Named the "Best Blog" by Parent & Child Magazine, this popular mom blog chronicles the wonderful mundaneness of a Philadelphia stay-at-home mom's life with four small children including twins in episodic form. Recurrent topics include adoption, multiples, Fifth Disease, Crohn's Disease and pregnancy, and academia.
April 19, 2011
School Pictures
For only $20.00, Package B (1 3x5, 1 5x7, and one refrigerator magnet) can be mine:
I wonder if Life Touch takes family photos. If they do, I'm definitely asking for this background.
I laughed for one whole minute before I was able to calm myself enough to type anything--and I'm still grinning like a fool. Hahahahahaha! My mum always hated school pictures. Now I think I truly understand why.
You know, with cameras the way they are now-a-days, school pictures will probably become obsolete with the exception of them being taken for yearbooks. I think any bed sheet out of the linen closet would be a more fitting background than that Space Odyssey 1981 poster. What a handsome boy though. :)
Haha, don't we all love our elementary school pictures?! What's even funnier (to me, anyways), is that the way the letter "D" is folded in his shirt, it almost looked as if it said "Puke Soccer."
I mentioned to my daughter's daycare teacher that I've never bought the daycare picture (Lifetouch), and she gave me a completely shocked look and acted like I'm the only parent who doesn't want overpriced pictures of my kids in terrible poses, backgrounds, and usually crying. I'm really glad to know I'm not the only one!!
LOL!!!!! Are these the beautiful spring photos that they send home w/the kids before purchase, and then the kids can't believe that you don't want to buy them? Ours just came home today.
Two Augusts ago my sweetie got laid off from his job. We were only unemployed for about six weeks, but it was a scary time with school starting and all the expense. One thing we decided we couldn't afford was school pictures. At twenty-five bucks a pop, and I had 5 kids in the public school system... So my 19-year-old daughter who had just graduated from high school and had taken a couple of photography classes set up our own school pictures. They were much better than what you get at school and WAY cheaper! So this year when the papers came home for school pictures, I threw them in the trash and set up our own "school" pictures day. The only disadvantage is that I don't get the collage from the classroom, but if you want you can purchase that for only $6.00 (and you don't have to deal with the ugly backgrounds!) Sandy www.twelvemakesadozen.blogspot.com
I also feel like I'm the ONLY parent not buying school picture. I go to Penney's, use the $7.99 coupon, get a good amount of pictures, choose the pose I want, the background I want (white), and they are MUCH better pictures!! (And my daughter's school makes you buy the picture package before ever seeing the picture!!)
I have always ordered both sets of school pics for my kids but this year Lifetouch really outdid themselves. I just had to resist the urge to buy and took em to pennies instead lol
My boys' preschool finally wised up and now has photos taken outside by a Mom photographer. They are usually adorable and completely lacking this horrid background.
I must say though I have some fascination with collecting these for the funny in them.
Haha, I think I had that same background in my school photos a few years back. School pictures are such a waste of money. My mom used to feel obligated to buy them so she'd buy the cheapest package, she even asked if they could sell her 1 wallet photo only lol.
I would ask for re-takes so that I could dress my children in an astronaut costume and call it their Halloween photos. Just so you know: JC Penney IS Lifetouch Photography. It's just cheaper to go to their studio. I never buy those tacky, expensive pictures. Rip-off city!
I got my daughter's pictures back and her smile was great but the background they picked was the pits! Plain bright red that blended in with her red shirt and her looking at a black and white "painting" of herself. Weird.
That background is awesome! Maybe you can photoshop a smile on him. Definitely request it for Family Pics, and put everyone in space suits. Then you can't see the goofy, inappropriate-for-pictures faces of your lovely children.
With my family of seven children, we gave up on school pictures a few years ago. They were WAY overpriced. Our digital camera does a great job, and for the price of one Life Touch "bundle" that included picture sizes we didn't want and not all of the sizes we did want, we now get ALL SEVEN of our children's pictures printed through Snapfish.
I think the best part about the background is the fact that you get double-dose. The crazy background and then the top section is some type of wall that didn't quite get covered up. Maybe your boy is the tallest one in the school?
When my friends daughter first got braces (and it was time for school pics), she wanted everyone to be able to see her braces REALLY well. So, she didn't so much smile as she did grit her teeth together and pull her lips back as far as possible.
She achieved her goal. You could see her braces really well but her mother freaked out. And I have to say, she did look a bit mentally challenged and deformed. Bless her heart.
The sad part is, I'm so fricken oblivious I didn't even notice what was bad about the picture until I looked hard. This is why my husband has to routinely re-dress me. Hilarious! And love "puke soccer" GO PUKE!
