Two Daughters, a Dad and a Dance

Devil in the Red Dress

What's up, cyberspace.

This year, once again, Kris signed up Yours Truly for the Daddy Daughter Dance.  I've gone to a few of these over the years: with Alayna, down in Orlando, in 2014 and 2015, then with Abby, here in Midland, back in 2016.  Now, down in Florida, the Daddy Daughter Dances were put on by Alayna's school, and we had assumed they would be also when we moved up here to Midland.  Alas, as we were to find out, Midland schools doesn't get down like that, and so the hosting of the annual dances falls on the shoulders of the local Girl Scout troops instead.

The Houghs have taken the last two years off of dancing, as a.) neither girl expressed any interest in going to a Daddy Daughter Dance (they take after their old man in that regard), and b.) the last few years - including in 2016, when I took Abby - it's been held at the Midland Country Club, and was $50 per child.

Kris doesn't pull any punches when it comes to doing girls' hair for big events. . .

Well, this year, the girls decided they both wanted to do it.  They each had a lot of friends going from their respective Girl Scout troops, and everyone was talking it up.  It still ended up costing us about $75 for the two girls to go, plus the price of new dresses and what not, but at least it was at the Great Hall across town, and not some stick-up-the-ass, Dow-shmoozy country club.  Plus I'm friends with a lot of dads that ended up going, so there wasn't a terrible amount of small-talking I had to endure (I despise small talk with a passion.)

Still plenty of shitty, shitty pop music, though - they definitely had that in abundance.

That and chicken fingers.

Behold - Daddy Daughter Dance 2019. . .

Kris had previously dyed both girls' hair with streaks of dark pink (or red, I don't know.)

Alayna fusses over her new dress while Kris begins work on Abby's hair. . .

Kris was having difficulty with Abby's hair, so she stopped for the time being and switched over to Alayna's.

Letting the kids zone out to Netflix (both girls are currently working their way through ABC's Once Upon a Time) while doing hair is definitely the way to go.

Alayna's finished product (and my shoes, freshly polished and treated.)

Abby's work-in-progress required a little more light and tools, so they switched gears and headed over to our bathroom. . .

Abby's finished product.

Some last-minute, mandatory before-dance pictures. . .

Once we got to the Great Hall, we picked up programs and corsages and then proceeded on to this photo op place where photographers took pictures of you and your date(s) with your phone.  Kind of a nice alternative to paying out the ass for some 'professional' pic that ends up looking just as good as this anyway.

We were sat at assigned tables, and some of our wives - who, being involved heavily in local Girl Scout troops, had helped set up and organize this event - had placed most of us dads who usually hang out together (in our circle of friends) far apart from one another.  Probably on purpose, to keep rowdiness down to a minimum.

Centerpieces.

Abby enjoys her first virgin Shirley Temple.

Abby's troop reads the Girl Scout something-or-other, before dinner is served (well, not necessarily 'served,' per se - it was buffet-style.)

The care packages left at the tables contained some chocolates and candies, a cake pop, and a Christmas tree ornament (as shown here.)

Typical Cannonball face.  And a cake pop.

Alayna's friend, Olivia, and her grandfather were sat at our table.  So was Samantha and her dad, John.  They tried to keep troops together, but seeing how I had two girls from two different troops, our table was designated a 'leftover' table - a girl from Abby's troop and her dad were also seated at our table.  Small talk galore, folks.

Sweet baby Jesus, the chaos. . .

Abby and some of her crew (including her current BFF, Allie, in the blue/green-ish dress.)

Waiting in line for the Chocolate Fountain. . .

As I said before, a lot of the dads I regularly hang out with were also at this dance with their own daughters (we all have girls, oddly enough), so while we were away at this dance, all the wives were enjoying wine and no kids over at the Collier residence.  As the night wore on, wives began demanding their husbands send them pics of the dance, so apparently all of us readily obliged but Pete (shown here.)  So, as a joke, I took this picture of Pete and 'his date,' and sent it instead.  The joke didn't go over well.

This song still pisses me off, twenty-five years later. . .

I got a ridiculous amount of dance pictures this evening - definitely a lot to whittle down.

Abby and her squad assumed position right in front of the DJ booth.  Unsurprisingly.

Little girls really get into that Cardi B chick. . .

Alayna's corsage (Abby's disintegrated earlier on in the evening. . . almost immediately upon arrival.)

Abby had put in this song request towards the beginning of the evening, and just as we were leaving they finally got around to playing it.  The big Spring Program for the Third Grade this year is a retro '50s musical, so all the third grade classrooms have been practicing singing a selection of rock and roll standards from the 1950's, and have consequently become fond of the genre.  This one is one of Abby's personal favorites.  I've rarely been more proud as a father.

One more selfie for Kris on our way out of the dance, nearly two and a half hours later.  We stayed longer at this dance than we had at any of the three previous dances I've been to.  I danced way more at this one, too - probably because my girls were older and there were two of them in attendance this time around.

From the dance, all the dads and daughters reunited with our wives at the Collier residence to have a few post-dance drinks and enjoy some Mexican food.  This sour ale from Bell's definitely hit the spot following a loooong night of dancing in dress shoes and eating my own f***ing weight in chicken strips and french fries (I consumed a month's worth of calories in one evening, I assure you.)

In a scene straight out of Kindergarten Cop, Pete tries convincing his daughters to start getting their shoes and stuff around so that they could head home.  The all-out chaos and total disregard for the enormous man in the room demanded a picture.  We weren't far behind, either - we ended up taking off about a half-hour after him, and the rest left right on our heels.  After an evening of dancing and sugar and fried fats, little girls most certainly crash hard.

- Brian