Father/Daughter Dance and a Date Night with My Boys

 Every year, our daughter gets so excited for the father/daughter dance our ymca hosts. While writing this post, I went and found the past blogs about as well. See 2019 here and 2020 here. Payton talks about this dance all year long. She picks out her own outfit (from her closet, she gets lots of hand me downs which we love) AND she picks her dad's outfit for the night. I help her get ready and dad "picks her up" after he gets ready. It's just such a special time and a total event at our house. 

She had the best time. As usual, not many pictures are taken at the dance but these two enjoy each other to the fullest. Here is the return picture I got:

This year there was a build a bear like setup and Payton got a unicorn (with a special dance tshirt) along with a bag of loot. She saw some friends from school and the community and loved talking to them. She danced the night away with her dad! She gets to stay out late, which she also loves since we rarely make an exception on this.

I take advantage of this night as a date night with my boys. The boys pick what we do and that has stayed the same over the years as well, a date night picnic in the park and a dance party at home. It's so cold (and snowy) here so we ate our meal in the van at the park. The boys love this! LOVE THIS. Then we came home to dance in our sitting room and then the boys took an extra long bubble bath before bed.

Riley also picks our outfits out and that is super important to him. 

I hope we get so many more years together doing this event because it's just the best thing for my mama heart. I don't take pictures on my date night with the boys as well so that I can BE in the moment with my boys. It's just the best experience ever. I look so forward to this night.

Here's to hoping this continues as an annual event.