little style // with Nope!

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I'm so excited to share the Nope clothing brand with you today! Asher was chosen to be a brand rep for Nope this summer and we are so in love with their cute, original tee shirts! Nope is run by a husband and wife team, Karen and Gee, and all of the illustrations on their shirts are hand drawn by Gee. Their shirts are absolutely adorable and I was happy to see upon receiving them that they are soft and sturdy as well. I let Asher pick out the shirts that he liked and his first choice was this "nope nope nope" shirt which I'll just say, is very fitting to his personality!

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Make sure to check out the Nope clothing shop: here! You can find them on Instagram as well @wearenope. All of their shirts are made in Los Angeles and are sweat-shop free! Use my code: friendsofteam1125, for 10% off your purchase!

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Asher channeling his attitude to match his shirt. ;)

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Nope shirt: c/o Nope

Shorts: Old Navy

Shoes: Old Navy

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This post is in collaboration with Nope!

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weekend sale + a new favorite store!

Ok, I have a new favorite children's clothing store to share with you all! A couple weeks ago, the boys and I were out shopping and had some time to kill  so we hit up Crazy 8 since it happened to be in the shopping center where we were. I always thought this store seemed really trendy / high end and would be super expensive so I hadn't considered shopping there before. I was so excited to see that they had $10 jeans so I picked up a couple pairs for Roman to try on at home and I also got the boys each a $3.99 tee shirt from the clearance rack for next summer. Their clearance section is literally filled with great stuff and everything is so ridiculously colorful and cute! $3.99 is actually higher than my ideal  price for kids' clothes, I am a super bargain shopper in that area - but I couldn't resist; their stuff is just SO adorable.

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Since I am signed up as an affiliate for a few children's clothing companies, ( oh and hey, I threw in a couple affiliate links in this post! ) I got an email this morning letting me know that Crazy 8 was having an $8.88 jean sale this weekend. I wanted to try a smaller size in the jeans that I bought for Roman so this afternoon the boys and I stopped by. I returned the 2 pairs of jeans I got him last time and bought 2 more pairs for only $8.88 each plus another clearance tee shirt for Roman to wear next summer.

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Online all of the Crazy 8 clearance is an additional 20% off right now! I was bummed because this sale didn't seem to extend to the stores but oh well. ;) ( Hint: if you are going to purchase anything online, I recommend signing up for their emails first - they sent me a 20% off online only coupon when I signed up! )

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I pulled everything in this collage from the Crazy 8 online clearance section and all of the prices shown here are only between $3.19 and $4.79! Super cheap and oh my goodness all the pastels / neons / stripes / cute graphics ... it's too much.

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What are your favorite stores to shop for kid's clothes? Please share! Do you try to stock up on clothes during the off season to save money?

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* shirts that I bought for Roman: here + here!

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back to school.

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Well, the first week of school has come and gone. Roman's school lets out two hours early for the first two weeks due to the heat, which is making for a nice transition. I don't want to think too much about my little boy being gone until 3:00 everyday yet! We went to Target + Old Navy last Friday to finish up our back to school shopping and it was so much fun. Well, until Asher's melt down that lasted two days over the light-up Ninja Turtle shoes he didn't get to buy, yikes...
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Roman seems very happy with his class. He miraculously picked a navy blue lunch box over all the obnoxious cartoon character ones which secretly made me happy and he told me all about trading some of his goldfish crackers at lunch with his classmates; it was, "so awesome," he says. Roman was super excited to tell me that he got a chance to be a "behavior bee" in his class, which means that he was rewarded for his good behavior by being able to sit in the bumblebee bean bag chair. His face was just lit up when he told me about it in the car. He really is just the sweetest, sweetest little boy - his teacher is pretty lucky I'd say.
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I am exhausted from my first week of school. I feel overwhelmed and stressed and a little in over my head. I really am not used to being so busy and it's just really tiring especially on Tuesdays + Thursdays where my days are 12+ long with work and school now. I'm still trying to figure things out as far as classes transferring / financial aid etc. as well so needless to say, I am super glad that it's Saturday. I don't work OR have school today because Aaron is working in the mountains and I'm hoping the boys will want to pretty much sit around and do nothing all day. Maybe I'll sort through some laundry as well since we have a new (to us) washer + dryer set!
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FabKids sent us these "back to school" outfits and oh my gosh, I am in LOVE with them. These little Fender and NPR tee shirts are just the coolest things ever and they are super soft / great quality as well. I've had these outfits waiting in the wings to be photographed for a while now but it's just been too gosh darn hot to put the boys in jeans. Last night was a super cool / rainy / fall weather kind of evening so after baths I took the boys out to the porch to do our traditional back to school sign coloring. I love how Roman went for a "color-blocking" technique and Asher was very excited and worked hard on his as well, although afterwards he ripped both of these papers to shreds in true Asher style! At least I have the photos though, right? ;)
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How is the back to school season going for you all?
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on Asher - NPR shirt: c/o FabKids jeans: c/o FabKids shoes: Old Navy ( on clearance now! )

