Westfield provided compensation to facilitate our back to school shopping experience. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
The school year is almost upon us here in Connecticut which means parents and children everywhere are heading to the malls for some back-to-school shopping. Now while I normally love shopping, having four young boys to buy for can be a little daunting for a few reasons. The biggest of course is price. I have four growing bodies to outfit and four sets of supplies to tackle and the cost adds up super fast. The other problem is doing the actual shopping with four children because let’s be serious here, kids do not have the patience for shopping. Nor do husbands, I recently learned. However, shopping at the Westfield Connecticut Post Mall made the entire experience easier for us.
On Friday, August 16 Westfield invited me to their Connecticut Post location in Milford, Connecticut for a $250 back-to-school shopping spree and to experience their Best of B2S shopping event. During this event, some of the stores were running back to school sales, the mall hosted family-friendly shows and events plus there was an Unlock to Win giveaway! Over in the center court of the mall there was a locker setup and you could then text to receive a code to try to open the locker for some great prizes like an iPad Mini! I would have loved to win another iPad since I am somewhat gadget obsessed.
The first store we headed to was The Children’s Place, who was a participant in the Best of B2S event. Armed with my gift card and a 20% coupon, I was ready to do some damage. I decided to let the boys each pick out a couple of shirts. We were looking through the long and short sleeve graphic tees when we spotted a table full of character tees. I don’t think I ever noticed they had these before and they all put down the shirts they were looking at and headed over to that table. They had an awesome selection of Star Wars, LEGO Ninjago, Super Mario Bros., Marvel Superheroes and more.
Generally, I shy away from licensed character t-shirts because they are more expensive. However, The Children’s Place was having a sale and these were marked down to $10 plus I had my coupon. So in the end they cost me $8 a piece which is awesome for the combined character aspect plus The Children’s Place quality. If I would have let them, my kids would have bought every single shirt they had. But I had more shopping to do.
So I walked out of the store with 8 shirts and spent only $63 and I received $20 Place Cash for a future purchase. Plus with every Disney or Marvel shirt you bought, you got a free Phineas & Ferb school kit, which was a cute bonus. And yes if you look at the shirts we got, you will totally notice a “one of these things is not like the other” shirt mixed in there. The cute butterfly tee is for my 4 year old niece whom I adore. She is the only little girl in my life that I can buy stuff for so I indulge myself every now and then.
After we were finished at The Children’s Place, it was time for our lunch break. We headed over to the food court to figure out what to eat. With some pizza and salad from Sbarro’s and burgers, chicken tenders and a hot dog from Johnny Rockets, we sat down to devour our meal. We don’t do fast food often, so this is a special treat for us. And thankfully the food court here has a ton of seating so we had no problem finding a quiet spot for ourselves.
I mentioned earlier that Westfield was hosting some kid-friendly shows during their Best of B2S event and the show for this day was Spider-man. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect show for my superhero obsessed family. We watched Spider-man come down from the upper level and make his way through the crowd of kids gathered around the stage. Spider-man joked around with the kids and parents and then started a discussion about “Being Buddies and Not Bullies”. With crowd participation, he discussed the things kids can do if they are being bullied in school or anywhere really. This is such an important issue and I was thrilled that Westfield used a popular, fun character to talk to kids about this topic.
My final stop of the day was at my favorite store: Target. I love Target because I can find anything and everything I need there and for a great price. Which often means I walk out of the store with way more items than I intended to buy. On our shopping list for Target were some school supplies, some household items and a few t-shirts for mom. Hey, mom deserves back to school clothes too doesn’t she? After all the hard work parents go through to get their kids ready for school, they certainly deserve a little reward themselves. I actually didn’t get to spend as much time in Target as I would have liked because not only were the kids getting whiny by this point in the afternoon, but so was dad. So I sped through to the best of my ability.
I also came prepared with Target coupons plus my iPad with the new Target Cartwheel app. If you shop at Target, you need to download this app as it gives you additional coupons on top of print coupons and in store sales. In the end we ended up with 2 backpacks for the twins (who begged and pleaded), some markers and crayons, a notebook for my blogging, hangers for their new shirts, straws, a PUR filter for our fridge, kid’s toothpaste, cologne for dad and two shirts for me. Oh and because my boys were such good sports throughout the entire day, I let them get a new Skylanders figure. After The Children’s Place and lunch, we finished up our gift card here and the Target Cartwheel app saved me an additional $15 off my purchases.
Overall we had an awesome shopping experience at the Westfield Connecticut Post Mall. The amount of stores that are at this mall can be a little overwhelming at first, but if you have a shopping plan in place you should be good to go. And if you are shopping with the kiddies, don’t forget to check out the playspace on the lower level so they can burn off some of their energy and then hopefully nap on the way home. Even though the Best of B2S event is now over, there are still stores who are having back to school sales.
Sweepstakes
Now through August 31st you can go to the Westfield Connecticut Post Facebook page and enter to win $1,000 for back to school shopping at the Westfield Connecticut Post Mall.
Connect with Westfield Connecticut Post
Website:
www.westfield.com/connecticutpost
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/westfieldconnecticutpost
Twitter:
@WestfieldCPM
What is your favorite store to hit up at the mall for back-to-school shopping?
