Say "Snooze"

Reese plopped down on my bed last night with a stack of papers to go over. Field trip permissions, substance abuse form, choir uniform order sheet, and teacher/student contracts. Where next to student signature is parent signature. I felt like we were taking out a loan together with all the signing.

"Oh, and are you gonna buy school pictures?"

Hmmm, let's see, I've only bought them for the past ELEVEN years you've been in school. So, nah, I'm good. These are the types of snarky comments I hold back from time to time. Not often.

"Yes." I simply stated.

I get why schools don't have Picture Day on the first day back. I imagine adding that in the mix would push teachers and staff over that fine line between sanity/insanity.

But that first day is when my kids put forth their best effort. The girls have planned out their outfits, their hairstyles, and everything comes together nicely. They progressively let themselves go after that. Oh, sure, the rest of that week they piece together a few more coordinating outfits. But only because I threaten to bag up all their brand new clothes for the thrift store if I still find tags on them come October.

By the end of the first quarter they begin to resemble, well, me on the days I stayed home with them as newborns. "Oh, is it pj day today?" I'll ask. And as they push back an escaped strand of hair from their messy bun, glancing down at their crumpled t-shirt they'll say, "No. Why?"

It's a good thing they carry student I.D.s. so their teachers can know for certain that the Hollaway walking into their class in November is indeed the same Hollaway they met on the that first day.

I was actually ahead of the game this year with pictures. Not only did I order all of them online at once, I found a package that included enough 5x7s for all of David's offices across the Midwest. Now if I can actually hand these over to him the day they come in instead of forgetting where I put them, I will really impress myself. I think the current ones he has on display include one or two elementary pictures.

Picture Day used to be sometime in September. Which worked out great because my kids all just wore their first day of school outfits again. Now, it's a few days after school starts. There's not enough money in all our savings to bribe the girls to repeat an outfit that first week. So we have to have an additional nice looking outfit. I'm still working on my proposal to the school board about this. And getting Tate to wear a plaid shirt again?! It took the girls and I joining forces together to convince him to do this. He's worn a plaid shirt in every school picture since preschool. There's no way we're going to let him break his streak now. The girls suggested he wear an athletic shirt under it, then whip it off and stuff it in his locker. Where I'm afraid it will remain until May. Thank the heavens, stars, and planets, his pictures are early in the day.

And instead of having my kids say "cheese", they should have them say "snooze". I'm sure they'd get a much more genuine smile.

Reese enlisted my help curling her hair this morning. I think the last time she did that was for her school dance last Winter. So I was a bit rusty but was happy with how it turned out. Even Drue, who is always completely honest, sometimes brutally so, when you ask her how something looks, agreed.

"Oooohhhh!" I exclaimed. "The back looks really good! Could they maybe take a picture of that?"

"Sure, I'll just turn my head around at the last second," she offered.

I sensed her snarkiness. So refrained from responding, "Great, thanks!"

I did drag her out front this morning to our standard spot for special occasion pictures.

I may just keep it handy and slip it into her planner mid-semester.