It’s fashion meets philanthropy for back to school at JCPenney

This is a sponsored post in collaboration with JCPenney. All opinions are our own.

Summers were always my favorite part of the school year. They meant it was time to sleep in, watch as many cartoons as we wanted, and that inevitably our family would once again be making the 20-plus-hour trek to Mexico to spend at least a third of our verano in Cerritos.

Those dog days of summer were the best. They also sent us back home to the states feeling pretty excited for a new year ahead until the next summer when we would be able to return. We liked being able to swap stories with our friends at school about what we had done in Mexico those summers.

We almost didn’t mind the first day of school that much. Almost.

The truth is the older we got the less pressure we felt on the first day of school. I think that had something to do with growing into ourselves. Even if we didn’t really understand that back then.

That’s where Edgar is this year.

He’s at that age where he’s getting very particular about what he wants to do and what he doesn’t want to do. It seems it’s mostly what he doesn’t want to do, but we try to give him his space to explore things at his own pace. Well sometimes. You know how it is. We’re still the parents here!

His voice has seriously deepened over the summer too. The boy is turning into a young man or something. And like teenagers all over the world he’s all about expressing himself now. Especially when it comes to his clothing.

He’s gone from skinny jeans to joggers over the last couple of years, and lately it seems his choices are all about comfort. As in if the item of clothing is not comfortable he doesn’t want to wear it.

I can’t really blame the boy, though. That’s really been my philosophy pretty much all of my life.

Which is why Anjelica and I agreed it would probably be a great idea to partner with JCPenney for back to school in order to get him into some affordable denim from Arizona Jeans. She knows how much I enjoy their blue jeans. All of my denim right now is actually from Arizona Jeans.

The other reason is that we really like JCPenney’s national partnership with the YMCA for back to school. For every pair of Arizona Jeans sold the company will donate $1 for the YMCA’s academic achievement programs. When we can shop for everyday value and give back at the same time we consider that a win-win.

I know for us growing up, my mother would always make sure that we donated whatever we could to our cousins in Mexico. Even though we didn’t have much, the little we could offer them was always so well received. I think by her doing that she really instilled in us the importance of kindness and humility.

As parents our goal is to instill those same values in Edgar.

Here he is sporting his latest pair of Arizona Jeans from JCPenney. Right now Arizona jeans for kids are $13 and Arizona jeans are $17.

You can actually get an additional 15% off if you’re a Pokemon Go user too. You just need to mention your favorite character or show it to the associate at checkout to get these additional savings.

Turns out he’s now as big of a fan as his old man.

You can’t beat that, being on-trend and at a great value! #SoWorthIt