Prom, 2015

A girl. Her date. A fancy dress. Her friends. A beautiful day. This is our Prom Story.

Audrey was asked by her boyfriend to prom with a cheesy breakfast pizza prom-posal to which she said yes (and I said thank you because I had just finished up a long run and was starving). 

Then she and I dress shopped. If you recall from last year, we discovered prom dresses can  cost more than yours and mine wedding dresses did. That didn't change this year. However, armed with that knowledge we explored more avenues, found some disappointing dead-ends and walked away from more than one gorgeous but over-our budget dress before finding one. And we found shoes. And she already had jewelry she was willing to wear again. And the next day we ordered flowers. It was like a prom miracle!

Her date had to do some shopping too and oh the angst we (meaning the rest of us enduring her woeful tales) went through discovering how stores display their ties and that we (meaning her) don't like patterned ties but stores don't... blah, blah, blah... He (meaning first his mom and then her) finally found both a suit and a tie that coordinated. Bless us all!

The day of prom a pile of girls came over and overtook her bathroom and bedroom and street parking. There was hairspray, nail polish, curling irons, bobby pins, hairspray, makeup, jewelry and hairspray aplenty. It was as if Claires, Ulta and a department store dressing room collided. Their small group leader did the girls' hair while I consulted, helped make adjustments and fed them. Then all at once they scattered to pick up dates or be picked up and off we went for pictures. 

 We all met up again, this time with the boys and flowers and parents and siblings for pictures. These are the order of pictures that were on my camera and there is no use arranging them in any other order. 

I snagged this one testing out camera settings and lighting and such.

 This is one of the best candid ones. You see Audrey's natural gift for drama- some girls just have it. Also, let's note the tall boy's hair- some guys just have it. 

The three friends. 

 What the guys do while waiting for all the girl pictures to be taken.

 I'm really grateful someone suggested Audrey and I get a picture together. You see, I dressed up extra nice for the occasion. Not really. It was also the weekend of the Zumbro races and I didn't run it because of prom so I wore my shirt in honor of my friends who were. (I'll be back in two years, Zumbro, in two years.)

 And then someone's heels had to get stuck in the soft dirt. 

 Better lighting, more relaxed kids.

 We snapped picture after picture of friends, family, flowers before some final group shots.

 That lasted like two seconds. 

 The Grand March went swiftly along considering how many students participated and soon we were taking final pictures. All day, while the flurry of prom preparation whirred in the basement, Bill was prepping bikes and packing the camper for a race he and Ben were leaving for right after the Grand March but thankfully he cleaned himself up and loved on his girl. 

 They had a really nice night eating out, going to the dance, making good choices for themselves and for their friends, going to after prom and winning gift cards and giant tubs of candy, playing lazer tag, coming home super late and sleeping all afternoon the next day. 

The end.