Back-To-School Fashion: This Time, It’s All About Attitude And Seniority.

I hope you enjoy this month’s contribution to Hallmark’s “Life Is A Special Occasion” campaign! (I bet you’ll love it. It’s got funny pictures, even!)

Today is a very special day. It’s not just the first day of school in our district. It’s the first day of J’s SENIOR YEAR.

Let THAT absorb for a moment.

I know from experience that this year is going to fly by for all of us, what with all of the special activities crammed into a final year of high school education combined with the college search, his girlfriend, his job, his car, and all of the other things he’s got going on. (Related: SO thrilled that Junior Year is in our rear view mirror.)

It’s a far cry from his first day of preschool, which seemed like such a big deal at the time. Okay, it WAS a big deal at the time.

If he leaned too far back, the backpack would've taken him down.

I mean, look at him standing there next to his older brother, his Buzz Lightyear backpack almost as big as he was, the look on his face that screamed “I don’t know about this…” and ohmygosh I just realized what a huge difference in size their feet had back then. Wow. But I digress..

When I was a kid, back-to-school fashion was very important. I wore a new outfit from head to toe, every year. Not just any new t-shirts and pants, either: I DRESSED UP for the first day. It was a special occasion!

I’m not sure if it’s a “boy thing” but my kids have never cared about a new anything–except backpacks!–for the first day of school. Ever. I have bought new clothes for them each year, but once they started choosing their own outfits the new clothes would stay in the drawer until another day and their favorite items of clothing, old stand-bys, would be what they wore.

Anyway, I have taken first-day-of-school pictures each and every year, and even though today was the last time I got to do it (College kids frown on parents moving them in, leaving, and then showing up again early on the morning of the first day of classes just to take a picture. So I’ve heard.), I’m fine with it. Having been able to send my kids off to school on every first day for 12+ years, each with big smiles because I finally got enough shots for the scrapbook is good enough for me.

This morning, as a matter of fact, J went above and beyond in helping me take our long-standing tradition out with a bang. He was more than cooperative and the goofy pictures I took will keep both of us smiling for a long time to come.

What did he wear today, on the first day of Senior Year? For the first time ever on a first day of school, even though he didn’t wear anything new, he cared about his outfit. He was hopelessly put-together in an outfit not meant to look put-together. Let me show you.

First day of senior year, J-style.

See what I mean? Senior attitude and a little bit of laid-back style can go a long way.

Of course, with his older brother still home (his college classes don’t start until after Labor Day), I wanted to get both of them in a picture. D didn’t set his alarm like I asked him to so we went ahead and woke him up at 6:20 a.m. so he could help us document this special day.

I was glad to get both of them in the picture this last time...

I don’t know: not such a great first-day picture of him. Maybe I will show up on campus before his first class this year after all.

EDITED: Believe it or not, D totally posed in that last shot. He was awake, and did indeed give permission for that picture to appear here!

LIASO HOR PMS267

Disclosure: I am BEYOND thrilled to be partnering with Hallmark on their “Life Is A Special Occasion” campaign for 2012. As a Hallmark LIASO blogger I am being compensated to write about every day moments of all sizes, family traditions, the relationships I cherish the most, and much more. All words, opinions, and photos are mine. Thanks so much to the folks at Hallmark for selecting me for this campaign: it’s an honor for me to be a part of it. Oh, and by the way, you can sign up for special offers and new product information from Hallmark by clicking here (and why wouldn’t you, really?).

32 Comments

    • Melisa

      ha! I edited the post so everyone knows that he was indeed awake and posed for pictures ACTING asleep. So funny! (He’s got a sense of humor, that one!)

    • Melisa

      Right? I had one that was even better but it was a little blurry. 🙁
      They crack me up daily. They’re like big versions of your boys! haha

  • Dawndi

    LOVE IT! 🙂 J is very stylish and D is a very good sport!

    Nick used to carry his keys on a lanyard. When he was home this summer, I asked where his lanyard was and he said, “OMG Mom! I haven’t used a lanyard in years. That is so high school!” Sah-ree!

    • Melisa

      Hilarious! So what does he use now? Just curious because D will probably be switching to whatever that is any minute now. 🙂

  • Michelle

    THAT. Is hilarious. And ummm would you believe that as I was looking at that first picture and thinking about how tiny their little legs were, I suddenly stopped and squinted at their feet to make sure I was seeing it right. Yeah. Big difference in foot size then 😉

    Congrats on making it this far so well, and I LOVE how J put himself together. The shirt too small is in now? Ugh. So much to learn. I hope he has a great senior year. Good luck cranking out those apps!

    • Melisa

      Of course I believe that! haha

      I’m not sure if the too-small shirt is “in”. All I know is that J loves to show off the results of his workout routine. *snort*

  • Diana

    I love it! Both pictures are priceless.

    It’s a big year here, too. My oldest is just now big enough to fit in the teenager clothes. You know, size 00 short at Aeropostale and XS t-shirts. Heh. For her, this means she’s arrived. She’s cool. Everything is right with the world. For me, this means a slimmer bank account and the need to veto her clothing choices more often, making me even MORE of the bad guy.

    • Melisa

      Oh gosh, good luck with that. The veto thing is not a normal part of dealing with boys, and I’ve always been thrilled that my sons don’t care about where their clothes come from. (shew!)

      On the upside, your daughter feels cool so that’s a good thing. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that you two find a balance! oy!

  • tracey

    Holy hell, this made me laugh. Especially the belt buckle. When did those become popular, anyway? Everywhere I look, it’s facial hair in weird locations…

    Hope it’s a great year for the boys. But I gotta say that that preschool pic made me tear up at gymnastics. I am a SAP.

    • Melisa

      I have no idea, but that belt buckle cracks me up every single time I look at it.

      You are a sap, but you’re also adorable.

  • Grandma W

    I loved those pictures, they are priceless. I feel old looking at they.

    J’s outfit on both occasions were outstanding. I hope he had a great day.

    Love Grandma W

    • Melisa

      Thanks: he really enjoyed today…so far, so good! Of course, last year was so horrible that it would be tough for this year to be less enjoyable. It’s an exciting time!

  • Christina

    Loved the photo – perfect way to remember the first day of his senior year.

    And I’m a little ashamed to admit that the one thing I can’t shake from reading this post is that he was a preschooler with a Buzz Lightyear backpack, meaning Toy Story was waaaaaaay longer ago that I thought it was. Meaning I’m old.

    • Melisa

      Yeah um, the original “Toy Story” came out in 1995, J’s birth year. He carried around Woody and Buzz from age 1-4 (ish).

  • Joan

    I love the pics in today’s post. The one with D ‘sleeping’ cracked me up. J is looking good for his first day of senior year. I never heard of a mustache belt before, but I have no sons, so . . . The photo of your boys when they were young, well I teared up a bit.

  • Headless Mom

    Wow. Senior year. I have exactly 7 years until, I’m in your exact spot with the youngest as a senior. It was almost 7 years ago that my oldest was a senior… and the youngest was a kindergartener. Yikes!

    • Melisa

      I KNOW!! I’m sorry! People were worried that I was posting bad pictures of my kid without asking…

      “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain…” haha