I can’t believe it’s already time to plan back to school. It seems like just last week I was shuttling kids to and from school, packing lunches and snacks, and doing parent meetings, but here we are again ready to start a new school year. While I’m not looking forward to the quiet house and the early mornings, the one thing I am looking forward to is the back to school shopping.
To kick off our back to school shopping, we headed out to Northgate Mall in Seattle and checked out some of our favorite stores with the family. They have all of our favorite kids clothing stores and they all happen to be right next to each other at the mall, so it's nice and convenient to hit them all up each time we go. We like to joke that quite a bit of our clothing budget each year is spent within a 400ft area in Northgate, but hey, they just make shopping so easy.
We typically have the most luck finding jeans and basics at Crazy 8, so we stopped there first and found almost too much we fell in love with. We ended up walking out of the store with 2 pairs of jeans, a hoodie, 2 pairs of shoes, 2 dresses, 3 shirts, 2 pairs of socks, a pair of leggings, and numerous accessories that all mix and match for under $100. Not bad, right?
Next we headed to GAP and went right to the kids department where we scored a hoodie and two adorable shirts for $22 {and we could have saved an additional 30% off if we had used a GAP, Old Navy or Banana Republic card}. We got sidetracked for a minute by the adorable Charm It display, but we made a list of our favorites instead of buying them now.
After that, we went into Gymboree and got a pair of tights and a dress and decided that our daughter’s wardrobe was complete. So, of course we did a little shopping for us and headed to some of our favorite stores, like Macy’s and Eddie Bauer.
Even though we were done shopping for the little guys, at Eddie Bauer we found some adorable kids backpacks that would be awesome for back to school as well as some cool accessories like key chains and flash lights that you can never have too many of.
Our haul was huge and we were able to finish off all of our back to school shopping, a few things for hubby and I, and even a few holiday presents we're stashing away. All in all, a great shopping trip. Just look at all this cuteness!
To cap off our evening of back to school shopping, we headed to California Pizza Kitchen and split a salad and pizza amongst us. It was pretty quiet for a Friday night dinner out, which was nice with kiddos. And, of course, dinner was delicious as always.
While my kids are young and we do most of our shopping in the kiddie area, there are over 130 stores located in Northgate Mall, which means there’s something for kids of all ages. Whether they are into big department stores or stores like Papaya, Romy, Wet Seal, PacSun, Journeys, or Hollister, there’s something for every style and budget.
See Store Directory for details.
401 NE Northgate Way
Seattle, WA 98125-6036
Driving Directions
Do you have young kids in the Seattle area? If so, you should check out the Simon Malls Kidgits Club at the Guest Services Booth next time you're there. It's only $5 a year and you get a small present when you enroll. We signed up for the program about a year ago and love it. Not only do they give your kids small toys each time you come to the mall, you also hear first about all the Northgate Mall happenings so you can make sure you stop in.
This past year we've checked out a few of their events, including a special book event and even meeting the Cat in the Hat. I get their texts right to my phone, so I always try and swing in if we're near and it's worked out really well. My daughter was so incredibly excited about meeting the Cat in the Hat and loves to look at this picture of the two of them together.
Next on the list is Simon Mall's "Dino Days!" that takes place Saturday, August 25th 2012 | 1:00pm – 3:00pm | Center Court at Northgate Mall. Here's the details: Kidgits Club members, let’s go back in time and explore the prehistoric world of dinosaurs! Experience the thrill of real live dinosaurs with “Animal Encounters” Wild Life Show to include: a Albino Burmese Python, a Bearded Dragon, a Blue Tongued Skink, a Frilled Dragon and a Kenyan Sand Boa! Create a dino-mite work of art, then we’ll snack on some “dirt & bones!”
One lucky Rave and Review reader will win a $50 Simon Mall gift card to spend at Northgate Mall!
To Enter: In the comments below, tell me what you would buy with your $50 gift card
And, as always, there are extra entries available! {Please leave a separate comment for each completed}
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On September 15th at 11:59pm PST a winner will be drawn by Northgate Mall, announced here and notified via email. Winner will have 48 hours to contact me or a new winner will be chosen.
Winner, winner! This giveaway is now closed. Thank you to all who entered and congrats to: 137 Stephanie said... I subscribe by email.
A big thank you to Simon Malls for providing a gift card for our shoppinng as well as a gift card for one of our readers. As always, all opinions are 100% ours and no form of monetary compensation was received in exchange for this Rave Review. This post does not necessarily represent Simon Property Group's positions, strategies or opinions
