It begins....

School starts on Wednesday and we're almost ready. Backpack has been purchased (gotta love the back to school sale at LL Bean), and the Kleen Canteen for the daily water.

We don't buy school supplies here, so a backpack, new shoes and some supplies for lunch are much less expensive than $150 in paper/crayons/notebooks. :) I love that.

We learned our lesson with the backpack from last school year. It was also a Bean bag - and it held up great - except the fact that it is FILTHY! Julia wanted a purple bag and it was a solid light purple color. The first time or two it cleaned up great in the wash. After that - not so much. Lesson learned. Dark bottom - check. Pattern - check. Her backpack from kindergarten is in perfect condition still it's just too small to hold snowpants, boots, lunch, etc. I'm hoping this bag with it's dirt camouflage will hold us over for a year or so.

We're not buying a lot of school clothes - well, actually right now we're not buying any. We have some clothes from last year that she never grew into that she's getting close to, and until it's time for long sleeves and pants - I want to wait and see what size she is in.

Let's just say it's time for school to start. She misses her friends and the occasional play date isn't cutting it. We've had a great summer and it's time to start 2nd grade!!