School Picture Day...Oh The Terror!

School pictures were today for Paige. I was pumped because last year her father had her and while she looked ok, little things like her head band not matching her outfit in even the slightest way irritated the crap out of me. Mostly because if I'm shelling out money for these things I want them to look good.

I'm sure she chose the head band, in which case it's great because it makes the photo more "her", but still a little gentle coaxing for a more complimentary color wouldn't have hurt either.

This year I wanted to make school photo day fun. I dreaded it when I was a kid. Like I needed a forever reminder of how stupid I looked in school. So I took Paige to the mall to find a shirt. This is mistake number 1. Telling her she can have whatever she wants with in a budget, that was mistake number 2.

We started in Carter's, they have stuff in her size still that's cute, and she is only 6 after all. After choosing a hideous collection of bright green and purple (no doubt her way of saying she's both a Packers and Vikings fan?) items, I suggested we try another store and if we didn't find anything we could come back for that outfit.

We scurried off to The Children's Place. I can always find something in there! YIKES! While their new line is cute - it is also a sequined mess of black, red and silver and, well not for school photos. Not to mention I wasn't dropping $40 on a "jacket thing" Paige could have borrowed from Michal Jacksons closet...not like he's using it right now.....(okay - bad joke....shut up - you laughed!)

At this point I'm getting worried. I know the next place Paige is going to want to hit is Justice and I like the store but the prices don't like my pocket book. I will have no problem shelling out the money for $50 jeans when she stops growing out of things 10 minutes after buying them. Luckily for me that will also be right about the time she's old enough to get a job and buy the damn things herself. See, and people think I'm stupid....

I suggest Herberger's. Paige says, and I quote: "Ugh. I hate that place" and then drags her feet causing her flip flops to make this flip, shhhhhhhhh, flop combination of sounds. I thought that was irritating enough, I was not prepared for what she was going to do in the store once we got there.

I was unaware until this particular trip that she has a shopping radar built in, and it targets any ugly, loud, and resembling a color-blind-90-year-old-hippies-couch, item there is in a store. She hunted down and gazed lovingly at each item with a smile the size of Texas stretching across her face. Desire flowed from her eyes as she held each abandoned and highly clearanced item like it was a puppy in a shelter looking for a good home.

The really obnoxious items were easy to shoot down, using the "Paige, we're not going to see a lot of your shirt anyway so we don't really want a lot of design on it" this made me wonder why the hell we were shopping anyway, I could have put her in PJ's and called it a day for her photos...but I apparently like making life difficult.

Then she abandoned the idea of a shirt all together and went for these....oh yes - that's NEON folks. I couldn't even justify wasting words on a response so I pointed to the rack they came from then walked away silently praying that God could grant her some fashion sense in the next 15 minutes.

I knew I had no choice left, I asked if she wanted to go to Justice and off we ran. Literally. Mostly because I was scared some of the clothes she had picked up would come chasing after me for having mocked it to it's face.

In Justice, Paige was in awe. Much like me in a book store. She walked around and touched everything hanging. Forgetting now and then we were clothes shopping and wandering over to those damned ZuZu pet things. Luckily for me (read: Alex and the bank account) the whole store was 40% off.

She started grabbing everything that, if it could speak would be screaming at an ear splitting volume. I reminded her of the "not a lot of the shirt being seen" thing and off she went again to hunt. Of course everything I held up was a no. Then there was a SPECIFIC COLOR she had to have. Then her size was out of everything in that color. God help me. Oh and did I mention Justin Bieber is playing over the sound system the entire time, giving a soundtrack to my own personal hell.

I keep looking at my watch thinking we have to get going soon and then it happens. She finds it. The shirt. Something we can all agree on. The entire store went dark and a spot light shown on the beautiful garment in the right color and size. Justin shut his lesbian looking mouth and a choir of angels began to sing.....and just as quickly as it started...the sound of a needle scratching a record sounded and it was over. I looked at the price tag. Mistake number 3.

It wasn't horribly expensive, it was just more then I'd spend on the same shirt for me. And even though I am a crazy clearance shopper for myself, this was still a lot for a shirt for a 6 year old she will wear 4 times and then grow out of.

At this point I just didn't care, so I grabbed the shirt before I changed my mind, swiped my credit card which made a small crying sound as it passed through the machine and walked away a lot broker then I intended but with a very happy 6 year old.

So help me, I don't know what I'll so when she's 15. Pray for me.

Here's her outfit, never mind the iphone camera quality of the pics....