Tomorrow is a big day for me my daughter. It’s picture day at school! If you know anything about me by now, you know I’m always prepared for events like this. Hahaha! Ok so back to reality. I don’t even know if she has clean clothes to wear to the pictures! Since I have to run out and go shopping for the cutest picture outfit on earth, I’ll keep this one short.
School pictures are a big deal. They forever capture a moment in time of school-age awkwardness. These are the stuff legends are made of. I remember my first school picture. Absolutely adorable. (If you ignore the horribly rotten teeth. WTF dental care in the 70’s? Why did you abandon me??)
Photo: K. Stevenson
School pictures can also be the source of blackmail that your parents will use against you in your teen years. Imagine your horror as you come into the living room to meet your date, only to find your mother presenting all of your horrifying school pictures to the boy of your dreams! GASP! Remember my high school throwback post? This was a little gem that I didn’t share (Gee, wonder why?):
Photo: K. Stevenson
As a parent who likes to have some sense of control over things (Does anyone else hear a helicopter?), I am looking forward to this exercise in letting go. I’ve come to realize that I can’t be with my daughter all the time and sometimes things work out. Other times, well, it’s good to have a sense of humor. What’s the worst that can happen?
Well, this:
Looks like I’ll be putting my foot down on bringing her doll to school tomorrow for sure! I don’t want “Chucky” to be immortalized like this:
Maybe I should see if I can volunteer tomorrow. At least lend a hairbrush or two…
At least I know that the right outfit can make or break your school photo.
They say every picture tells a story. I’m not exactly sure what story these are telling. Anyway, it doesn’t matter how my daughter’s first school pictures end up looking, I’m sure that I’ll love them. Not just because she’s my daughter and I think everything about her is pretty freakin awesome. But also because these are the moments that we want to freeze in time. This is our “pause” button. School pictures capture it all–the joy, the phases, the awkward, the fashion. I look forward to embarrassing her with the photos for years to come. Now if anyone can tell me how to pay for them without selling a kidney, let me know.
(All the pictures above (except the ones of me!) belong to awkwardfamilyphotos.com. Check them out if you want to laugh out loud.)
CT Working Moms 
Oh how I needed a laugh. This was AWESOME.
LikeLike
Its funny how I have bought school pictures for 10 years now and hate them each year. I started hiring a photographer to take pics of both my boys and I make books for the grands for Christmas. Last year somehow I managed to NOT get school pics and I missed them 😦 This year I scraped together my change to make sure that I had those horrible school pics and then went out this past weekend with a real photographer and got some great pics!!! Oh the things we do as parents…..
LikeLike
Thanks Dawn! That’s such a good idea to get the professional ones done too. But you can’t beat the cheesy, uber-posed school ones. Those backgrounds! Hideous.
Last year since the pictures for Zoey’s dance recital were so expensive, one of the moms got her kid all dolled up to be in the group picture and then wisked her to the mall for a sitting that cost her less than $20 bucks for a package! What a great idea-affordable and the pics came out even better! I wish I knew about that little trick before I dished out the dough for those bad pics!
I am guilty of buying a huge package of pics, then letting them sit in a drawer-because what am I going to do with all of those 8X10’s? Oh well!
LikeLike
When I bring my class down to the library for pictures on picture day, I always fix their hair myself. I want them looking handsome and pretty for the pictures that will forever be a reminder of their second grade school year.
That being said, I do remember the cutest pictures of Geoff and Chris were the year they combed their own hair for their pictures. I’ll have to see if I can find them somewhere. They are my favorites ❤
Oh yeah, and one more thing, growing up in the 60s, why did my mother (and everybody else's for that matter) insist on "setting" our hair for the picture? We had to sleep in rollers all night which didn't allow us much sleep, and our hair came out anything but natural looking! I actually have my second grade picture hanging outside my classroom door, along with my current school picture, which they make me display.
I can't wait to see Zoey's kindergarten picture. Mine and Brynn's look almost exactly alike!
LikeLike
Aunt Nancy you’re such a sweetheart by nature, one of the best teachers I’ve ever known. I was thinking of that funny picture of Chris when I wrote this. Hysterical.
I was glad to just be able to brush Zoey’s hair this morning. I can’t imagine setting it! Horrible!
LikeLike
Those seriously made me laugh out loud. For a second there (before I saw the credit on the pic itself), I thought that girl picking her nose was YOU!!!!
I love the Holly Hobbie/Pooh collar!!
LikeLike
Thanks Vivian! The funny part is, that could have been me in that pic! LOL
LikeLike