgomery Mall
10am-1pm
7101 Democracy Boulevard
Bethesda, MD
Saturday August 25 — GapKids at Pentagon City
10am-1pm
1100 S. Hayes Street
Arlington, VA
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
Thanks for reading this whole post and watching the video. Now, a little call to action! What was your favorite back-to-school clothing item when you were a kid? Mine was a green calico jumper I wore over a white blouse with puffed sleeves. So Seventies cute.
My strongest memories of a back to school outfit are from my freshmen year in high school. Navy blue seersucker bell bottoms, a wide white belt with a blue navy anchor, and a blue and white (plaid) halter top (without a bra!) I thought I looked hot! From that day forward I can’t remember anything else I wore the next four years. Changing hairstyles of course, but that’s it.
Ooh, bell bottoms. I missed those, but I did wear corduroy knickers. With a matching vest.