Back to School Shopping

Tonight, we took Grace back to school shopping. We received her school supply list a couple of weeks back, and I managed to put the shopping trip off long enough for the really good sales to start, so thankfully we didn't have to spend an arm and a leg getting everything. And, I have to credit Grace's school with keeping the list relatively short--they even mentioned on the supply list that they don't want the kids to have too much stuff because there's not a lot of room in their desks. Behold, the list:

-1 standard sized backpack
-oversized adult shirt for painting
-$5 for film development
-1 package low odor dry erase markers
-1 box kleenex
-1 roll paper towels
-1 24-count box of crayons
-1 packet of napkins
-2 plastic folders
-1 packet AA batteries
-1 bottle of hand sanitizer
-1 package paper plates or paper bags
-1 box gallon size Ziploc bags
-1 box of washable markers
-2 pink rectangular pencil erasers
-1 bottle of hand soap
-1 packet of dry erasers

My first reaction to the list was, "1 package paper plates OR paper bags? That seems pretty random. They seem to be related somehow, but I can't figure out exactly what the connection is." My other reaction was that the teachers must have each kid bring things to share with the rest of the class--the things like paper towels, napkins, Ziploc bags, AA batteries--so that the classroom will have enough to last the whole year. Sounds like a pretty good idea to me.

Anyway, the trip to the store started off with one minor disappointment. Aaron and I promised Grace a new Disney Princess backpack and matching lunch box for the new school year, and unfortunately Target only had the Princess lunch box and not the backpack. I thought about talking Grace into a plain pink backpack (not as cool as a Princess backpack, but hey, it was PINK), but she totally wasn't having it. Then she spotted the Hannah Montana backpacks, despite my efforts to divert her attention as far away from the Hannah Montana stuff as possible, she decided that she would forgo the Princess backpack for Hannah. I totally wasn't having that (I'm sorry--I just can't deal with my four-year-old caving in to the Hannah Montana craze), so I managed to convince her that we could head to a different store some time this weekend to find a Princess backpack. Whew. Crisis averted.

I was very pleased with the back to school deals found in the hallowed aisles of Target. We snagged the 24-pack of crayons for only 17 cents, and the markers were only a couple of bucks. Even the dry erase markers were cheap. We decided to give Grace one of Aaron's old shirts to use as her painting shirt, and thanks to the fact that Aaron hordes batteries (because he's a ninja), we didn't need to purchase any. In total, we spent less than $35 on school supplies, but $12 of that was her Princess lunch box, so I feel like we did pretty well.

Of course, this whole experience has been surreal for me. What happened to my little tree frog baby that I could hold with one hand as she curled up on my shoulder? How can it be that her day care years are just about behind her, when at one point they seemed to stretch interminably ahead of us? My baby is growing up.