Daddy Daughter Dance 2013

Anna has been looking forward to her date with Daddy since last year's Daddy Daughter Dance. It finally, finally came and she got dressed ("Mommy, there is a lovely lady coming down the stairs to see you!") and was just waiting for us to say Go.

I snapped some quick snapshots...

And sent them off into the night.  Their first stop was dinner.  

I am in LOVE with the big grin on her face!  Those are few and far between in Anna's smile vocabulary.

And Anna again dined on dessert bigger than her head.

Then they were off to the dance where they boogied on down.  This was the only picture Josh got of the action.  But in his defense, he took several precious videos of our little dancing queen.

Here's some footage of Anna at the ball...

Before the dance, Anna practiced with Josh the way she wanted to dance with him "like a ballet" and she wanted him to twirl her as well.  But when she hit the dance floor, she apparently didn't look back at her Daddy for any dance assistance. :}

Truth is, the dance didn't START until 7 which is her usual bedtime, so she tired out quickly. And ever-a-daughter-of-mine, she was overwhelmed a bit by the loud speakers.  She enjoyed several free dances and a couple group dances like The Hokey Pokey and If You're Happy and You Know It, but other group dances she didn't know left her to stall out and get sleepy.  Poor baby.  It wasn't long before she struggled to keep up with some dances and Josh says she got discouraged by that. 

Here you can see the glassy stare in her eyes.  It wasn't much longer after this that Anna asked to go home.  Big night for a little girl.  I think in the end, she was tired before she got to the dance portion of the evening ... so great was her anticipation of the event.

Still, she had a lovely time and is already looking forward to next year's Daddy Daughter Dance again.  Such a special night.  Such sweet memories.  :)