{"Family" Portraits}

A couple of weeks ago the girls had picture day at school. The kids tend to get excited about this day since they get to wear dresses and look extra pretty. I tend to get nervous. What weird face will they make for the photographer? Will they smile? Will their hair look ratty by the time it's their turn? So many things can go wrong! Plus, parents have to buy a package before they see the results, so you never know if you are spending money on an adorable photo or one with closed eyes and snot running into their mouths. It's a gamble.

Before you get to the actual photos, I need to put out a disclaimer. These pictures are scanned, and my scanner must be really rotten because the color is WAY off. I even tried to photoshop them to make them look closer to the real deal, but nothing worked. The colors are far better on the actual picture than what you are about to see here!

Here is Sasha's picture from last year. Pretty cute, huh? She looks so tiny, so squeezeable! The funny this was that the photographer wrote a note on her order form that said, "Would not smile". I wonder what his idea of a smile is?
This year Sasha was really sick during the days leading up to her picture and she still wasn't any better on picture day. So I brought her to school in the morning so she could have the photo taken and then I took her home. I simply crossed my fingers that she would look alive in the shot.

Not too bad, but the smile is definitely forced. Poor kid. But doesn't she look so much older? Man, how kids change in the course of a year!

Clara had her picture taken the day before. I think she felt like hot stuff, because she let loose with a nice big smile. Not bad! And trust me, her teeth don't look yellow and rotten in the actual picture. And her dress is pink. And her eyes look really blue. And . . . Darn scanner!

They both have nice expressions in the class pictures, too, so I guess overall we lucked out this year. Thankfully they haven't repeated what I did when I was in nursery school: In the class picture I was seated in the front row on the floor. I was wearing a dress. I crossed my legs Indian-style. Use your imagination to figure out what was visible in that shot. And I'm so comforted knowing that the entire class has a copy of that photo and that many of those kids are people I still know. So if you are a teacher, PLEASE don't allow little girls to sit on the floor in a dress for a picture! The results can leave lasting scars!

Now to switch gears a bit. Sasha's absolute favorite thing in the world to do is art. She will draw, color and paint all day, every day, and never get bored. It's rare to walk into our house and not see her artwork and a plethora of markers and crayons all over the floor. She will NOT clean them up until bedtime when she knows the art is done for the day.

I feel kind of guilty about this, but I end up throwing away most of the artwork. It's simply too much to keep. Between Sasha and Clara, there are probably fifteen new pieces of art every day, at a minimum. So I keep the ones that are extra cute, and the rest get tossed.

Yesterday I happened to look over Sasha's shoulder to see what she was working on, and I was delighted to find this:

My rotten scanner isn't big enough to fit the entire paper on it, so the top that has a window is cut off. But you can clearly see Sasha's "family" portrayed here. Sasha is of course the bigger girl on the left and Clara is on the right. Below are our pets: Barbie the boy cat, Ariel, Jasmine, Simba (the big fat cat), and Perdy. Are they not the cutest little dogs and cats ever?

I'm so glad Sasha loves art. What a wonderful outlet for her to be creative and use her imagination. I feel fairly confident that she and I will spend a lot of time together being crafty in the years to come, because I love art, too.

Follow your passion, Sasha!