back to school with Zappos + Stride Rite

I cannot believe we are already halfway through August!  I have seen about half of my fellow world wide web mamas send their babies off to preschool, kindergarten, FIRST grade!  I cannot even imagine fast forwarding a couple years to that moment of Parker and Jolie's (real) first day of school. the twins are going to preschool again this year (they started when they were two) and start back in just a couple weeks.  when I started thinking about preschool-friendly clothing and shoes for them to run and play and get dirty in, I knew we needed another pair of 'go fast shoes' for this new school year.  

ahem, that would be sneakers in P+J speak, for the big girls.

I've teamed up with my friends at Zappos.com to share Parker + Jolie's favorite pair of shoes EVER.

literally.

I forced sweet Jolie out of them so she could take a bath and the entire time she was trying to convince me her reasoning for why she needed to wear her neeeeeewww shoes again after she got out.  

"mama, I can wear my pink go-fast shoes with my jammies, you know."

gah.  I love her.

 of course the bright cotton candy colors of the Stride Rite Leepz caught their eye when I pulled them out of the Zappos box, but when they realized that they LIGHT UP I thought they were going to have a stroke.  I told them their new shoes were for when school starts, and well, that basically opened a can of worms.  they asked me about 11 times between dinner + bathtime + bed if they were going to school "tomorrow"? 

 I would totally be freaked out if school started tomorrow. and I wish you could hear Parker say tomorrow.  she doesn't have a country girl accent like Jolie's (and J's is thick for some of her words..) but when she says tomorrow, she drops the 'ow' from the end of the word and replaces it with an "ah".

ANYway..

even if I would have waited to the last minute to figure out shoes for school, I would totally be confident in ordering from Zappos- these came in just one day!  ONE!  shipping was fast and free and  their 365 day return policy and helpful customer service would allow me to exchange sizes if I needed to. I honestly kind of took a guess as to what size I was going to get them in sneakers this year..I feel like my kids are in giant sizes, and when I ordered Parker the 10.5 in the Leepz; it was no longer toddler sizing.  *tear.

 aside from the twins absolutely loving the look of these shoes, the girls are completely capable in putting the Leepz shoes on by themselves.  how easy is it to tell them to go put their shoes on and they can actually do it without a meltdown of needing me to help them tie the laces.  school encourages clothing and shoes that are functional for little hands (think potty breaks and nap time) to be able to help themselves, and I think these are right up that alley.

 we are SO excited for preschool to start! 

that.. and any reason to see our new go-fast shoes light up.

thank you Brittany for capturing the color and joy of my sweet girls in your amazing photos and to Zappos.com and Stride Rite for sponsoring this post.