Peyton Dances the Night Away at Fortnightly

In 8th grade, it's a right of passage in our area for the kids to partake in a dance program called Fortnightly. The boys dress in slacks, dress shirts, shoes and ties while the girls wear nice dresses, heels and white gloves. 

Austen did not want to partake but luckily some of his friends were not the first born children so all of their parents strongly encouraged all of them to do it. We signed him up and he was reluctant to go but actually once there said it was fun (aside from the dressing up part). He said it definitely helped starting high school and being thrust right into the Homecoming dance. 

So when they opened registration this year, we were actually in Australia and all four of the sessions filled up fast so I had to put Peyton's name on the waitlist but she did eventually get in which was great because she definitely was looking forward to this part of 8th grade after seeing her brother do it. 

The boys and girls are paired off and the girls must enter and exit the ballroom on the arm of a young man. During the 8 sessions (every Friday night) they learn various dances from salsa to the waltz to ballroom. They also switch partners every five minutes or so, therefore, the boys and girls get to dance with a lot of different people and also learn the art of small talk with the opposite sex while they wait for the dance to begin. 

It's fun for us to see her get all dressed up every Friday night (and sometimes go out to dinner after with her friends). Parents also must sign up to chaperone so we'll get to see her in action next week and may have to stand in if there's a boy (or a girl) missing and the numbers are off. 

Anyway, what a great tradition for our kids to continue and a fun experience for them to have.