Hunter went to prom in style this year. Our friend/neighbor, who also happens to be Hunter’s tennis coach, has a very stylish rental fleet and he let Hunter take one of the cars for the night. It happened to be a red Corvette, and Hunter was living most high school boys’ dream. A beautiful car for a beautiful date.
I’ll admit – getting a boy ready for prom is a completely different experience than getting a girl ready. And by “different,” I mean significantly less stressful. I still have vivid memories of Hallie’s last prom, when she was at the state tennis tournament and then had to rush to transform into prom-ready in record time. It was a whole production.
This time around – so much simpler.
I was listening to a friend talk about ordering dresses, returning dresses, searching for sizes, finding shoes, planning hairstyles. I had almost forgotten how much goes into it.
Hunter’s date picked out his tie so it would match her dress – he just had to make sure his shirt was washed and his suit was dry-cleaned, and of course plan the day date and prom dinner and evening – which he did without much of my help!
They had a fun night together with their friends.
Every year, prom is held at a new venue, and this year they danced the night away at the Cubs Spring Training baseball stadium – and somehow not a single picture to show for it!
He asked by filling her room with balloons…
And she answered with a fun scavenger hunt that took him around town.
Hallie wished for a western theme every year for her Sadie’s dance theme. The closest she got was Disney characters and they dressed up as Woody and Jessie.
This year, they finally chose a western theme and Hunter was content with wearing whatever his date wanted. I wasn’t in charge of taking pictures for this dance, but I already had a backdrop set up from tennis pictures the day before, so I was able to snap some quick shots when she came to pick him up.
Winter Formal is a girl-ask-guy dance which means my involvement is relatively minimal. I’ve often taken photos for all the dances even when my kid is being asked, but they already had a photographer so I didn’t even have to take any photos. (Which worked out beautifully on a soccer tournament when we had 6 games between Briggs and Cannon!)
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Of all the friends that come through our door regularly, I’d never met Hunter’s date and we were at a soccer game when he was picked up so we didn’t even meet her then. Hunter had never hung out with her prior to being asked but they have a class together and serve together in National Honor Society and that was enough to know they would have fun together – and they did.
Boys are so much easier with dances than girls! Hunter ordered and picked up his flowers. I wasn’t worried about helping him get ready. I didn’t have to help him with his hair or accessories. There was no nail painting or trying on endless shoes. I bought 5 ties on amazon and he let his date pick her favorite when she came to pick him up – we’ll return the others. Easy, peasy. I’m just disappointed I couldn’t watch the awkward interaction when his date was nervously trying to pin on a difficult boutonniere.
He was asked with chocolate covered pretzels…
And he answered with chocolate milk, cow balloons and little stuffed animal cows he got from chick-fil-a. His creativity and penmanship is always next level.
Hunter and his cute date went to the homecoming dance this weekend.
Sadly, the day date the boys planned was canceled by the venue due to weather. But that didn’t stop them from pivoting quickly and planning an evening date this last week.
Hunter asked me to be the official photographer for his group. Photographing teenagers is always a good time. They’re laughing. They’re nervous. They’re goofy. They’re insecure. They’re trying to act natural but there’s nothing natural about taking photos in front of 20 friends/acquaintances. I’m always grateful when I upload the card and I have fun photos to share.
Hunter made the strong claim that this was the best dance he’s ever been to. The DJ for our school dances last year really struggled so I think the bar for school dances was pretty low. Regardless – he loved every minute.
They painted pumpkins after the dance and he was proud of the finished product.
The theme for Sadie’s this year was cartoon duos – it’s always fun to see what the teens come up with. This is a girl-ask-guy dance so the girls usually are the ones coming up with the costume ideas and the boys are good sports to dress up beside them. When Hunter told me he was supposed to be the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, I had to google it just to know what he was supposed to look like. He’s never seen the movie, I’ve never seen the movie and as much as he wanted a full rabbit onesie, he figured it would be too hot at the dance. We came up with another plan.
Out of all the costumes we have littering the attic, an adult size rabbit wasn’t one of them. We did however have a Woody costume his friend borrowed for this dance, which Hallie and her friend went as last year for Sadies and Hunter wore for Halloween before that. It may be our most used costume.
