18 Aug, 2007
Signs that summer is coming to an end
Posted by andrea tomkins in: Easy ways to make kids happy|Ottawa
1) Back to school shopping
2) Ottawa SuperEx
We have officially covered them both.
We did the bulk of our back-to-school-wear shopping earlier this week.
Thankfully, our school doesn’t require us to buy school supplies. We pay a supply fee at the beginning of the year. It’s great. Seriously, all schools should do this.
This way:
1) The parents don’t have to spend time trying to find each item on a lengthy list.
2) The school buys it all in bulk, so not only are the savings are passed down to the parents, but it probably cuts down on the amount of wrapping/packaging all of this stuff uses too.
3) All the kids end up with the same supplies. Johnny won’t be feeling all superior because he’s got an expensive set of markers while Jill is stuck using a hand-me-down package of broken Rose Art crayons.
During the year we are occasionally asked to donate bottles of hand sanitizer, glue sticks and tissue boxes as supplies run thin, but I would much rather do this than run around the city trying to find the “right” kind of pencil erasers the week before school starts. Wouldn’t you?
All our school supply related savings get poured right back into clothing. The girls were bought a whack of new clothes (thanks Mary!) and we’re all pleased as punch. I also bought Emma a new pair of runners, which, believe it or not, I don’t know how to tie in the same way that all the cool kids do. (My my mother will find this very funny.) They’re skater shoes, and the bow isn’t supposed to show. What’s even more challenging is that each shoe appears to use two different laces, so there are four in total. How is someone older than nine supposed to figure that out? I am going to have to do some serious Googling.
At one point during our spree we were walking out of Winners, loaded down with bags (and we had only just begun!) when I suddenly heard someone calling my name. The voice was tentative, female, and had a question mark appended to the end of it.
Andrea?
I turned to see a bevy of women sitting outside a coffee shop, looking at me. And there was BeachMama! She was all smiley, looking totally gorgeous and happy – you know how glowy those pregnant women can get, right? Funny … she didn’t recognize me, she recognized the girls. I didn’t realize they were that distinctive. :)
It was great to see my bloggy friend. I just wish I could have chatted for longer.
Much later, after we had recuperated from our shopping trip, the four of us went to SuperEx. It was a special media preview night, which meant we got beer and pizza, AND our invite covered parking, admission, and rides. We got to go on all the rides we wanted. As many times as we wanted too, which was great, except that the beer and pizza didn’t sit well with me. I was very close to losing it at one point so I had to limit myself to the kiddy rides and the fun house.
This VIP treatment* was all wonderful and everything, but we were (a) sad that the concessions weren’t open (it’s not the Ex without cotton candy!) and (b) frustrated by the fact that all of the porta-potties were LOCKED. Yes. Locked and Therefore Unusable By People with Full Bladders. I know for a fact that other people needed to go at some point during the evening. I know because I saw multiple people – like us – running for the main building to find the bathrooms. Crazy huh?
* Emma is letting VIP status go to her head. “I like being a VIP,” she confided. (We’ve been more to one of these things.) “We’re like the SPECIALIST FAMILY IN THE WORLD!”
Anyway, we all had a great time. Got home exhausted. And now I have to go find myself a Tylenol. I think I got a speck of whiplash from one of those kiddie rides.
