"Mama, it was a very special evening"

Anna-Kate's remarks on her date with daddy last Friday.

{Go ahead and just touch your heart and think about how precious that statement is.}

Anna-Kate's school hosts a father/daughter "Sweetheart ball" each year. For weeks she anticipated the big night. I lucked into a precious dress at Marshalls for $19 (which was still more than I wanted to pay, but it was too cute to pass up, I thought!). I was feeling prepared and then was asked by a friend where I had ordered her corsage from. {Corsage? What corsage? She's five...} Determined to save a buck, I decided to skip the florist and call Publix. It was going to be $23 from Publix! I did the only logical thing to do, googled "tutorial little girl wrist corsage" and proceeded to watch a million videos. Problem was, there are not tutorials for a single rose corsage for a little girl. Only big huge honkin' corsages. Clearly, that wouldn't work. So, I winged it. I gotta say, I am really proud of how it turned out! Flowers have never been my forte' (meaning growing them/keeping them alive. Why I thought I could do it, I'm not sure. That's just how cheap I am.).

The object of my stress:



I got the boys watching Toy Story and Anna-Kate and I got her ready for the ball! I painted her finger nails and toe nails. She wanted curls (my curlers from high school no longer work, so I used a curling iron. Yes, I curled all of her hair piece by piece. I don't think I realized how much hair the girl has! She sat very still and was just giddy to have real curls. I had a moment of intense sadness when she very politely, yet matter-of-factly said, "Mommy, I think I don't want a bow tonight. It's just not fancy enough for me." Sniff, she's growing up. Thankfully, I had saved her rhinestone butterfly hair clip from her ballet performance last spring and it worked perfectly with the "Butterfly Kisses" theme of the ball.

Decked out with her hair all fixed!



She loved the flower! Such a beauty, if I do say so myself!



With her date for the evening. They went to her favorite local place for dinner and then hit the ball.



Her sweet friend let us borrow a black cardigan with little rhinestone buttons. It was perfect and she was ready to hit the town!