I am a jumble of conflicting emotions. Luca begins his first year of primary school. We call it Prep, maybe you call is Kindergarten? Either way, my firstborn is to join the brigade of tiny people with huge school bags. It's a moment, you know?
No sooner had he graduated from 4-year-old kindergarten (you might call it preschool – gah! confusing!) and the Christmas holidays began, I could sense the restlessness in Luca. He needs to be challenged, mentally and physically, and no
matter how hands on I could be (and we all know how I love to play!), replicating the stimulus-rich experience of
school at home is impossible. Without the structure of the school day, Luca has
become a jangle of unspent energy, a ticking timebomb of boredom.
So school is absolutely the place for him. I know he will love it. But still, he's my boy and I can't help but worry as he ventures into a bigger piece of the world without one hand caught safely in mine.
Excitement laced with quiet terror – that heady cocktail of contradictory emotions we call 'parenthood.'
But iron-on clothing labels? That's a motherhood rite of passage I can get excited about! Picture me with the ironing board and a smile on my face. I know, I know, it's ridiculous and Germaine Greer just involuntarily heaved and doesn't know why. But I can't help it – sometimes the minutiae of motherhood really bangs my gong. Ironing little labels onto spanking new school uniform = real. This is happening! Adventures await.
I have been double labelling everything AND writing in permanent ink. Some people take this stuff very seriously…
And then there's the kick I get out of seeing my kids' names in print. Am I alone in hi-fiving myself for its awesomeness each time I see it printed in full? Am I the only one who teared up a bit when the Medicare card arrived with the completed family listed on it?
Hang on, I'm distracted.
Name labels. Back to school. Or in Zig's case, 3-year-old kinder (preschool!). I have two kids embarking on an education and that's two times the chance of stuff getting lost. Or maybe it's four times the chance – they are boys afterall.
Cue email from Stuck On You telling me to go shopping on them. Specialising in labels and personalised gear for kids – art smocks, lunch boxes, SO MUCH STUFF – I can officially say that I have Back To School completely sorted now. The boys and I checked out the website
together to choose products and designs, an experience that was both super-awesome because all the products are previewed with your kid’s name on it before you go ahead and purchase it, and super-painful because they kept
changing their minds. They involved themselves right down to the choice of font. Seriously, don't get into a discussion about fonts with your three-year-old. Just….don't.
Font disagreements aside, we were all pumped for our order to arrive and we weren't disappointed.
I love Luca's library bag. This theme (Super Strong) is from the Designer range – my favourite.
This is just one of 4 bags he needs for school. Count them; FOUR!
The boys were especially loving themselves sick in their art smocks.
The thing about my sons is, they're shy.
In fact, Ziggy was so enamoured of his that he wore it at the dinner table last night. This turned out to be an excellent idea since we were having fettucine with a tomato-based sauce. I can now officially vouch for the art smock's ability to protect kid clothes from pasta – I can only imagine it will be equally effective with paint.
Art smock made by Stuck On You, cute feet made by ME!
The name labels were simple to iron on (although admittedly, the novelty wore off by the 50th label) and adhered well. Time will tell how well they hold up to repeated washing but I have heard good things.
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Want a piece of this pie? I have one Value Pack to give away.
To enter, swing by this page, decide which of the fourteen packs you would choose if you were the lucky winner and then leave a comment back here telling me what you chose.
The competition will close at midnight (EST) Monday 22nd January, 2012 and I'll be announcing the randomly drawn winner on Tuesday 23rd.
Open to Australian residents only.
Good luck!
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And if you can't wait and want to grab some stuff now, Stuck On You are offering 10% off Classic Labels (excludes value packs) for anyone who Likes their Facebook page. Look under Coupons for your code.
Disclosure: Stuck On You provided me with $100 to spend on back to school products for review. They also gifted an art smock each for the boys. Stuck On You paid the $40 Admin Fee which I charge as (token) compensation for the time it takes to run giveaway posts on the blog.
I would choose the Travel Pack – as we’re heading to Europe this year!
Hmm… probably the starter pack so I can start over fresh with my biggest kid who has outgrown his first lot of Stuck On You labels that had a tractor on them! He needs something a bit more grown up for him now! 🙁
I think I’d pick the starter pack for my little man who starts preschool this year.
I would choose the little bird with the heart in the designer series. Would be perfect to label all my daughters goodies for kinder.
Starter pack – great variety to get labelling for my little girl’s first day at school!
The 5+ pack. Getting organised (very early) for my 5 week old starting school!
My daughter is starting school too. So much of what you say I can empathise with! On that that note I would have to choose the school pack!
I would choose the Family Value Pack, as in my household some items are shared between my kids (eg. art smocks, water bottles, etc)!
Thanks for the great giveaway 🙂
The personalised travel pack would be ideal for sleep overs. Such a clever idea.
Would definitely choose the 5+ pack for the littlest lady starting kinder this year!
I would love the designer pack for my little girl. They are just too cute!
I’d go with the starter pack – my eldest is off to school and is all set and labelled up. My second daughter needs some labels for all her goodies – and being the second child I’ve been like – it’ll wait!! Lol.. 🙂
I’d choose the Family Pack as he would be a good universal pack for everyone in the family to use.
I would choose the 5+ pack. Perfect for my daughter starting 3yo kinder.
On a side note I can vouch for these labels as I ordered 2 packs 6 years ago for my older children, clothing labels are still stuck on (I have kept uniforms for the 3rd child)and lunchboxes ect. still have labels.
I love the designer pack in pink with the cute little bird on it, my daughter would love it, those art smocks look pretty cool too though, great idea to save their uniforms from getting covered in paint, although they are so nice, she probably wouldn’t want to get paint on the smock either!!!
Starter pack… Need to get Lila sorted to start 3 yr old only 2 weeks to go eeekkk how did that happen? How did our babies grow up so fast?
Family value pack, to share with all my 3 little crazy…I mean darling children =)
5+ pack. It’s the most economical and practical. So there, *dramatic* sigh. I’ll be pragmatic and say I want that one for free dammit, when I really want to say the Designer Range pack purely and simply because the sample name is Chloe Gosling & it made me fantasize about fornicating with Ryan Gosling & producing his pretty little Ryan Gosling poppets. A gal can dream…
Definitely a Starter Pack, as I have a kidlet starting school and one starting kinder this year.
My eldest child, Lucas, is starting prep this year too! Such an exciting time, and sad at the same time cause my little boy is growing up.
I would choose the 5+ pack.
BTW the link above didn’t work for me, comes up with an error.
My oldest son is starting school this year too, sniff sniff. So I would choose the 5+ pack. And totally agree about the thrill of seeing your child’s awesome name in print – *and* I produce my Medicare card with a flourish at the doctor’s surgery!
I think I would choose the starter pack.. my little man is starting preschool this year and I’m ridiculously excited about it.. yay labels!
Ooh I found the awesome 0-5 Value Pack. Covers all bases when it comes to starting prep needs. Oh and with the funky Jazz colour scheme. Perfect for my little, strike that… big school boy!
Definitely a starter back. I have 4 kids- 3 at school this year – 1 for the first time and 1 at daycare. You can NEVER have enough labels.
I mean Starter Pack. LOL
Just wanted to say hi beautiful you!
Happy almost school days to your sweet boy – sob, sniffle – and how cute are those feet and shy {her!} boys?!
xo
As my little boy has only just started pre-school I would choose the 0-5 value pack 🙂
Thanks Angie 🙂