We HAVE a SHOPPER!

I may have died and gone to heaven.

Before I had two boys, I had visions of tutus. Cheerleading. Pink. Bows.


(Seriously- isn't that adorable?!?!? You can find it at Made By Meade on Etsy!)

I remember a sense of shock when I found out that Skyler wasn't going to be of the pink variety. What on earth would I DO with a boy?

And then came Alex. Again?!?!? Where am I going to fit the bows in?

Over the years I have adapted. Adaptation, in this case, has taken the form of learning to distinguish 10,000 shades of blue from 20,000 shades of green and holding out hope that someday I can get a pedicure with with my neice. I suppose I should also admit that Georgia, the only other female in this household, wears pink collars. REALLY pink collars. (Dusty shot down the tutu.)

But today, a miracle happened. Perhaps I am being rewarded for being a trooper about this whole girly-girl-gets-2-boys bit.

Skyler likes to shop. He loves football and baseball and golf and wrestling, but he also enjoys an afternoon at the mall with Mom.

Today Skyler and I went school shopping. Since school starts in the morning, I realize this was a bit of a last minute deal. But since I've been in this rodeo before and know how fast kids grow, I put it off until the last minute.

This afternoon Skyler and I started off with lunch at the Spaghetti Factory (did you know that they are awesomely gluten-free friendly?). The Spaghetti Factory is "our special place". I know that it is a chain restaurant, and that it isn't THAT good of food, but I really hope that when Skyler is older and drives past the OSF, he'll think of me and our Mommy/Son dates.

Then we hit the mall- looking, by the way- like mother and son (thanks to hair dye and Converse).



Skyler didn't just want clothes. He wanted the EXPERIENCE. We tried jeans on (and decided on bootcut- YAY!). We looked in mirrors while holding up multiple shirts and deciding which was worth a trip to the dressing room. We got sodas. We got samples at See's (and potentially a Scotchmallow or 3). We people watched. It. Was. Great.

This is what Skyler ended up with after who knows HOW many stores:





And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the crown jewel of Sky's Back To School Shopping Adventure:


Yep. My son is in there. I promise.

Tomorrow my "big little" starts the 3rd grade. When I tucked him in tonight, he said "Well, it's back to the real world tomorrow". I am so lucky and so thankful for the beautiful little boys they are. And truthfully- if they hated shopping with a passion and worshipped NASCAR, I'd still think they were adorable. Which makes the fact that Alex secretly loves pink and Skyler loves the mall kind of like the cherry on top, right?

Alex begins kindergarten next week. We don't know where yet. Which means that this post is to be continued...