My first ball

That would be the dancing kind of ball. Ray is a youth leader and the youth had a Regency Ball. Ray had to go, so I got to go with him. :-) In the morning they had practice where we learned some basic steps to some old time dances (commonly called "Jane Austen dances"). Then that evening we got all dressed up and had the ball. I didn't have any idea where to find a ball gown. I borrowed Lil's Halloween costume dress, which worked pretty well. I was amazed at some of the dresses the girls were wearing.

They had dance cards for the kids to fill out before the dancing started -- for some reason I ended up with the same partner for every dance. :-) The ball started with a Grand March, during which they managed to have everybody pass everybody (I really don't know how to describe how it was done, but it was cool), I think so you could look at all the cool dresses. After that, all the dances were mixers, where all the couples start out in a big circle and you move around the circle as you dance. Some of the dances we switched partners over and over, others we would move around the circle as a couple. It really was a lot of fun. I would love to have a ball more often.