A whole new world...

Saturday night was her first dance without her daddy as her date. Wow. Where did that time go? I think of myself as being 23 forever, but seeing her so grown up made me realize... I'm not 23 anymore. What a surreal moment.

Surreal. But good. She's beautiful. I can't take one bit of credit. The Lord did that.

We shopped for the dress last minute. Found a great deal at Belk's. I took it in a bit and then added straps to prevent any kind of a "wardrobe malfunction" from happening on the dance floor. She loves yellow. She loves laughing. She's happy. It was the perfect color choice. The whole event was full of joy.



Zack got all gussied up too. Not 100% to his liking, but because he loves his sister... and because she bribed him with the promise of ice cream at the mall... he put on a dress shirt, khakis, and a tie.

There's the dad. He was very, very funny. I didn't know how Jimmy would take the prospect of his daughter going to a dance. But he handled it with the perfect balance of protecting the princess and humor. He chauffeured the whole group to the dance. Before they left, he grabbed his iPod. I had a feeling something was up. Sure enough, he announced in the car that as chauffeur it was also his privilege to DJ. He kicked off the night with a dedication to Kelsey's special friend, Davis... "Cleaning this gun" by Rodney Atkins.

And there's one with mom.

And one with Pepper too. Note that Zane is missing from the pictures. He was snow tubing with the rest of the middle schoolers from church. He had a blast. I don't think he regrets missing his sister's first dance at all. I'm not actually sure he's aware he missed it. Just kidding. He did ask her if she had a good time.

Dinner... with a special waiter. It was funny. Everyone had plenty of ice. And about every five minutes they heard, "Are you ready for cake?" There was much rejoicing when the guests FINALLY finished dinner and ate the Valentine's cake.

I think this is actually Take 2 on the corsage. She had it on before dinner, but somewhere in there a ping pong game broke out in the basement. And of course, you can totally annihilate the competition in ping pong with a wrist corsage on. So it took a little break and we repeated the presentation just before they left for the dance itself.

Little brothers are the best chaperones... EVER!!!

This is the gang that joined us for dinner before the dance. Once again, we love having teenagers in our home. If they are here, we know where they are and what they are doing. That's a good thing. No gang fights. Or stuff.

What a night! Kelsey and Davis had a great time. My students started sending me chat messages on Facebook, telling me all about the dance before Kelsey and Jimmy even walked in the door from taking Davis home. It was AWESOME!!!