In the two years that Lil’ CB has been home, we’ve taken lots of pictures of him. Like, LOTS. I’m thinking we have close to 10,000 (!!) photos of our child. With digital cameras and good quality cameras on our phones, it’s easy to just snap snap snap away! Of course, this means that not all of the photos we have are super high quality, but we’ve probably captured nearly every day (if not every hour of every day) of Lil’ CB’s life with us!

Because it’s so easy to take photos now, things like school portraits don’t seem as special. Which is kinda sad because I have such nostalgia about exchanging wallet-sized school pictures with my friends and writing little personalized messages on the back of each photo. But, in this day and age of Facebook and Instagram and texting and Twitter, etc, etc, etc, do older students even exchange pictures anymore? And if they do, they’re probably super flattering, super edited, hazy-filter-added, best-of-multiple-takes kinda pictures. Which makes sense because in a lot of ways, school pictures are a gamble – it’s usually just one image on a stale background, taken in less than a minute. Not to mention how overpriced they are! I think the cheapest package is $18. For 2 5x7s. Of one image.

I’ve noticed that less that half of the parents of my students end up purchasing school portrait packages. I think most parents feel the same way I do! The nice thing is that all students’ photos are taken and for students who do not buy packages, proofs are sent home and parents can order portraits online after Picture Day.

When Picture Day rolled around at my school, we opted not to pre-purchase a photo package of Lil’ CB’s school portrait. We had just taken family portraits and gotten some great individual snaps of Lil’ CB, and we didn’t want to shell out money to buy pictures that we might not like. We decided to wait for the proof and then if we liked the proof enough, we’d order them. Part of me got all, “Awww…but it’s his first school picture!” but then another part of me was all, “But he’s 3. And he’ll take school pictures for the next 13 years!” So, I was okay with waiting for the proof.

Secretly, I hoped Lil’ CB’s photo would stand out and be super goofy or funny, which would really make me want to buy it. For the purpose of showing his future wife and including it in the wedding slideshow posterity’s sake.

Well.

I got my wish:

His goofy expression kills me! He told me he was making a “confused face”… ;)

I promptly ordered the digital file only and eagerly awaited its arrival in my inbox. And I’ve done nothing with the image except for posting it on Facebook and Instagram. And who knows if I’ll ever end up doing anything more with it…

But for the sake of nostalgia (and future slideshows), I’m going to say it was $30 (for the digital file only!) well spent.

Besides, Lil’ CB’s preschool school portrait can now join the ranks of these gems:

Will you buy your LO’s school portraits?