A free printable with 40 lunch box jokes (plus a blank page for special notes!) to help you get ready for back-to-school madness and bring a smile to your kids’ faces.

I’m not good at lying, so I’m not going to pretend here. I am not prepared for the school year to start. I know that a lot of the country is already back in the swing of things, but my girls have another few weeks before the big yellow bus comes rolling down our street. And I’m not so good with the whole preparedness thing (although sometimes I really do try).

That’s sort of my problem: a lack of preparation. I always have good intentions, but my complete and utter lack of preparation sidelines my big plans more often than not. I’m really good at making lists of things to do. But the getting started part? Not so much.

So I’m going to try to be better this year. And I’m going to start with Ellie’s lunchbox.

I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Influence Central for Carter’s. I received a complimentary gift card to facilitate my review and thank me for my participation. Cute children and opinions are all mine.

My girls are nothing if not fearless fashionistas. While their momma is perfectly content in a solid rotation of v-neck tees, jeans, and TOMS that smell like they’ve been worn all summer, these children of mine treat getting dressed in the morning as a ceremony for the super fabulous.

There is combing through closets. There are accessories. There is lipstick application and ballerina-like twirls in front of the mirror. I’m not allowed to touch their hair, but aside from that, getting dressed is a sacred ritual that is not to be messed with.

Ellie has even started quietly creeping out of bed like the bite-sized ninja she is and dressing herself fully (lipgloss, armful of bracelets and all) before shaking me awake and asking in her best Valley girl voice if she looks beautiful—where does a four-year old pick up a Valley girl lilt in the first place?!

As summer vacation rolls to an end, I started thinking about what this fashion obsession would mean for the school year. There is no way these opinionated ladies o’ mine will go from the absolute freedom of summer to a rigid wardrobe without a battle. It’s already been made clear that there will be no makeup and there will most certainly be daily hair brushing by mom. But the whole picking out their outfits and forcing them into submission thing? It’s not really worth the struggle for me.

These girls already see getting dressed as expressions of who they are. As long as it’s appropriate, why take that away from them?

We’ve been trying our hardest to soak up every last bit of summer over here—and I have a phone full of pictures to prove it…

I’m a sucker for a graphic tee. For me, for my husband, whoever really. But if you put one on a cute kid, I’m totally done for—bonus points if they’re witty and/or make 90s pop culture references.

Am I alone here or are they fabulous?

In honor of back to school and all of the shopping that goes along with it, I thought I’d spotlight a few super cute graphic tees for kids. Oh and that first one with the Black Keys lyrics? Yeah, I’ll take that in my size please and thank you.

*This is a sponsored post, but even if Old Navy wasn’t paying me, you better believe we’d be doing our back to school shopping there.

So, um, it’s August already. I’m not really sure how it snuck up on us so quickly, but it’s here. And suddenly everyone is talking back to school. To me, it seems a little premature. My little bubs doesn’t officially become a second grader until the second week of September.

But still, you better believe if there’s some sort of sale happening this cheap momma is diving in headfirst no matter how premature it might seem. When I heard Old Navy (one of our favorite stores) was having a $10 and under back to school sale (through August 14th, btw) I packed up the babes and drove on over.