Prom Dress Shopping

We set out on our adventure at 10:30 a.m. Maybe 10:45. Gabby had already been to the doctor for her well check. We made surprisingly good time there (probably because she's so healthy :) With Grandma J, Auntie Z, Caelan, and Gabby loaded into the van, we headed out. There were two main objectives--to find Gabby some clothes to use her birthday money to purchase and to find Caelan a prom dress.

Our first stop was a score for Gabby and a whammy for Caelan. Our second store resulted in nothing Gabby couldn't live without and an on-clearance purchase in the prom department for Caelan. The dress was a maybe--just in case we didn't find anything else. I won't disclose a photo of that option just yet, as it is still in the final running :) The girls did have some fun trying on sparkle dresses together though!


Next, we stopped by the fabric store to pick up some modifications for the first prom dress option (a bit low cut, nothing ribbon won't solve!) and to pick up some t-shirt quilting materials. I was hungry, but everyone else was in the mood to shop, so we skipped lunch and headed for the next shopping destination.



This is really where we wanted to begin our search, but the store didn't open until noon, and we didn't want to waste hours in waiting, especially when Gabby could be finding cute things for herself (which she did find!). As it turned out, there were LOTS of prom options at store three (four?) and Caelan claimed her own rack to hold her gown options (she requested Gabby *guard* them :)




















Gabby tried on another sparkle dress, but decided she'd had enough of clothes modeling for the day. Caelan narrowed her selections down to four. In her mind, she wanted long, blue, and sparkly. We found short, short, short. And absolutely nothing that matched her undershirt options for that day, ha! 

Grandma J offered to purchase the first blue dress pictured above (because, of what she tried, Caelan liked this one the best, but it is too short without some sort of modifications)--it rang up $12, ha! How's that for a prom deal steal? I bought another option that Grandma and I agreed was in tough competition with the first option (which she has officially decided to reserve for the homeschool homecoming dance this fall). The lady at the counter insisted it had JUST come in and it was NOT on sale, but it rang up $28 anyway :) Meant to be, right? Caelan bought herself a pair of silver heels that cost more than the dresses, but look good with all three of them. Other than flowers, hair, makeup, jewelry, pictures, etc. etc. I think she's about ready! Ha!

I will say, she was very honored to be invited to three proms at three schools by three boys in three towns. I think the sweetest invite was from cousin C who wanted to make sure she didn't miss out on attending prom. We joked when they were babies, born three months apart, that someday we'd send them to prom together. Maybe next year it will work out! Had we not been so booked, we would have honored his thoughtful request this year. She would have loved to go to the dance with her cool cousin.

He was the second invite, her first invitation was a young man from youth group, who requested my permission first. This was out of the blue, so Buck and I were both a little out of our element trying to figure this all out! Homeschool prom happened to be this upcoming weekend (as was the second invite) and the girls already have plans to attend a conference, friends coming over, and Grandma and Auntie in town. Too much to do!

However, the third invitation, at a private school with a May weekend prom was actually a possibility. The young man from her karate school very politely and very nervously asked me if he could have my permission to invite Caelan to his prom. I had told Buck when this young man friended me on Facebook earlier that week, "Wouldn't it be funny if he wants to ask Caelan to prom?" Buck just growled. Ha! I was right though! We've been making this kid jump through all kinds of hoops, which he has gone above and beyond to jump through. Little did he know in asking her to attend prom, he invited our first child for the first time for the first outing she's ever been invited to, and we have to figure all kinds of things out!! That's a lot of responsibility for one young fellow to carry. He's still smiling though, so I guess so far he can handle old ma and pa's shenanigans (our very wise and caring, thoughtful and rightly protective shenanigans, that is ;)