February Highlights: Daddy/Daughter Dance

      The weekend after Valentine's Day, our city puts on a Daddy/Daughter dinner and dance.  The ages for the event are four to ten, so this was the first year Kiwi was old enough to attend and when Mike asked her if she wanted to go, so was so excited.  All month when we would see one of the posters advertising for it, she would point and say, "Daddy/Daughter date! Daddy/Daughter date!"

She was in need of a new church dress anyways, so I took her to Costco and let her pick out one of the dresses that she is always looking at when we go there and she debuted it for the big date.  Any guesses to this little girl's favorite color?  That afternoon, I painted her nails, she borrowed one of my necklaces and choose her own Belle (from Beauty and the Beast) bracelet to wear.  She also took her puse which consisted of Tinkerbelle chapstick, some kleenex (she had a bit of a cold), some extra jewelry she wanted to bring, and two pieces of gum).  She loved packing it and was thrilled that I deemed her old enough to be entrusted with gum.  

 Our beautiful girl.

The night of the date their were a couple of things going on including Little Man's basketball practice and a family dinner at my aunt's house.  Mike took Little Man to practice and then we all met up at my aunt's house where Kiwi and Mike left from.  

       It is amazing to watch your husband be a father and there seems to be something extra special about that daddy/daughter relationship.  It was raining that night and as I watched them walk to the to the car, with Mike holding the pink polka dot umbrella over her, I couldn't help but get a little emotional.

     I obviously don't have any pictures of the event, but highlights according to Kiwi were listening to her princess CD in the car, the snack plate they handed to her when they walked in which had pretzels and M&M's on it (there was a dinner served, but Mike said she hardly touched it), and dancing with her Daddy.  She also came home with a purple tiara and wand that they gave each little girl as she left.
     Mike said the city did a really good job with it.  I think dancing was the highlight of the night.  They did the Hokey Pokey, a twist competition (Kiwi's been twisting ever since), a dance where the girls all stood on their dad's feet, a shuffle dance where they all made a tunnel and each couple got to dance through the middle, and more.  The last song they danced to was Butterfly Kisses and Kiwi was so tired that Mike just held her during it.  He admitted to getting a little teared up at this point and noticed that he wasn't the only dad doing so.  The dance went until 9:00, but our little girl was done at 8:30, so they called it a night and came home.
       Kiwi is already asking when the next daddy/daughter date it.  When I reminded her that this wasn't her first date with daddy and that they could plan another one soon where they go on a bike ride, get donuts, or another activity she enjoys doing with Mike, she replied, "But this was the only time they ever made him dance!"  I think we'd better put this on our calendar for next year.