We Are The Entrikin Family: Prom 2018

I was inspired by a conversation with a friend a few years ago to encourage my boys to invite a girl to the prom each year. I encouraged them last year, but they were not interested. This year, however, Joel wanted to attend with a group of friends from drama, so he asked his friend, Katie, to go with him.

We all pressured Isaac to get a date and go, too, but he just look flustered and shook his head.
As time wore on, I gave up pestering him. But secretly I hoped that an opportunity would arise.

Then one night, the Monday before prom, actually; Joel and Aysha came home from drama practice saying that one of the girls had not been asked to prom! She is a senior, president of the Seminary council, a beautiful singer and very talented actress, a fun, vivacious, intelligent girl, and hadn't been asked to prom! "Well, here is the opportunity I hoped for!" I thought. Joel, Aysha, and I told Isaac that he was going to ask Emily to the prom. Isaac was very uncomfortable about asking and taking anyone to prom, so he resisted. But we said, "We'll help!" And we did. Our Family Home Evening activity for the night turned into "Brainstorm ideas and buy cute things for Isaac's 'promposal.'" We went shopping, throwing out ideas and talking and laughing all the way.

I think it was Scott who originally suggested the idea of penguins. He mentioned the Madagascar penguins: "Smile and wave, boys!"

That ended up being the idea that worked out. We found a cute penguin beanie baby and some balloons. Aysha fell in love with the penguin, and we had a hard time wresting it away from her, but we all worked on the poster together.

The paper penguin was created by Joel.

Then we had to figure out how to get it to Emily. After some discussion, we realized that Joel was in her first hour class. But I was the one with the ability to get it there ahead of time. So I came into their class before school started and asked the teacher if I could set up a "promposal" in his room. Only one other student was in the room at the time, and fortuitously, she turned out to be seat neighbors and friends to Emily. She was very excited to help. She helped set it up and said she would make sure that Emily received it.

Isaac received his answer the next day:

Every week or so I had asked Joel, "So who are you going with? Can I help plan a dinner for your group? What are the plans?" He would answer that he didn't know, one of the other boys was "in charge."

On Wednesday or Thursday, the truth came out that no one had actually organized a group plan. Their group had turned into a very large group of two or three small groups together, and they hadn't really planned anything. So on Thursday, a few of us moms whipped up a dinner plan. Each of the small groups planned their own "day dates" that worked with their schedules and interests.

One mom arranged for the whole group to eat dinner in the lobby of the credit union where her husband works. Another mom offered her yard with a magnificent view for photos. Another mom took photos of the group and individual couples. A couple of moms had elegant decorations and dishes to share. Several moms provided potluck dishes for the dinner, and it all came together beautifully!