Back to School Haul: Preschool Edition

This sweet curly haired, blue eyed girl that made me a mama is starting preschool this September (cue the ugly cry)!!  I am so excited for her to start this next chapter in her life, but part of me isn’t ready to share her with anyone else. She is bright and beautiful, bold and brave, strong and kind. She is intelligent beyond her years, up for any challenge and loves with her whole heart. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for her ❤ 

I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to stay home with our kids, so E has never been in a more structured program that doesn’t involve mommy or daddy. Trying to explain to her that she will be starting preschool soon, about meeting her lovely teachers and all the friends she will make has been a little tricky. We received her list of school supplies a couple weeks ago and in picking everything out I wanted her opinion as much as possible so everything she has with her, she chose! I wanted them to be items she will love and hopefully remind her of this big milestone we took together.

Herschel Supply Co.

We started with her backpack. This house hold is a big fan of Herschel Supply Co., we all have our own backpacks for travel, work and now school! They have so many fun designs and prints that we really struggled picking one, but I had narrowed it down to the Heritage Youth Backpack. It is on the bigger side for her right now, but I wanted a backpack that she could grow in to, to use when traveling and I love that it has a mesh pocket for her water bottle.. and a bonus a little pocket for Bunny too!

Yumbox Minisnack Box

Since E will only be gone a few hours, she will need just a couple snacks to tie her over until home time. This item took me awhile to settle on because it is a bit pricey, but in my research I only found great reviews and I knew it would be well used and hopefully if it makes it there.. passed down to her baby brother. I wanted a simple, bento style lunch box that had compartments, because I guarantee you if I gave her individual containers for each of her snacks, not all of those containers will make it home. E is also big on dip, will dip anything and everything, so her lunch container needed to be leak proof. I purchased our Yumbox online through Indigo, but there are several shops that sell the various styles Yumbox provides, including Yumbox’s website.

Old Navy

Next item to check off our list was an easy slip on pair of ‘inside’ shoes. E has grown like a weed and because she is the first grandbaby for both of our families, everyone after us who has children will have hit the jackpot of hand-me-down items. Plenty of which, I’m positive were only worn a handful of times!! That being said, our kids play rough, and also like to use their shirts as napkins which means we have multiple outfit changes in a day. They must know how much I lovvvee doing laundry.. I’m sure if you haven’t shopped, you have at least checked an Old Navy store out and will have seen some super cute items for kids at affordable prices. We found these cute, neutral grey with a tinge of sparkle slip on shoes to go with any outfit and that will hopefully last her to Christmas break!

Mabel’s Labels

Last, but certainly not least was purchasing labels to label all of her preschool supplies! When I was a kid, I’m pretty sure my mom just wrote our names with permanent market on all of our belongings and while that did cross my mind, I figure my baby boy may not appreciate having E’s name on every hand-me-down item he receives. I had heard of Mabel’s Labels from my years of working with children, but had never looked into them until now and I had no idea they were created by some Canadian moms! They have so many different designs and combo packs, you can customize your own and a huge bonus they’re all dishwasher, microwave and laundry safe! So it was a no brainer, that we supported them and purchased our first set of Mabel’s labels.

So momma’s.. what are some your family’s favourite back-to-school items? There is SO MUCH to choose from it can be overwhelming sometimes. Fill me in on all your good finds!!

Andreana xo

Disclaimer: This post is in no way sponsored. All opinions are 100% my own.