Our daycare center uses Life Touch Photography for the kids there. They send home 3 poses and the various size sheets, and you pick which ones, if any, you want to purchase. Still spendy at $12/sheet, but I have only not liked 2 poses in the last 3 years (pics twice a year). They are the only professional pics we have of my daughter. They usually turn out really well. They look just like a regular school pic, but for ages 6wks-5yrs.
Oh my gosh, that's hysterical!! I'm the sucker that ALWAYS buys the package. But hey, I've only got a kindergartener so far, so maybe I'll change my mind as the years go on. We do see the pictures beforehand, so I know what I'm getting. :) We get to pick the background, and for spring pictures we even got to choose the pose. Love that!
LOL! Love the pic! My son rarely smiled for the school pics camera. if he did, it was the smile with no teeth and he looked like an 80 year old man trying to hide the fact that he has no teeth... I put notes on my sons order forms for Lifetouch to please let me see some teeth. no good. He's 19 now so he actually lived though that time.
I haven't purchased school pictures in years (unless they turn out really freaky-then I want them for the laugh factor). I also hate the stupid sports photos that I do end up buying every sport season.
I can NOT believe they are still using these kind of backgrounds?!?!?!?!?! You would think with the bajillions of dollars in profit they've made over the last thirty years or so that they would have invested in a NEUTRAL background or two.
Oh, I'm also with the others who do non-school-school pictures. We go to Target, use the $7.99 coupon and then I complete a survey for $3 off my next purchase, making it a little over $5 with tax for 2 8X10s, 2 5X7s, 4 3X5s and 16 wallets, plus access to them all online.
lifetouch did my sons regular yearbook pictures and because he is in the 8th grade they did promotion pictures too. the school color is red and my son looks pink in the color picture and the black and white! i was not happy. but what can i do? he is too stinking cute to send them back....i sent all but one back..guilty.
lol, i just took another look at the pink picture. my son in cap and gown...with a nature scene behind him? i dont know why i hadn't noticed that before.(i was too busy looking at my baby)
They really are vile but I buy a set every year. (This they are offering a spring option too) Just like I feel roped in to buy my son books from the book club and the book fair. I was just telling myself that I needed to buy a great big stick with a gloved pointer finger on the end. Works great when I explain the intricacies of invading Poland to my 19 month old.
One year, I took one look at my son and asked, "Did they take the school pictures before or after snack time?" "After, Mom. Why?" There was a giant spot of chocolate pudding on his chin! Didn't anyone notice something like that?!?
There is just something so....uh...unfortunate about school pictures. Most of my kids' make them look as though they'd fallen on their head moments before the photo was snapped.
My son the rebel wore the same shirt in all of his school photos. Senior year it is just for their ID but still, there is that same wrestling t-shirt. Also Senior year is the time the kids make them ugly on purpose. I have to admit, they give me a good laugh. I hear it drives the photographer crazy, though. Paybacks.....
Ok everyone, I think the "brown area" at the top is not where the photographer messed up and didn't put the background high enough. I think it's the cork board or carpet that "Meanest Mom" has the picture on. That certainly doesn't make the picture better, I just think that explains the brown space. :)
We have LifeTouch in Louisiana, too. They are a total ripoff. They are twice as much as the Leo's we had in Washington. I detest the backgrounds and now I boycott them. Like, Anna, I think they will soon be obsolete.
Really guys? I'm sure that "top section" is the floor/table/couch whatever was behind the picture when the mom was taking it's picture to show here. & That "glare" is probably the flash of HER camera. Crappy school picture? Definitely. Overanalyzing crappy school picture? Yep.
Same crazy backgrounds our schools are using... Ironically my 6 y/o daughter loves that background. God forbid Lifetouch ever used a white or cream colored background!
I wonder if Life Touch takes family photos. If they do, I'm definitely asking for this background.
I laughed for one whole minute before I was able to calm myself enough to type anything--and I'm still grinning like a fool. Hahahahahaha! My mum always hated school pictures. Now I think I truly understand why.
ReplyDeleteSuch a waste of money. :P
ReplyDeleteYou know, with cameras the way they are now-a-days, school pictures will probably become obsolete with the exception of them being taken for yearbooks. I think any bed sheet out of the linen closet would be a more fitting background than that Space Odyssey 1981 poster. What a handsome boy though. :)
ReplyDeleteHahahahahahahaha. Ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI never buy school pictures and now I feel even more justified than before. Was the photographer drunk?
Haha, don't we all love our elementary school pictures?! What's even funnier (to me, anyways), is that the way the letter "D" is folded in his shirt, it almost looked as if it said "Puke Soccer."
ReplyDeleteI especially love the glare of the flash in the background.
