One Enchanted Evening

Friday evening was the Daddy Daughter Dance at our church. This was the 2nd year they've put this on and my little daughter was beyond thrilled to be going. She woke up Friday morning, came into our room and the first words out of her mouth were "Tonight's the dance!!!" Yeah, she was excited :)

Unfortunately Jack had gotten sick the day before so we took him to the Dr and found out that he mostly likely has the flu. The test came back negative but the Dr was quite confident that that's what he had and that we had caught it very early. He had hung out with our friend Madison on Tuesday who was fine on Tuesday but was diagnosed on Wednesday with the flu. So we were pretty sure he had it. Thankfully he's doing much better today thanks in part to getting him started early on medicine. He's still quite tired but doesn't need to be held 24/7 and that means a lot. I kinda feel like I've been sick for the past couple days because holding Jack that much forces me to stay on the couch or my arms give out. I've seen quite a few cartoons that I really didn't need to see....

Anyway, back to Kate.

Getting her ready for the dance was fun. We'd went last week to find her dress, cut her hair and pierce her ears. After her nap she got her dress on lickity split! And she was beautiful!Then we curled her hair - something she had wanted. After the 15 minutes or so of curling she decided it was too poofy and didn't like it even though it was adorable! She pulled on some of the curls to try and straighten them out but we eventually got her distracted enough to stop. Make-up was the wonderful distraction. I told her I'd put pink eye shadow on her as well as blush. She was very happy with that!She had a smile all night I think! We took pictures - so much like prom - then they headed off to the restaurant of her choice....Sonic! Thankfully Mark took a few photos of their fabulous dinner.
And one from the dance.My friend Kim took some pictures for us too.Seriously this dance was so cool. People spent months preparing. The theme was Never Grow Up. They decorated the sanctuary in a forest theme. Huge trees, lights, stars...it was truly magical. The whole crew did an amazing job. They had a skit, princesses all dressed up talking to all the girls and dads, food, a professional photographer taking dance pictures and a DJ. It was a ton of work but man did those volunteers bless a about 200 dads and daughters. What a gift! A night devoted to the beautiful relationship between a dad and a daughter. Priceless!When they got home they both sat on the couch and told me all about it (I really think Mark had as good a time as Kate! - he told me that we have such a special and beautiful daughter - I love him). Kate talked about the princesses and all her friends who were there. She just kept smiling sleepily. Mark said she wanted to dance the whole time. So they did. The barely stopped to get a drink and have their pictures taken. Needless to say when they got home they were both pretty wiped out but full of precious memories.

Cinderella's ball

So much has been going on over the past two days! I've got to start filling you all in.

Thursday was our homeschool group's trip to the fire station (the one I was in charge of). It was such a great time. I have pictures to come a little later. Yesterday was also our 10th anniversary and I have a funny story about that but I had to do this post about our little princess going to the ball.

Over the last several weeks our church has been preparing and advertising for the 1st Annual Daddy Daughter Dance. It took a lot of people working together to put this awesome event on. They were nervous about enough people showing up but in the end about 170 people came!

Our local Christian radio station out of Farmington was there broadcasting live for the first hour. It really was a special thing.

Kate, although she didn't totally understand what was going on, was super excited to go out with her daddy all by herself. And honestly, Mark was pretty pumped too. What a wonderful way to bring daddies and their daughters together for a fun night of dancing and making memories.

Kate doesn't own a really fancy dress but she does have a bunch of princess dresses and since the theme of the dance was princesses and pirate ships it was perfect. She picked out the one she wanted to wear and after naptime we started the process of getting ready.

I wish I had better quality pictures of the hair-doing process but you get the idea. At first she wasn't going to let me even brush her hair! But eventually I convinced her to let me brush and curl it. Thank goodness! I could not convince her to let me do an up-do so we just left it with the sparkly headband in and curly in the back. Still pretty cute.After we finished her hair we painted her nails, put on some earing stickers and I put on a little pink shimmery eye shadow. She thought that was so cool.

