HoCo

 As always, let's start with the dress. Working again brought out the sucker of a mom in me and Ireland had mentioned she really wanted to find her HoCo dress. She wasn't interested in any of Liesel's old dresses so I offered to take her to Gipper Prom where we checked out a few options. Believe it or not, these are some of the more modest styles.

A little dowdy with all the ruffles?

Incredible but way too expensive!

Fit like a glove but the color was all wrong.

They happened to have that last one in another color and she looked fantastic! There was kind of a 20's theme and I happened to own high heeled Mary Janes in exactly the same shade.

As HoCo time drew near, Gita and noticed large groups of girls in pajamas and silk hair bonnets lined up at Trader Joes before opening. The usual Saturday crowd is incredibly polite when selecting flowers but these girls went at them like a pack of hyenas. I finally worked up the courage to ask them- what they were doing? Turns out this is the new HoCo tradition: sleepover, skin care, heatless curls, then making a whole day of creating bouquets, brunch, getting ready and photos in various picturesque locations. I asked Ireland if she wanted to make bouquets with her friends and she loved the idea! To beat out the crowds, I picked up flowers from the Trader Joes by my work on Friday so they were ready to go on Saturday morning.

Ireland's little crew of cut ups looked so great! The photos weren't half bad either (I am NO photographer!)

Fantastic 4!

6 7

Weezer

The bouquets turned out really cute and they had fun putting them together. 

Ireland looked beautiful in her dress. After photos she took off those high heels and slipped into Converse- apparently that is also the thing to do these days!

I love having teenagers!

Liesel wasn't interested in going but she was sweetly supportive of Ireland. After the dance, they all went to IHOP where everyone noshed on pancakes with all the other high school kids dressed to the nines! Ahhh it cracks me up what becomes tradition but I am here for all of it!