My youngest will be going into kindergarten this fall. This is my baby. And the last one in our household to experience this milestone for the first time. But (and I know I don’t have to tell you this…) this year is going to be decidedly different.
She is an extrovert. MAN, is she an extrovert. And quarantine has been tough for this little one.
School Shopping
We are only a few weeks out and now that we have a tentative plan for the schools – the subject of school shopping arises in our household. I want my youngest to have the experience of school shopping for the first time. Not to mention I need my eldest to experience this as well as part of her processing what is to come.
So, in true mom-fashion, it kept me up at night.
What is something we can do to attempt to make this exciting and memorable without adding undue stress?
A Fashion Show
And then it came to me like a Christian Siriano handbag to the face. What about a fashion show? (Full disclosure, I might – just might – have been re-watching old episodes of Project Runway at the time… credit where credit is due.)
The next day (because, let’s be honest, time is short) it was a frantic gathering of all uniforms that I had stashed away over the last year. I’m cheap… er, frugal… and have been hoarding second-hand sizes as I find them because my eldest grows like a weed and all it takes is one bad night of growing pains to put her in an entirely new size of clothes. Old sizes from Tupperware’s in the garage, new sizes from trash bags formerly stashed in the crevices of closets, the ones I never quite cleared out of the closet after my eldest was sent home from school last time… oops, guilty.
I laid them all out on the couches per style and size.
My girls had worked that day “making jewelry” so they could “sell it to us” to “purchase” their “new” school clothes.
Yes. All the air-quotes. This wasn’t haphazardly put together at all. (Read: sarcasm. And insert sheepish grin here.)
Also, apparently we need to revisit the idea of allowances. But that is for another day.
I outfitted them each with a shopping bag and pointed them to the section of the living room that contained their designated sizes. It was a family event and we worked together putting outfits aside to try on. We outfitted another room as their fitting room and the fashion show was about to start.
The Runway
We queued techno music on Alexa, dimmed the lights and we were off.
Did I mention that my youngest is an extrovert? She left it all on the stage with her fierce walk, proud poses and her signature style (rolling up pants on the bottom). We cheered our hearts out and in all honestly might have to explain that one to the neighbors later.
So this year is different. But different isn’t always bad. We might have just found a new family tradition to ring in the school year from here on out.
Necessity is the mother of invention, right?