on Roman - Fender shirt: c/o FabKids jeans c/o FabKids

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And hey, if you like flashbacks like I do, here is our very similar back to school post on this same porch from last year! Time flies...

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( This post includes affiliate links to FabKids. If you use my link, you will receive your first outfit for only $15 and in return I will receive points towards free outfits for my kids. FabKids sent me these outfits to share with you all but this post and all opinions are my own. Thanks for reading along and providing my family with these awesome opportunities! )

little boy style // awesome clearance sale.

     The process of putting together collages of my favorite things is so much fun and I used to love doing this when I wrote for the Spearmint Baby blog. I stopped writing for them when we moved out to Colorado because it was just too time consuming at that point but I do miss these kind of posts. I always feel super particular about what I post on my blog because I'm very picky about how it looks and I just want to scroll down and see soft / pretty photos like I'm looking through a journal of the lovely parts of my life. This was the major reason I felt uneasy when I first started taking on sponsored content. My feelings have shifted a little and I've realized that while this blog is definitely a photo journal and a place for my art, I also LOVE working with companies and branching out into the business side of blogging.

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     Overall I'm pretty happy with the way my blog flows right now. It's a place for me to share photos of my sweet little boys, a place to share deeper feelings and thoughts about motherhood on occasion, a place to connect with other mothers out there. In the past year though, I have also enjoyed branching out a little bit farther into the business side of blogging and it has been so much fun.

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     So anyway, I've put together a collage today and I'm going to share it and see how it goes because I think it would be really fun to start sharing a few of these / a little more about clothing for little boys! I love shopping for my little boys' clothes. Growing up, I played with dolls all the time and sometimes when I'm doing things for my little boys, I feel so lucky because I realize that being a mom is kind of exactly the same as being a little girl and playing with my dolls and I still love it in the same way. :)

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     I always hear moms / women talk about having daughters and how fun it is to shop for little girl clothing but I truly love everything boy. I've realized that you do have to scrounge a bit more to find cute boys' clothing because it seems like boys really do get the shaft in this area. Instead of finding bright fun colorful clothing like I see in the girls' section of the store, I often find the kind of clothing available for boys looks like it could be worn by grown men! This is such a pet peeve of mine.

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    I always try to get the best deals on kids' clothing and almost always shop thrift stores / clearance. This is becoming a little more difficult with Roman and I've found that as my boys get older I have to invest a little more money in clothing, but I am still always looking out for great deals. The one day 40% off sale on Gymboree's summer clearance is absolutely awesome and is full of all of my favorite little boy kind of clothes: little tank tops, colorblock, seersucker, cute prints, oh my. The sale is only going on today, so be sure to check it out and grab a few cute things! It's also a great chance to stock up on clothes for next summer!

striped tanks / bulls eye tank / monster undies /  teal chino pants 

seersucker shorts / colorblock shorts / green denim shorts / striped jersey knit shorts / color block sunglasses

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*This posts contains affiliate links. I was in no way compensated for this post but if you do use my links to shop for your kiddos I will receive a percentage of the sales. All opinions are my own; I love sharing my favorite things with you! Thanks so much for reading along and providing my family with these opportunities. We truly appreciate it!*
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