The smell of fresh crayons, the sudden spike in jeans sales, the year of learning ahead—is there anything more exciting than the first day of school?

When you’re packing your children’s backpacks with the binders, books and school supplies they’ll need for the new school year, we’re asking you to remember one very important thing: your camera.

We want to see those bright, smiling faces ready for the first day of school, so we decided to start a contest: The best “It’s my first day of school!” photo wins a prize.

Submit your first day of school photos by hitting the “Upload” button on this article anytime between August 13 and August 31. Patch editors will randomly select the winner from the photos submitted.

And what do you win? Just a little something to help with that back-to-school shopping: a $100 gift card good at Chesterfield Mall, Mid Rivers Mall, South County Center and/or West County Center! 

Note: Only submit pictures you have taken yourself. And in the picture captions, please don't post specific locations or last names of the children. Thank you!

Questions? Email Patch editor Lindsay Toler at lindsay.toler@patch.com.

Here's the contest's legal language

• Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.
• To enter, upload your back-to-school photo to this article on Patch.
• All entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. CDT on August 31.
• Only one upload will count towards the contest, though you're free to upload as many photos as you desire.
• One winner will be selected in a random drawing.
• One (1) winner will receive a $100 gift card that's good at Chesterfield Mall, Mid Rivers Mall, South County Center and/or West County Center.
  
• Complete Official Rules are attached as a PDF to this article.