Mom’s Fave: Lands’ End School Uniform Review

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You guys know I loooove Lands’ End – it really and truly is about 95% of my wardrobe. But I also love Lands’ End for my kids, and school uniforms are no exception. This year is my 6th (can you BELIEVE that?) year with a kid in uniforms and Lands’ End are still my favorite hands down. Recently a friend who is sending her 3 boys to our school for the first time this year asked me advice on uniforms and I said “It’s an investment but since you have three boys in middle or high school, you need to buy Lands’ End for the hand-me-down quality and for the fact that they will take them back for any reason ever if you have a problem.”

And I think that’s all I really need to say! But I will add that they wash and dry wonderfully, better than any other brand I’ve used.

And now, the outfits and gear I chose for my kids this year!  I got Joshua a new backpack for middle school because his previous Lands’ End backpack, which he’s used for three years and still looks totally new, is a smaller size and he needs a bigger one for middle school. I chose the Featherlight Large Backpack:

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This thing holds a TON of stuff, check it out!

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Joshua loves it and he even did a review of it on KidzVuz.com which you can see here (not his best work but hey, he’ll get better!) Other things I like about it – it holds a lot but is lightweight and has padded straps to make it easy to carry!

Joshua’s lunchbox is in great shape and he’ll be using the same Lands’ End lunchbox for the 4th year! Sophie will be using hers for the 3rd year (and her backpack) so if you need a lunchbox, I highly recommend them!

Ok, now back to clothes: Here’s Sophie’s warm-weather look: short sleeve polo dress with school logo. I LOVE this darling dress!

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This washes like a dream, and it’s really comfortable for Sophie to run and play in. As are the cute Mary Janes she’s wearing. I got her a brown pair last year, and a black pair at end-of-season clearance last year, and now she has a navy pair, too! They are the BEST. They can go from church to the playground seamlessly and they hold up SO well.

For Joshua’s warm-weather look, I went with this orange mesh polo shirt – I love this color on Joshua and they way the school logo pops! I also went with the classic chino shorts. These look so polished and also come out of the dryer looking awesome. Joshua’s also wearing his Landon shoes from last year because they held up SO well and his feet didn’t grow too much this year. (He really hasn’t had a growth spurt in awhile, I know it’s gonna be soon.)

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Does he look ready for middle school or what??

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Next up, I went for a really versatile outfit for Sophie, a plaid skort she can wear in the winter with tights, and long sleeves and/or a cardigan,  or with short sleeves in warm weather. It’s pretty much my FAVORITE ever. Here she’s wearing it with a long-sleeve polo underneath this gorgeous fine gauge cardigan; of course she can also wear the cardigan for extra warmth over any shirt an with pants, a jumper, or a skirt.

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Isn’t it to die for?? I love the skort because it looks dressy like a skirt, but the built-in shorts make sure she can play and be modest at the same time. Oh my goodness, I would put her in this every day if I could. That being said, I also love Lands’ End shorts and pants for her. They fit great, wash perfectly, and have the adjustable waist that both of my big kids need.

And speaking of pants, here’s Joshua in a long-sleeve polo and the famous Lands’ End Iron Knee pants. These are the BEST. PANTS. EVER.

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These pants are really tough and can take all the wear-and-tear active kids put them through. Neither of my big kids has ever ripped out a knee in these pants – or torn any other part of them, either. They are tough and look so nice wash after wash!

Finally, the last thing I got Joshua this year is a uniform fleece. With the school logo on it, he can wear it over his uniform shirts for added warmth or as a jacket. If we have another winter like we did last year, I know he is going to need it! These also look awesome even after a million washes and they are SO darn warm and cozy!

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They look so nice and sporty, kids like to wear them as a jacket even when they aren’t at school.

If your kids wear uniforms, I definitely recommend checking out Lands’ End, especially if you have kids who will be wearing each other’s hand-me-downs – it’s so worth the investment to buy them once and hand them down!

Thanks Lands’ End, for once again allowing me and the kids to try out some new styles this year!

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Fantastic Giveaway From Pampers Wipes!

