Mom Prom

For the past 5 years, I've been leading a girls' Bible study for Delia's class of girls every other Monday night.  The planning and attending have been a major part of our lives since 2016.  Our church has a few traditions with this girls' group.  One is when you are a leader, you start with a group of 4th grade girls and you stick with them, moving up as they do, until they are in 8th grade.  I LOVE this because it has allowed me to form deep, dear relationships with girls I've now taught for 5 years straight.  Another tradition is that when those girls are in 8th grade, and about to graduate out of the ministry, they work together to host a big mother/daughter event for all the other girls.  It has a theme.  It has food.  It has a program.  It has decorations and invitations.  It has the infamous 8th grade Fashion Show as its grand finale.   And this year it had a few new rules to keep us safe from Covid.  My girls decided they wanted a mother/daughter night that was formal, so we came up with this super fun Mom Prom idea!

We had some fun in the photo booth recreating cheesy prom poses!

One of my favorite people-- our coordinator, Erin.  Through these years with this ministry she has become one of my closest friends.

My dear, sweet class.

So, here are some fun details.  The color scheme (black, pink, white and gold) was my girls' idea.  The food was all our 8th graders' moms' favorite treats (chips and salsa, s'mores bars, strawberries, cheesecake, veggies and dip, boeterkoek, and homemade cookies).   One of my girls had the idea to somehow feature borrowed prom dresses from different decades, so we made a "Guess the Dress" game, and had a vintage prom dress be one of the looks the 8th graders modeled in the fashion show-- complete with a picture of the dresses' original wearer on the screen behind them!  I had tons of fun collecting dresses from the 70's, 80's, 90's, and 2000's!  And it was special to feature amazing old photos of church lady friends of all ages in their high school prom dresses!

My girls had filled out a questionnaire for me, so as they walked the runway I could talk about things like their favorite memories of this ministry, they favorite Bible verse, what they're thankful to their moms for, and where they hope they'll be in the future.  Since I was the emcee, someone snapped these pics of Delia modeling.  The first look is the 8th graders' graduation dress (for Delia and her classmates, it's their chapel dress).

Second look is Delia in my old prom dress.  How cute is this?!

Third look is always Mom's wedding dress!

This was a lovely night!  Erin surprised me when she ended the night by playing the video slideshow of this year...with special pre-recorded thank you messages from each of my sweet girls!  I know I am biased, but I do think I had the BEST class and it was always my pleasure, delight, and absolute blessing to stay with them for 5 whole years!