ReplyDeleteShouldn't he be wearing a robe and a wizard's hat? Seriously.
ReplyDeleteHAHAHHAHAHAHA!!!
ReplyDeleteI've had the ROUGHEST day and this was just what I needed right now!! Love it and THANKS! :)
I mentioned to my daughter's daycare teacher that I've never bought the daycare picture (Lifetouch), and she gave me a completely shocked look and acted like I'm the only parent who doesn't want overpriced pictures of my kids in terrible poses, backgrounds, and usually crying. I'm really glad to know I'm not the only one!!
ReplyDeleteLOL!!!!! Are these the beautiful spring photos that they send home w/the kids before purchase, and then the kids can't believe that you don't want to buy them? Ours just came home today.
ReplyDeleteOh wow. The photographer even cut the ugly background off. Hilarious.
ReplyDeleteTwo Augusts ago my sweetie got laid off from his job. We were only unemployed for about six weeks, but it was a scary time with school starting and all the expense. One thing we decided we couldn't afford was school pictures. At twenty-five bucks a pop, and I had 5 kids in the public school system... So my 19-year-old daughter who had just graduated from high school and had taken a couple of photography classes set up our own school pictures. They were much better than what you get at school and WAY cheaper! So this year when the papers came home for school pictures, I threw them in the trash and set up our own "school" pictures day. The only disadvantage is that I don't get the collage from the classroom, but if you want you can purchase that for only $6.00 (and you don't have to deal with the ugly backgrounds!)
ReplyDeleteSandy
www.twelvemakesadozen.blogspot.com
I also feel like I'm the ONLY parent not buying school picture. I go to Penney's, use the $7.99 coupon, get a good amount of pictures, choose the pose I want, the background I want (white), and they are MUCH better pictures!! (And my daughter's school makes you buy the picture package before ever seeing the picture!!)
ReplyDeleteI'm with Beth! I do the same thing!
ReplyDeleteI have always ordered both sets of school pics for my kids but this year Lifetouch really outdid themselves. I just had to resist the urge to buy and took em to pennies instead lol
ReplyDeletePUKE SOCCER
ReplyDeleteMy boys' preschool finally wised up and now has photos taken outside by a Mom photographer. They are usually adorable and completely lacking this horrid background.
ReplyDeleteI must say though I have some fascination with collecting these for the funny in them.
Haha, I think I had that same background in my school photos a few years back. School pictures are such a waste of money. My mom used to feel obligated to buy them so she'd buy the cheapest package, she even asked if they could sell her 1 wallet photo only lol.
ReplyDeleteShut up! That looks like something I posed in front of in elementary school in the late 80's!
ReplyDeleteI would ask for re-takes so that I could dress my children in an astronaut costume and call it their Halloween photos.
ReplyDeleteJust so you know: JC Penney IS Lifetouch Photography. It's just cheaper to go to their studio.
I never buy those tacky, expensive pictures. Rip-off city!
I got my daughter's pictures back and her smile was great but the background they picked was the pits! Plain bright red that blended in with her red shirt and her looking at a black and white "painting" of herself. Weird.
ReplyDeleteWOW........ I have no words!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete(Ack, fix typo....)
ReplyDeleteWith that background maybe they're going reto or perhaps they expected every kid to wear their Kennedy Space Center T-shirt.
Good luck, at least your son doesn't do the I-might-be-in-pain-OVERSMILE look. Ack.
I like the idea of a mom with Skillz taking them. I'd support that every time.
That background is awesome! Maybe you can photoshop a smile on him. Definitely request it for Family Pics, and put everyone in space suits. Then you can't see the goofy, inappropriate-for-pictures faces of your lovely children.
ReplyDeleteWith my family of seven children, we gave up on school pictures a few years ago. They were WAY overpriced. Our digital camera does a great job, and for the price of one Life Touch "bundle" that included picture sizes we didn't want and not all of the sizes we did want, we now get ALL SEVEN of our children's pictures printed through Snapfish.
ReplyDeleteI think the best part about the background is the fact that you get double-dose. The crazy background and then the top section is some type of wall that didn't quite get covered up.
ReplyDeleteMaybe your boy is the tallest one in the school?
When my friends daughter first got braces (and it was time for school pics), she wanted everyone to be able to see her braces REALLY well. So, she didn't so much smile as she did grit her teeth together and pull her lips back as far as possible.
ReplyDeleteShe achieved her goal. You could see her braces really well but her mother freaked out. And I have to say, she did look a bit mentally challenged and deformed. Bless her heart.
The sad part is, I'm so fricken oblivious I didn't even notice what was bad about the picture until I looked hard. This is why my husband has to routinely re-dress me. Hilarious! And love "puke soccer" GO PUKE!
