What a day. Anna's first communion was a couple of years in the making. All the religious education, parent prep, weekend retreats, videos, time spent learning prayers...all worth it! Anna looked beautiful this morning, and she seemed genuinely moved by the whole experience. I know I was.

A lot went into getting her prepared for the big day, but the process of outfitting her was a bit comical.

A few months ago my sister was sending me links to dresses for her on Zulily. I'd never shopped on Zulily before, and I found a dress I really liked at about 11:00 at night. I was all nervous they'd be sold out in her size by morning that I ordered it right then without even talking to her about it! So that totally screwed me on the Zulily flat rate shipping thing since I ordered it like one hour before my grouped shipments would be finalized for the day, but oh well. If you haven't shopped Zulily before, I recommend at least trying it. But try it early in the day. :)

The next morning when Anna and I were eating breakfast I told her I'd bought her a dress, showed her a photo of it, and she had a look of mild disappointment on her face. "/ I was a little devastated and asked what was wrong with it. She just says, "Well....why isn't it red?" Haha!! "Anna! You can't wear red to first communion!!!" Once I explained to her that red would be a bit unacceptable, she seemed much happier with the dress, and I was relieved.

Then when it came in I was the one freaking out. I'd just assumed from the photo online it would be a brilliant white color...turns out that was just bad lighting. The dress was ivory! I had a quick powwow with my Mom and sisters trying to figure out the acceptability of an ivory dress, and we all decided it would probably be fine. But I was still silently sweating it. Anna decided she loved it and wore it around the house for about an hour.

I told her we'd probably just do a headband for her headpiece, and she seemed fine with that. I told her a few girls would likely be all decked out in ball gowns with veils and gloves, but I was sure most of them would be in simple dresses like hers.

Boy was I wrong....A couple of weeks ago we had our First Communion Dress Rehearsal. I would say easily 85% of the girls were decked out with veils!!! Even the most tomboy girl that Anna played basketball with had a veil! We go to a big church, so they were doing the first communions over about 8 masses, with about 10 kids at each mass, and the 3 other girls going on Anna's day all were in veils. So, my big concern about the ivory color ended up being no big deal. Even though she was the only one in ivory, it was barely noticeable.

Here she is on the night of the rehearsal.  Cute headband, right? — Here she is on the night of the rehearsal. Cute headband, right?

Yep....the headband was no longer acceptable. Anna now needed a veil and a tiara!

Guess what, it's first communion and wedding season all around the world right now! Good luck finding a veil on Amazon.

So, last weekend, in a last ditch effort to find one, I packed up the kids and took them around town. First we went to Sam Moon to find a tiara. All three of my kids were super mesmerized by the store. I didn't think I'd make it out of there as cheaply as I managed to, but they all seemed pretty content getting to pick out scarves (even Wallace, he wears his wrapped around him like a ninja!). I ended up getting one big tiara, and 2 smaller comb tiaras. I didn't really have a clue how to get one to actually stay on her head, and I wanted to have options. Oh, and Meredith got a big pack of bows.

Then we went to a couple of bridal shops to look for a veil. The first one was a total dud with jerks for clerks. So, I googled a discount shop nearby and they treated Anna like a princess. She put on her dress just like the two brides that were in there, stood on the podium in front of the mirror, and tried out several veils. She picked a beautiful veil with little drop pearls on the end. When we got home I watched a few you-tube videos and we did some practice hair, and even Josh was impressed!

Today, I got her all dressed and ready to go, picked up my camera to take her outside to get photos, and the bottom dropped out! Stupid rain storms! Ugh. And I broke my flash a few weeks ago, so I couldn't get crap for photos in the church (we weren't allowed to take them during the service anyway though). So, when we got back home, there was a break in the storms for a minute, and I had her run outside to take a couple of quick photos. It was still very overcast, but apparently it was just too dang bright for her. Lol.

At least you get a good view of the headgear.  You can even see some of the pearls on the end. — At least you get a good view of the headgear. You can even see some of the pearls on the end.

We compromised and agreed upon a holy pose with her eyes closed.  "/ — We compromised and agreed upon a holy pose with her eyes closed. "/

I'm a little bummed the weather was uncooperative today, but the whole experience was still very special. Almost magical. Meredith came in the bathroom just as we were finishing up getting Anna all dressed, and she was like "Oh Anna! You look beautiful. Like a princess!" That's quite a mouthful for Meredith.

Then at mass, they got to actually go up and stand around the altar for the consecration! When it was time to take communion they lined up each kid with one parent behind them in the line for the priest. The rest of the pew took communion en mass with everyone else. So, what this resulted in (because there are so many communion servers and because it took the priest a little longer to get into position to start our line) was Anna getting back to the pew after everyone else in the pew was already back in their seats. I was already getting a little teary, but watching her walk down the pew and get hugs and excited looks and congratulations from everyone was just so incredibly sweet. And then when she got to Josh he picked her up in a big proud bear hug. Heart melting... Then because she was on the end of the pew, complete strangers stopped on their way up to take communion to congratulate her and tell her how beautiful she looked. It was just a wonderful experience. I was all crying. She was a total champ. I'm so proud of her. She didn't trip anywhere, bowed at the right times, said what she was supposed to when she was supposed to, paid very close attention through the whole entire very long mass, didn't drop the Eucharist, didn't make a funny face at the wine, and just all around killed it.

So...sorry for the long post, but I wanted to capture everything that happened. I'm going to read back through this over the years, and didn't want to forget anything. :)

Thank you everyone that was able to make it today to be a part of her big day. And thank you to everyone that helped us out along the way. It feels like we finished a marathon this morning. That may be an understatement. It was probably even a little more exhilarating than that!