the pre-dance photos...

Saturday while Clara was still in ballet (and I still had some natural light), I decided to take some detail photographs before the dance.

I started with the shoes I had just picked up for her. As luck would have it, she outgrew her dressy shoes about two weeks ago. So, I, of course, waited until the last possible moment to get a replacement pair. I picked up two pairs for her to try right after we dropped her off for ballet (a marathon day of 4.5 straight hours). They were the only two left in her size. I hoped one pair would work.

Jeff and I looked at both pairs and determined this pair the winner....
We were sure this would be the pair that she would pick. I took lots of photos of that pair of shoes.

I took two photos of this pair...
Guess which pair she picked.... yup... the second pair :-)

Mango sat on the couch watching me photograph shoes...
I'm sure she thought I'd lost my mind.

Some dress details...
One of my favorite things about the Daddy Daughter Dance is the timing. It's right after the holidays and right after all of the holiday dresses go on clearance. Clara and I pick a day and camp out in the dressing room at Macy's and try on every single dress left in her size. She has so much fun! And also because the prices are fantastic... I let her have free reign to pick out whichever dress she wants.

Here's the one she picked (the jacket is a separate piece)...
I'm not sure I loved it at first and may have even tried to persuade her against it at one point. But I remembered my pledge to give her free reign with the decision and let her pick it.

I ended up LOVING it and I think by the attitude in this photo...
she loved it too!

The part that stresses me out the most, is hair and make-up. I can actually do age appropriate make-up okay... but I stink at hair. I even considered making her a hair appointment, but in the end, I just couldn't justify it.

However, I think things turned out just fine...With some guidance from the woman at Claire's, we decided to go with a side bun using one of those donut things....
The whole style went perfectly with her dress and it was really easy too!

Showing off her nails...
Basketball was cancelled on Friday night, so after school we went and had her nails done. A woman who was there for her appointment got so excited about Clara going to the dance, that she helped her pick out the perfect color and was the one who suggested the glitter top coat. Very fancy :-)

And finally, the happy daddy-daughter duo....
off to the dance!!