ReplyDeleteOur daycare center uses Life Touch Photography for the kids there. They send home 3 poses and the various size sheets, and you pick which ones, if any, you want to purchase. Still spendy at $12/sheet, but I have only not liked 2 poses in the last 3 years (pics twice a year). They are the only professional pics we have of my daughter. They usually turn out really well. They look just like a regular school pic, but for ages 6wks-5yrs.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, that's hysterical!! I'm the sucker that ALWAYS buys the package. But hey, I've only got a kindergartener so far, so maybe I'll change my mind as the years go on. We do see the pictures beforehand, so I know what I'm getting. :) We get to pick the background, and for spring pictures we even got to choose the pose. Love that!
ReplyDeleteOnly $20. What a deal! They want us to pay $30 for ours.
ReplyDeleteLOL! Love the pic!
ReplyDeleteMy son rarely smiled for the school pics camera. if he did, it was the smile with no teeth and he looked like an 80 year old man trying to hide the fact that he has no teeth... I put notes on my sons order forms for Lifetouch to please let me see some teeth. no good. He's 19 now so he actually lived though that time.
I haven't purchased school pictures in years (unless they turn out really freaky-then I want them for the laugh factor). I also hate the stupid sports photos that I do end up buying every sport season.
ReplyDeleteI like how they didn't even move the background up so you have a lovely beige border at the top...cafeteria perhaps?
ReplyDeleteI like how they didn't even move the background up so you have a lovely beige border at the top...cafeteria perhaps?
ReplyDeleteI can NOT believe they are still using these kind of backgrounds?!?!?!?!?! You would think with the bajillions of dollars in profit they've made over the last thirty years or so that they would have invested in a NEUTRAL background or two.
ReplyDeleteSheesh.
Oh, I'm also with the others who do non-school-school pictures. We go to Target, use the $7.99 coupon and then I complete a survey for $3 off my next purchase, making it a little over $5 with tax for 2 8X10s, 2 5X7s, 4 3X5s and 16 wallets, plus access to them all online.
ReplyDeleteI will never buy a Lifetouch portrait. Ever.
lifetouch did my sons regular yearbook pictures and because he is in the 8th grade they did promotion pictures too. the school color is red and my son looks pink in the color picture and the black and white! i was not happy.
ReplyDeletebut what can i do? he is too stinking cute to send them back....i sent all but one back..guilty.
lol, i just took another look at the pink picture. my son in cap and gown...with a nature scene behind him? i dont know why i hadn't noticed that before.(i was too busy looking at my baby)
I LOVE IT! Thanks for the laughs! I needed it! (husband just called and is going to be late!) grrrrr.
ReplyDeleteThey really are vile but I buy a set every year. (This they are offering a spring option too) Just like I feel roped in to buy my son books from the book club and the book fair. I was just telling myself that I needed to buy a great big stick with a gloved pointer finger on the end. Works great when I explain the intricacies of invading Poland to my 19 month old.
ReplyDeleteOne year, I took one look at my son and asked, "Did they take the school pictures before or after snack time?" "After, Mom. Why?" There was a giant spot of chocolate pudding on his chin! Didn't anyone notice something like that?!?
ReplyDeleteThere is just something so....uh...unfortunate about school pictures. Most of my kids' make them look as though they'd fallen on their head moments before the photo was snapped.
ReplyDeleteMy son the rebel wore the same shirt in all of his school photos. Senior year it is just for their ID but still, there is that same wrestling t-shirt. Also Senior year is the time the kids make them ugly on purpose. I have to admit, they give me a good laugh. I hear it drives the photographer crazy, though. Paybacks.....
Ok everyone, I think the "brown area" at the top is not where the photographer messed up and didn't put the background high enough. I think it's the cork board or carpet that "Meanest Mom" has the picture on. That certainly doesn't make the picture better, I just think that explains the brown space. :)
ReplyDeleteWe have LifeTouch in Louisiana, too. They are a total ripoff. They are twice as much as the Leo's we had in Washington. I detest the backgrounds and now I boycott them. Like, Anna, I think they will soon be obsolete.
ReplyDeletehahahahaha :) my mom hates school pictures. they always come out either too drak or too bright, don't they?
ReplyDeleteReally guys? I'm sure that "top section" is the floor/table/couch whatever was behind the picture when the mom was taking it's picture to show here. & That "glare" is probably the flash of HER camera.
ReplyDeleteCrappy school picture? Definitely.
Overanalyzing crappy school picture? Yep.
Same crazy backgrounds our schools are using... Ironically my 6 y/o daughter loves that background. God forbid Lifetouch ever used a white or cream colored background!
ReplyDelete