Back to School Fashion at Ontario Mills Mall is a sponsored post on behalf of Ontario Mills
It’s that time of the year – BACK TO SCHOOL. My kids actually start TODAY! (We had such a short summer!) One of my favorite back to school traditions from my childhood was back to school shopping. And now that I have my own children, this is a tradition I am excited to share annually with my kids. I want to make sure they start the year off right with the latest styles, shoes and accessories, so we shopped till we dropped at Ontario Mills Mall; a Simon Center that features all of our favorite stores in one location!
I have shopped at Ontario Mills years ago. In fact, before I had children. It was so long ago, that I recall it being an outdoor mall. Over the weekend, we were invited to the Ontario Mills Mall to stock up on our back to school fashion. Perfect timing! We had already planned on visiting family in Las Vegas, so it was conveniently on the way. To top it off, my kids starting school today – I wanted to make sure they had the opportunity to pick out their first day outfits.
Ontario Mills Mall is about 45 minutes from us. With over 200 stores, many of which are outlet locations, it’s totally worth the drive. This year, we planned out our budget and divided it amongst the four of us. Since my husband is a teacher and started school on Monday, and I’m a substitute teacher, I figured we also needed to pick up a couple of items as well.
The kids decided to start off at H&M and to save time, the hubby and I decided to divide and conquer. I ran off with my handsome boy and dad took off with our daughter. I love the boys fashion – jeans, fun t-shirts, I even saw a few light weight jackets and several different options for shoes. My little man, he has a style that is influenced by his father, a PE Teacher and Coach. My son loves comfortable fashion that includes athletic style pants, shorts and T’s.
This little guy ended up picking out a pair of athletic nylon pants with cool zippers on the ankles, a great light weight jacket with a hood, a fun t-shirt with a bull dog on it and some underwear – yes, he picked out underwear! So practical.
With dad it tow, my darling daughter ran through the entire girls section so fast. I’m not quite sure what she was looking for, however she decided on some super cute skinny jeans and a great Pegasus t-shirt. While we were there, we decided to have her try the outfit on, because we wanted to make sure the sizing of jeans was correct.
When she was trying on the outfit, we noticed tags on her shirt that indicated a matching pair – shirt and pants were specially priced at $14.99 for the set! WOW, once she was finished, we were off to find a pair of pants, shorts or a skirt that matched the t-shirt for the deal.
She ended up with a pair of jeans, the Pegasus t-shirt, and athletic leggings that were perfect for her jazz class that also starts this week.
AND, if you pay attention to signs displayed in the store, the weekend we were in H&M, once you spent $60, you received 20% off your entire purchase. What a way to save!
SAVINGS TIP: Right now, many of the stores at Ontario Mills Mall are offering “Back to School” specials, so you can save there. With an Simon Savings Passport, you can save on select stores with discounts offered by listed retailers. This passport is available for purchase for $5 and is valid at Los Angeles shopping destinations including: Camarillo Premium Outlets, Desert Hills Premium Outlets, Ontario Mills and The Outlets at Orange.
Then we grabbed lunch. Did you know that the Ontario Mills Mall has a food court with many different options to fit the most finicky eaters? My hubby, amazing as he is, set off to grab us lunch while the kids and I waited for our Wetzel’s Pretzels then found a table. He came back with a plate from Sarku Japan for me with Miso soup, rice, egg rolls and teriyaki beef, a sandwich from Charlie’s Philly Cheese Steaks and pizza from SBarro.
After lunch, it was the Hubster’s turn. His favorite store – Nike, was right next to the food court, so we wandered into the men’s department with him. As a Athletic Director, PE Department Chair/teacher and coach, his go to attire is athletic wear. And his favorite Nike pants are a bit frayed because he wears them so often. He was able to replace them, as well as pick up a nice pair of cargo type shorts, white socks, black socks for refereeing basketball (yes, he does that too), and a couple pairs of tennis shoes.
Speaking of shoes, after dad was done, we made a run for Sketchers to grab a new pair of shoes for my son. If you have a boy (or boys) you already understand how quickly they destroy their tennis shoes at school. My little man had his heart set on these fancy shoes with light up soles. Since Sketchers also had a special going on, we were able to purchase a pair of tennis shoes for my darling daughter at 30% off.
The princess still hadn’t hit her spending budget, so a quick stop into her favorite store, Justice and she quickly managed to put just about everything in the store on her list. I managed to narrow her down to a few items: an adorable jacket and some training bras.
At this point, we managed to hit our back to school spending limit, and ran out of time. We still had another 3 and a half hour drive to get to Las Vegas. On the way back to the car, I realized we still needed a back pack, so we browsed a couple of stores on the way out, but my little man didn’t see what he was looking for. Had we had more time (and money), we’d have spent more time in MY favorite stores like Old Navy, Ann Taylor, The Gap and Guess.
If you have back to school shopping to do, I totally recommend hitting up Ontario Mills Mall. There is something for everyone, and deals to be had by all! Check their Facebook page – they have an awesome contest going on right now! You can enter to win a $3,500 shopping spree!(Ends 8/31/17)
