Daddy Daughter Dance

Tonight I took Maddie and Emily to the annual Daddy/Daughter dance that we've been attending for the past four years. The girls and I get dressed up (Madeline picked out my outfit for me), go out to eat and then dance the night away. Their idea for a fancy dinner was Brown's Root Beer in town for Coney Dogs and then we headed over to the dance.

Imagine a middle school cafeteria with a DJ and lights and 100+ dad's awkwardly dancing with no rhythm to the Hustle, the Macarena and others. The Hustle has become my favorite part because the girls gather in a circle around all the dads as we all do the worst rendition of the dance you've ever seen. Mid-way through the dance we're all facing different directions and moving to different parts of the song. The Cha-Cha was the only one with any congruity as it actually tells you what to do throughout the whole song. The last dance was a slow dance to the song Butterfly kisses, a song about how quickly your little girls grow up and how one moment you're at a daddy daughter dance and another moment you're dancing with them at their wedding. I don't think there were too many dads with dry eyes during that song.

While the girls and I were waiting in line to get our picture taken, I asked Madeline what I'd worn last time to the dance. She looked at me and said, "Dad, you wore the same thing last time." Sure enough, I did. As a side note, after seeing what my latest effort at facial hair looked like in this picture, I decided to shave it off. How come no one told me it looked this goofy? As Cathie put it, "It kid of looks like a big smile on your chin" Nice.

Update: I came to bed last night and found a thank you note from Maddie and Em on my pillow:

Dear Dad,
Thanks for taking us to the Daddy/Daughter Dance. (Maddie)
That was a lot of fun. (Emily)
PS We love you lots!