You can dress them up for Homecoming Dance 2014 but it's still pretty awkward.

Fun "flash tat".

She's SO hip.

Blow dry AND flat iron fancy.

Make up too.

We needed boutonniere instructions. Luckily Cheryl figured it out.

Thank you Spencer.

Yes, the arm around her was prompted.

The dads with their kids.

A few weeks ago I emailed Spencer's mom Cheryl about the Homecoming Dance to make sure that date would work for Spencer to attend with Molly. The thing about having special needs kids is that we still have a huge hand in their social activities and engagements. Actually we probably have the only hand as they don't initiate any activities on their own. At least Molly doesn't. When Cheryl gave me the all clear, I practiced a short sentence that Molly could use on her talker to ask Spencer to the dance when they saw each other at speech therapy. She said "Spencer dance (with) me?". I'll take the blame for omitting the "with" as I just couldn't find it on the talker.  Molly isn't very good with the complete sentences anyway so Spencer would get the gist. I had her practice "saying" the sentence two times and we were ready. I gave the speech therapist Barb a heads up that this would be happening, and that maybe she could initiate the interaction.  Cheryl and I went and sat in the waiting room for the hour of their appointment and eagerly awaited the results.

Barb came out and reported the cute interplay. Molly asked Spencer using her talker. He said "yes". Barb said "What will you wear Molly?". She replied "Pink blouse. Jeans". Another boy/man in their group said "I think she should wear a dress". Pretty cute as he's non verbal too and this response shows just how much our kids are taking in of their environment without us really realizing it. I agreed, she needed to wear a dress. So Grandma (Brooke's mom) had a cute pink top and a cute black long dress that fit and looked darling on Molly. But then the next week at speech therapy, they were again talking about the upcoming Homecoming Dance and asked Molly about her outfit. This time she said "Pink blouse. Silver skirt"(Grandma's was black). Hmmmmm I thought. Silver WOULD look cute with the pink top. Then I said "Is there anything else you'd like?" And Molly said "gloves". I asked what color. She said "Red". I motioned on my arm both at the wrist and then at the elbow to determine the length that she wanted. She pointed to the elbow. So there we had it. Pink, silver and red. Where does one actually purchase long red gloves? I had NO idea. I also wasn't sure if I should try and talk her into something that matches a little better but then relaxed into letting my girl be my girl. It's fun to see what her choices are when left to her own devices.

She came out in this # this summer so the pink/red is a theme for her.

So now Grandmas pink sweater wasn't going to work since it was long sleeved and Molly wanted long gloves. So a shopping trip was in order. Off to Marshall's I went, and as fate would have it, the darling silver skirt practically jumped off the rack as did the pink top. I ran to the ARC next door thinking that maybe someone had donated a pair of long gloves that I could then dye red (would have to YouTube how) ....and to my amazement, right up front, there were red gloves set out for Halloween :) Perfect.

My fashion forward friend Berkeley gave me the heads up that the flash tats were all the rage during  her daughters sorority (spell check auto corrects to sobriety which is pretty funny)  rush at the University of Georgia. So I just had to have them for Molly's big night. And we had to have her hair done as I don't even blow dry my own hair which is why Molly's has NEVER been blow-dried in her entire life. No split ends on that head!

When Molly was little, getting a haircut was a nightmare! I had to constantly pump one skittle at a time or bites of cookies (or whatever junk would appease her) into her mouth to keep her sitting for even 10 minutes. I'd tell the hairdresser at Super Cuts "Just cut FAST". Since Molly would not leave any barrettes or hair thingies in her hair, we always had to keep it short. Thus the regular visits to Super Cuts. Through the years, she has gotten to love that time in the chair. She would stay all day now looking at herself if she could. Afterwards, she hops up, grabs the water spray bottle every.single.time and does a little squirt on her bangs.....and that is that. Still not sure why she does it, but she does and we just let her. In preparation for her big dance, we went to see Amber. Molly had lots of firsts on this visit. She had her hair washed in the basin. She had her hair blow-dried. She had her hair flat ironed. The entire time she was beaming. Jack and I got such a kick out of watching her and the perma smile on her face. Very touching and sweet. Looks like we will need to do that again when we do her senior pictures.

We told Spencer's dad Jon to bring him over at 6:30pm. We would do pictures on our deck and then head out to Wild Ginger for dinner. It was funny to watch the Rose's do what we do: snap 1 million pictures in an effort to get one decent one of our kid. We say weird things that will get our kids bizarre senses of humor to laugh. "Flat cheese" gets Molly. We never say "Smile" as we get these very stilted, strained, chin jutting forward, grimaces. It's "Scooby Doo" for Spencer. It's "Chardonnay" for me.

I learned my lesson after the Goodwill dance the kids went to last spring together. It was just the 3 of us at dinner and it was so quiet that even I felt uncomfortable. So this time I invited Jack Bell to join us as I knew he'd say "Yes" to eating out (his favorite thing to do). Spencer's mom Cheryl joined us too which was fun. When we asked for the check after we were all stuffed, Spencer pulled out his wallet to pay for Molly. His parents had worked on that with him and he did awesome.

Jack was delivered home, Cheryl went on her way and I drove the kids to the high school for the dance. It was raining and we were the only ones standing in line with an umbrella. Fancy that! Was it because I was the only adult in the line? Probably :) The place was decorated and festive. The music was blaring and fun. The strobe lights and smoke machine were cranking. It was so fun. Molly immediately started dancing. Spencer stood (he's not much of a dancer). I had to run onto the dance floor a couple times from my dark perch on the bleachers to prompt Molly to go back and get Spencer when she took off to go dancing with kids that she knew. The other time I waited for a few minutes to see if Spencer would actually put his arms around her to slow dance like all the other kids were doing around them....but he didn't make the move, so I jumped down to put their arms around each other. They happily danced (stood) that way until the song ended.

Early on the fire alarm went off (that we could barely hear). Apparently the smoke machine had set it off. I was amazed how calmly all the kids filed out...into the rain and the wind. We again were the only ones with the umbrellas. I'm such a good planner a header. "Be prepared" is my mom motto. "Plan B" is another one of my good ones. Spencer and Molly were troopers through those unexpected situations. Boy they have come a long way. When everyone could go back in, the kids resumed dancing (standing) and having fun. Molly was truly in her element. Peers and kids surrounding her with music cranking is like heaven on earth. Not so sure that was Spencer's heaven but he rallied.

The kids have speech therapy together today so I'll be curious what the follow up conversations reveal.  I had eyes on them all night so I'm pretty sure nothing really saucy will come out.