Spring Formal

Today was the spring formal (aka or at least formally known as "Mormon Prom"). Last year the spring formal was in April, so we're a bit early this year. 

Last year only Rachel was able to go and she wore her flower girl dress from Grandpa and Darla's wedding. Rachel also got to go to homecoming this year (and I took several pictures of her in the new dress she picked out). But this was Miriam's first "formal" dance and she decided to wear a dress my mom bought her freshman year at BYU when she went to preference and she got dressed before Rachel did, which meant we were able to take some pictures outside in decent lighting. So I took several pictures of Miriam in her dress:

Miriam's been practicing braiding her own hair. One of their young women leaders was (is?) a hairdresser and they recently did an activity where she gave them all sorts of braiding tips and Miriam has just taken off. Tonight she did double dutch braids, joined at the back in a half ponytail (and asked me to weave some flowers into her braids for her):

I don't know if my mom has a picture of herself wearing this dress, but here's one of me wearing it on Halloween back in 2013: 

Rachel wanted to be The Magic Treehouse that year, but I talked her into being Annie inside The Magic Treehouse. For Rachel I was playing the role of Morgan LeFay. Miriam is dress as Lucy Pevensie. For Miriam I was playing the role of Queen Susan. Benjamin was a penguin. For him I was playing the role of "mother" and he wanted to know why I'd put on such a cruel, nursing-unfriendly dress. 

Here's Rachel, finally ready to go, when it was too dark to take pictures outside:

Their friend Hunter came to hang out before the dance because these three girls didn't get dates to the dance (their other friends did).

Phoebe was so excited for Hunter to come over that Hunter was her favourite part of the day and her celebration of the day, which Hunter thought was awesome. Phoebe wanted to take a picture with Hunter.

At dinner we were talking about roommates for some reason—which I'm pretty sure has two m's in it—and Andrew joked that it could be sung to "Hot to Go," a Chappell Roan song that's all the rage right now. There's this meme where people say, "I hope they play Hot to Go!" at random places (like a football game or a coffee shop or in an elevator or whatever...and someone tells the person who said that that it isn't that likely because of their location...and then Hot to Go plays (or they do the HTG dance, anyway)).

You get. I'll stop now. Anyway... 

"H-O-T-T-O-G-O!" Andrew sang. "R-O-O-M-A-T-E! See? It fits in the song!"

It does not fit in the song. But when I tell you that it took me forever to figure out that double T in the song... (not to mention how to sing Ah-puh-tuh-ah-puh-tuh (a completely different song by a completely different singer)).

Anyway, everyone is singing "H-O-T-T-O-G-O!" and Phoebe suddenly pipes up, "I know an even better song!"

"Really?" we asked her. "What song is that?"

"How much is that doggy in the window?" she belted out. 

Everyone started laughing.

"No, guys!" she insisted. "This is a good one! The one with the waggly tail!"

*****

And I'm going to embarrass my mom and tell and autocorrect story here.

I sent pictures of Miriam wearing my mom's dress to the family chat.

And my mom was like, "My dress! I bought that my freshman year at BYU. For preference. They still did that then! I loved that dress."

Then she wrote: "Myrna wears it well! Better."

And my sister Josie laughed about that and wrote, "It is such a pretty dress and Miriam looks so pretty!"

And then my mom realized her mistake (or autocorrect's less-than-helpful edit) and wrote: "I did not write Myrna!!! I wrote Miriam!!! My phone is a complete nutso traitor!!"

Myrna is my mom's name so it looked like she was saying that she wore it better (and maybe she did...but that would just be such an out-of-character thing for my mom to say on Miriam's spring formal night).

I think this dress is so pretty and I wish I had been brave enough to wear it more than I did. I wore it in high school for a play one time. And for Halloween. And a couple other times. But mostly it was too fancy for my taste (or I was too timid to wear it). My mom warned me that my rib cage would expand during pregnancy and I'd no longer be able to wear it...but I could wear it after my first and my second and my third and figured I was invincible...but I'm pretty sure I couldn't wear it now.

Here's Miriam wearing it last Halloween when she dressed up as Amy March for a Halloween dance (Rachel is Jo March):

This dress has certainly seen some fun times!