The Night of Dancing and Nerf Gun Battles

The girls have been so excited for the Daddy Daughter dance. I told them that they should pick out a dress from their closet. They thought they should get new ones. Gma voted with them. So off we went to Kohl's, armed with a coupon from Gma and Kohl's cash from Mike. We found dresses they loved on the clearance rck and I ended up paying $8.00. Total. For two dresses. Maybe the girls and Gma didn't have such a bad plan.

The morning of the dance arrived, as did an email from Dec's hockey team manager. Directly following his practice was a free "try hockey" session. Mike didn't even finish asking Quinn if she was interested before she jumped on that. Getting ready for a dance had a new twist this year as we had to contend with a sweaty mass of hockey helmet hair (and no time to wash it). Not to be defeated, my trusty curling iron was out, my braiding skills were put into play, and everyone was pleased with their hair styles.

While Mike and the girls headed out for dinner, Dec and I had our own date plans. He is quite high brow and chose McDonald's for our fancy dinner. While maybe not my first choice of dining fare, we had a most delightful dinner together - talking about whatever topics were on his mind (we bounced from dinosaurs to Kindergarten to the best kinds of apples to Legos). As we were finishing up, our friends Beth and Oliver joined us. And shortly after them, our neighbors Katie and Jonah. The other halves of their families were also at the dance.

Since the ice cream machine at McD's was broken, we headed back to our house so the boys could play and the moms could enjoy some company and beverages. The dudes had such a great time together, bonding over Paw Patrol and Hot Wheels. But nothing delighted them more than when Dec brought his nerf guns upstairs to show his buddies. I reminded him that no bullets were allowed upstairs, so the boys had the best no bullet war we've ever seen. Seriously - so much fun.

We sent them downstairs so they could use bullets and almost immediately had a casualty of war. They went back to their no bullet ways until Oliver mentioned that he plays target practice with his superhero action figures. So they each grabbed a couple supers out of the basket and back downstairs they went. The giggles we could hear were the best!!

Mike and the girls had a good time too. They enjoyed their dinner, played games, and met Moana. Strangely, the girls weren't that into the dance - and would only dance with each other. Quinn was also pretty tired from hockey that day, so they were happily home by 8:15. With them was the enormous jellyfish decoration that Quinn won in the dance drawing (insert Fiona saying "of course she won"). It now hangs from the fan in the middle of their bedroom.

It was a fun night for all and such a great opportunity for Mike and me to get to spend some extra special individual(ish) time with the kids.