We were planning on retakes...

This is Aubrey's Kindergarten picture from last year. When I got it, I pretty much decided it was disastrous. The brown background does nothing for her, her hair is disheveled, and if you look closely, you can see crumbs on her face from lunch. (I'm serious). Who decided taking the Kindergarteners pictures after lunch and recess was a good idea? And she's not even really smiling. (But at that time, it was true to life-- if you asked her to smile, she would pull up the corners of her mouth, no teeth, and slightly close her eyes, for some weird reason... so at least her eyes are all the way open in this picture). Granted, this was the day after I was unexpectedly admitted to the hospital, so Aubrey was out of her routine for the day, but still. This was not the way I wanted to remember Aubrey, who has a much cuter face and smile than this picture shows, but at the time, I did not have the heart to tell her I didn't like her picture. So we kept it. And made a mental note to remind her of a couple key rules on picture day:
1. smile with your teeth... like what your face looks like when you're laughing.
2. be sure to wipe your mouth after lunch. (I even put a wipe in her lunch with a note reminding her again, in case she forgot by lunchtime and by some misfortune again, had her pictures after lunch).
3. Smooth down your hair before you take your picture, and fix your headband. I remember in my elementary days, on picture day there was a mom with a brush, brushing everyone's hair as they filed through the line. I'm sure they don't do that anymore, (and thank goodness) but I wanted to make sure Aubrey's hair looked decent this time.

So this year, I had high hopes her picture would turn out nicely. That afternoon, when she came home, I asked her, "did you smile with your teeth?" She answered me, "No, the picture person told me to not show my teeth." I was so disappointed! I reminded her that she should always do what I tell her, not what a stranger tells her to do, and resigned myself to another bad picture. (and also contemplated calling the school, because, what school photographer tells kids to not smile with their teeth? Whoever that guy is, needs to be fired, I thought to myself).

I didn't really give the school pictures much thought after that, because I just figured we'd do retakes. So, I was surprised when Aubrey took them out of her backpack yesterday, and even more surprised to see this:


It's a good school picture! I think she looks so cute! Her hair is fine, she doesn't have food crumbs on her face, and she's got a cute smile. I was pleased. I guess we don't have to have retakes after all. (And I'm glad I didn't call and get that photographer in trouble... I'm still not sure why Aubrey said he told her to smile with no teeth, but I'm glad she didn't listen.)