Have Your Picture Took*

Friday evening Cooper went to his senior prom with his lovely friend Delaney.

His prom-posal included roses and a box of donuts.

One challenge was finding both the right color suit and the right color tie. His date wanted to keep her dress a surprise. Her mom showed me and the girls a picture a few weeks ago, but we were having trouble remembering exactly what we'd seen. Thankfully, she texted me a picture when I promised not to show it to Cooper. We ordered four ties from Amazon and one of them worked!

Even though he went with a group, Cooper drove himself and his date. That meant he needed his in-house tech support to connect his phone to the Bluetooth in the car he doesn't usually drive.

The group decided to meet at a university about five minutes from the prom venue for pictures. I drove separately and got to play photographer. I think Cooper looked quite dapper and his date looked beautiful.

These girls did not coordinate their dress selections. I guess the southern belle look is in right now.

Now that prom is over, Cooper is one step closer to graduation...

*Name that musical, without Googling it.

Word

Tonight we watched Phoebe perform in her high school's annual Theatre Showcase. She sang and danced in the opening number, Grease Is the Word,  and did a great job.

Having so many busy nights can be overwhelming, but I'm so glad that we've made it part of our family culture to support each other by attending all the various performances our kids are in.

I've Got Those Happy Feet

We celebrated Valentine's Day early by going to a family dance at our old ward on the 13th. The kids had fun dancing, but they seemed to especially enjoy the father/daughter dance and the mother/son dance, which I think is very sweet.

We were at the dance when Cooper got a text from his friend saying that the BYU decisions were out. He had another friend at the dance that was also waiting to hear. We told his mom that the news should be in his inbox. Cooper, Bryan, and I went to one side of the church, his friend and his parents went to the other side. Cooper wanted to check on his own so Bryan and I stood outside in the hallway while Cooper went into a classroom. He came out a moment later, a grin on his face, showing us the acceptance letter on his phone. Bryan and I cheered and hugged him and cried a little. Then we crossed the church and discovered his friend had gotten in as well! We were a happy, relieved bunch.

Dancing Queen

Most of our kids have had to wait until they were old enough for church dances to go to school dances. But Miss Sophie found a loophole. She was elected to student government this year and one of her responsibilities was to attend the 6th grade dance. Well played, Sophie.

The dance was tonight and she had a blast rocking out with her friends.

Just Dance

Cooper and Phoebe had a great time hanging out with friends at the Homecoming dance this weekend. Just before they needed to leave, Cooper's buddy Cameron texted and said he wanted to caravan over together. And the next thing I knew, Cameron was walking in our front door. I asked if he wanted to jump in the pictures and he happily said yes.

Fancy Friends

Sophie had a grand evening yesterday. She attended a fancy dinner party that her good friend threw. There were four attendees (including the hostess) and two parents who acted as waiters. We (yep, I was one of them) even costumed in white dress shirts and blacks slacks so we could be totally in character. 

Sophie was given the assignment to contribute potatoes to the meal. I talked her through how to cook them in the instant pot and Bryan supervised the mashing and seasoning. They were the perfect compliment to the pork tenderloin main dish.

After the fancy dinner, the girls decorated masks, had a dance party, covered their faces in glitter, made raspberry frosting for their brownie dessert, and sang in harmony. It was a grand night for all.

And they've informed the moms that they plan to do it again next week.

Bus Stop Dance Party

In addition to dancing, they rocked out with air guitar and pantomimed drums while we waited to get Phoebe from the bus stop.

Tangled

Church prom was this weekend! 

He went with the white shoes, in case you're curious.

The theme was Tangled. I think Phoebe's dress definitely had Rapunzel vibes.

She took advantage of the nearly two hour drive to get there and did her hair and makeup in the car.

Here's the whole group that Bryan drove down. They had a fun time!

You Can Dance If You Want To

Some of the kids felt well enough to attend a family dance at our old ward on Saturday evening. I mostly sat and chatted with people, but I did dig up enough energy to dance a few of the songs. Last year at this same activity I danced every dance. Being sick for a few weeks really saps your strength.

Topher was sad to miss it, but he started feeling under the weather that morning. Bryan stayed home with him. After resting most of Saturday and Sunday, Topher felt healthy enough to go to school on Monday.

Friday Night Fun

Our weekend was packed full. I think school today will be a break in comparison. It started on Friday with Peter attending Prom with his pal Jillian.

Then I took the three younger kids to the Fun Fest at the elementary school. Topher and Sophie jumped on bounce houses for an hour and a half while Phoebe (who I failed to take pictures of that night) played games and hung out with me and a few other friends. 

I had misunderstood the payment directions and only had enough cash for Topher and Sophie to participate in the activities. Phoebe was fine with just walking around with us. However, the person in charge of taking money and handing out activity wrist bands was her elementary school gifted teacher. When he saw she wouldn't be able to play any games he pulled out his own wallet and announced that he would pay for Phoebe. Phoebe and I both insisted that wasn't necessary, but he had such happy memories of being her teacher for three years that he paid anyway. It was very sweet and Phoebe is determined to find a way to pay that generosity forward.

La La Land

Saturday night was church prom for the region. It's hosted by the Cherry Hill New Jersey Stake. Cherry Hill is just over the river from Philadelphia. Before traffic our drive was an hour and forty minutes one way. Once we added in traffic and a stop at McDonald's, it was closer to two hours. That's the nature of church dances on the East Coast.

The theme was La La Land. Phoebe asked if we could find a yellow dress to go along with the theme and Amazon cooperated. We added a poofy petticoat underneath and I thought it was perfect! The boys went slightly more casual, but were still dressier than the guys that showed up to the dance in shorts.

We were the designated carpool for the night. Phoebe sat in the front seat with me and played DJ (most of the time) and helped me stay alert. All the boys were good sports and were happy to report on the dance afterward. We listened to and sang along with several songs during our four hours in the car. I think the entire carload added their voices to the Hamilton selections.

Peter took this one inside the dance. It has their whole group, plus a friend from another Stake.

The dance ended at 9:00, but we didn't leave until just after 9:30. There was a Phillies game that night and the traffic coming home through Philadelphia was insane. We pulled into our driveway to drop off two of the boys (they live an additional thirty minutes away and their dad was waiting for them at our house) at 11:34. After they were on their way home we drove our final passenger the five minutes to his house. We were exhausted when we finally made it into the house.

But I'm sure we'll do it again when the opportunity arises.

Just Dance

Our ward had a family dance last Saturday night. Peter and Bryan both had to work, but the rest of us went and danced more than just about everyone else. On the way home I asked the kids these questions:

Me: Did I dance too much?

Cooper/Phoebe/Sophie: No.

Topher: Yes.

Me: Did I dance more than any other grownup?

All four kids: Yes.

I think it was clear which families have dance parties at home and which families do not.

Cooper did a lot of dancing, including this double-decker version. This is two priests versus two teachers. I'm not sure whose idea this was, but they all had fun.