Then we took pictures. It was like prom!Then Kate's prince swept her off her feet (he had to - it was snowy and all she had to go with her dress were sandals) and took her to her fancy meal....McDonald's! He said he scored big points for that one :) And can I just say that I'm so proud of my husband for taking so many pictures for the blog?! He's a keeper for sure.After their dinner they headed to the dance. Here they stopped to pose at the entrance.The sanctuary was amazingly decorated. The foyer was decked out with fabric. Inside those sparkly purple ribbons was the moat and the drawbridge you crossed to get over it into the "ballroom". The stage was set up with a huge pink castle. They had tables decorated with mini-castles and treasure chests. A pirate ship's mast was built into the balcony. They had a professional photographer take pictures in front of Cinderella's pumpkin carriage (think pink and sparkly). Balloons were hung from the ceiling to look like clouds! And they had a little skit that the highschoolers put on where prince charming came and saved the day. Complete with a little cannon going off and shooting out pink and white confetti! Seriously awesome! A night those little girls will never forget. And neither will their daddies :)Mark said that Kate was a bit overwhelmed. The dance was for girls between the ages of 5 and 12 so she was definitely on the young side. He said that it was loud and there were lots of people. Both tend to overwhelm her. But, he said, they did dance and have a good time. He thinks that next year will be even better. Especially since she knows what to expect.

At the end of the night she yawned and told Mark that was her tired yawn -- she was ready to head home. The boys and I went to our small group and hung out with the other moms and boys and young girls. When we got back to the house, Kate was still awake and really seemed like she was on cloud 9. What a fun treat!

Kate's 2nd dance class -- Only My God

This week was another adventure in dance class land. Kate woke up early Friday morning {super tired because we were up late the night before with our small group} and was cranky. She was sad, cranky, whiny etc. I was dreading going to class.

Just before we left I prayed {I've been trying hard to pray specifically and often for anything I could possibly need - it's always fun to see what God will do} that God would help Kate enjoy class. That her attitude would improve and she would genuinely love, and not dread, being there.

I was very skeptical as we drove to town. Kate complained that it was too hot, too cold, music was too loud, too quiet, Jack was crying etc... I didn't think we had a snowballs chance of her liking this week's class.

Then we pulled into the parking lot. Almost instantly she perked up and said "I'm awake and I have a better attitude."

And she did! She had a great time in class and stayed the whole time. Liked her teacher and the other girls. Danced her little heart out and was excited. Thank you Jesus! Only my God can take an over-tired 3 yr old and give her joy for a dance class. It was awesome.

This video is the only thing I got from class this week. It's their "goodbye" dance. They start on the other end of the room and the teacher sits on the side closest to the door. She calls each girl by name and they come to her. They are allowed to do any kind of dancing they want. Kate chose to run....Pretty cute though :)

Kate's first dance class

Today was Kate's first dance class. For her 3rd birthday (yes I know it was 3 months ago) we gave Kate dance lessons for her present. Unfortunately the only class available was an 8 week class. Since she'd never had lessons before I wasn't sure if she could do 8 weeks. So we waited till a 4 week class was available. Finally they offered one for the month of June. We signed up.

Today was the first class. She started off great. Super excited. Couldn't wait to make new friends. I was so thankful that she really wanted to go.

The classes are held at the Smiley Building (an old jr high here in town). It's a neat old building. It kinda reminded me of the 80's TV show Fame. I'm sure most of you are too young to remember that one. Anyhoo, we waited in the hallway and true to Durango time, the teacher showed up at 9 {the class started at 9 - there were about 6 adults with their kids waiting - just seemed a bit strange I guess}. She went right in. No problem.

The class is 45 minutes long. They stretched, played princesses, were horses, played with scarves... It looked fun. They had a small window and the parents took turns looking through it.

I was totally that nerdy parent with the big ole camera peeking in. Oh well. I got a few cute shots.

Unfortunately Kate started shivering during class and about 35 minutes into it had a mini-meltdown. She wasn't feeling too hot. The teacher brought her out to me and we had to end early. I felt bad for Kate and for the teacher. But the teacher was very understanding and said that it's part of the process. I really think Kate would've stayed but when we got her home her temp was 101 so I'm pretty sure she was just feeling yucky. Poor thing. But she did great. I'm hoping that next week is even better. Here's some of the cute ballerina pics.

Getting dressed in her leotard before we left.

Here she is on the front steps of the Smiley Building
So excited to go in and wear her new dance slippers
Lined up ready to dance
Ready to dance back the other way.
I believe they are galloping like horses here
Starting to not feel so hot
She tried to keep on going. Such a trooper.
She even tried an arabesque {?}. Pretty good start.

That was about all she could handle. We got her home and she's sleeping now. I'm pretty sure the ibuprofen has helped a lot. But she is one stinkin' cute ballerina.