Happy Friday! My favorite brand in all of baby land has a great giveaway for you today and some pretty new wipes designs, too! You may remember back in October I went to Cincy for a blogger day as part of the Pampers Baby Board. It was not only fun, there was also business to be done! And one of those items of bizniss was voting on the designs for the next generation of Pampers Wipes that are in stores N-O-W! Here are the designs that my fellow  bloggers and I chose:

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Are they not the definition of totes adorbs? The whale design on the bottom is my fave! But the great thing about these wipes is what’s inside the package: a strong, thick, lofty wipe with a SoftGrip™ texture that really absorbs all that baby mess but is gentle on their skin, too. Pampers wipes are the best! I got to see an amazing strength test performed on them when I was at Pampers Blogger Day and it was really impressive and eye-opening!

So, when you are hitting up the drugstore or the grocery for some wipes, you know what brand to get – and look for these darling new designs. It was fun playing even a small part in their development.

To celebrate the release of these fab wipes, Pampers sent me a wonderful picnic prize pack with everything my family would need for a fun day out together – and they want to send one of you lucky readers one as well! Check it out:

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This literally came in the largest package I have ever received! Inside was a ginormous and gorgeous picnic basket, 3 packs of Pampers wipes, Pampers Easy-Ups (you can choose if you want diapers or Easy-Ups and what size you want), some great baby toys and supplies, an awesome mega-mat picnic blanket, and a Polaroid camera to document the family fun! It is so cool! I didn’t even know they still made those. Reminds me of my Grandpa. 🙂 This is one amazing prize pack! We plan to take a family outing with it this weekend, so I haven’t taken any pictures yet but I’ll share some soon!

Here’s how to enter to win this fabbbbulous family fun prize pack! Simply leave a comment on this post telling me WHERE you would picnic with it! One winner will be chosen Friday, August 15 at 6pm EST.

For more info on Pampers wipes and other great products, visit them on their website or Facebook page.

Thanks, Pampers, for the great giveaway. Good luck!

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Be Glad I’m Not Your Mom: Minecraft Edition

Two nights ago, weary before bed, I said to my husband, “I think we should pay someone to come over here and talk to Joshua about Minecraft because I can’t stand to hear about it anymore. I’m serious. I cannot TAKE IT anymore. This is something I would pay money for.”

Bobby looked at me and with all sincerity said, “That’s a great idea.”

BECAUSE OH MY GOSH WE ARE BOTH SO SICK OF MINECRAFT.

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These square-ish beings are RUINING MY LIFE!

Every time Joshua starts talking about Minecraft, or God forbid, WANTS ME TO LOOK AT THE SCREEN WHILE HE’S PLAYING (shudder), I tense up as if prepared for battle. I have to conjure up a mental happy place to go to to survive the ensuing minutes. Zombies, sheep, square ducks, swords, and lots of names I don’t understand (sounds like: hair-o-brine, no I DON’T want to know what the correct word is. Don’t. Want. To. Know.) and all the Minecraft stories are long, people, they’re LONG. So I have to stay rooted to one spot for entire ETERNITIES, people, listening to gobbledygook when I have SO MUCH TO DO.

Joshua’s so obsessed with Minecraft that he has started making Minecraft videos for KidzVuz. Like this one. I mean, he’s cute and all…but it’s just a video of him playing Minecraft. And there are like FIVE MORE that he’s done on my iPad that I haven’t had time to upload them yet. I mean we are probably going on 30 minutes of Minecraft videos here.

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One of the reasons I can hardly wait for school to start is that at school, Joshua can talk to his FRIENDS about Minecraft and hopefully get it out of his system some. And then maybe, just maybe, when he gets home, he will just PLAY it…and not show it to me. A girl can dream, right? Dream that someday, she’ll live in a world where she doesn’t have to watch her son’s square doppelgänger climb all 567 steps on the giant high dive he constructed in his square pixelated dreamworld and then go shear some square sheep.

I dream BIG, people.

So, who wants to come over and talk to Joshua about Minecraft for real American dollars? Submit your resumes in the comments. I figured I’d ask you guys before I just hired some creeper off of Craigslist. I mean like REAL creeper, not Minecraft Creeper. Although they may be one and the same.

(P.S. this post was written with a 3-year-old  on my lap. You may applaud now.)

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