Picture Day... Need I Say More?

     I have to say that I do not like picture day at all.  Is there anyone out there who does?  If so, please tell me your magic spell for a stress-free morning!  All of the stresses involved with buying "special" clothes, worrying about hairstyles, and unhappy kids is almost intolerable!

     Super D did surprisingly well yesterday preparing for his picture day.  Normally he detests wearing "fancy" clothes and such but he dealt with it much better this time around.  Maybe it helped that I bought him a new short-sleeved, Tony Hawk dress shirt...not that he knows who Tony Hawk is but I told him he was a professional skateboarder and that got his attention!  It also helped that the fabric of the shirt was ultra-soft and cozy and that is right up Super D's alley!  I was glad that I had the foresight to get his hair cut last week so that there were no last-minute night-before rushes to the local chop-shop!  I did feel bad however that I forgot to send in a play shirt for him to change into....I did let him know that on the way to school...he took that surprisingly well too....

     As for Miss Tish, well, that's another story...  She is more of a "I'm-a-girl-only-when-I-feel-like-it" type of young lady.  She is more inclined to play basketball and roll around in the dirt than participate in the local dance studio's Tu-Tu's R Us extravaganza.... trust me...I've tried.   She wears leggings most everyday, as jeans and regular pants "bother her" or are "too tight" 99% of the time.  Can you imagine trying to get a pair of tights on my little Daring Diva?   Ya....not so much.   So, we have narrowed down dress-up days to picture day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and an occasional yearly family photo (I say that because we aren't able to do one every year)   Today was Miss Tish's picture day, a day that I have been dreading for weeks as we all are painfully aware of what's in store.  Not wanting to get out of bed, not wanting to eat, not wanting to get our hair brushed, expressly not wanting to put on tights....yes...this was a lovely morning.   Oh I forgot to add the necessity of removing every fragment of tag in the back of the dress and the futile attempts on my part to disguise the red, blotchy patches of skin from said Diva's tear-stained face.....  

     O.K....that being said.....I feel horribly guilty now because we need and want to have these precious years immortalized on glossy paper!  How lucky we are to be blessed with beautiful children and how selfish of me to complain about the picture-taking process.  I guess I need to understand how confusing these picture-taking rituals are to children.  I know that someday they will have a treasury of wonderful photos to look at and reminisce about their school days....but do they understand the importance of that treasury?  I know the answer to that....no....and how could they appreciate that at their young age?  So, for now, I will just continue to bite the bullet and subject them to all of the un-glorious picture days that lie ahead in the years to come.  

Side-note:  Dear God, Please don't let there be a need for a re-take.....Amen