MOSES LAKE — Dads were in their best outfits and daughters wore their sparkly dresses. And over in the gym moms and sons dressed up in superhero T-shirts and costumes.

The 10th annual Father-Daughter Dance filled the Moses Lake High School commons with girls and their dads (and granddads and uncles and older brothers), complete with princesses and pictures and ice cream. But moms and sons needed something to do while Dad and Sister were off dancing, so they played games in the gyms and took pictures and had ice cream floats.

The father-daughter dance is a longtime project of the MLHS Choral Boosters; 2017 was the 10th annual dance. “We want the girls to have a night where they feel special,” said co-chair Shani Law. So dads dressed up in suits and ties, the best cowboy hat, the best shirt and pants, sometimes a tux. Daughters had on their sparkly dresses and shoes, and sometimes a crown. “Those little girls, they look forward to it every year,” said Hope Irvin, choral booster vice-president.

This was the fourth annual night out for moms and sons (and grandmas and aunts and older sisters), and came about as a counterpoint to the father-daughter dance. Everybody was encouraged to come in their superhero costumes. The boys and their moms played games, the boys bounced in the bouncy houses, moms and sons raced tricked-out tricycles.

But it wasn’t just a night with Superman and Batman and Thor. “We have some kids who are villains,” Irvin said. At the obstacle course the villains would come along and kidnap Mom, and boys would pursue them through the course, busting through a brick wall to save Mom.

“It’s all about moms and sons together,” Irwin said.

Students in the choral department helped set up the games in the gym and the tables in the commons, and were the cleanup crew. Girls in the choral department dressed up as princesses, talked to enchanted little girls and accepted hugs, and posed for pictures. Boys and some girls took the parts of superheroes and villains, ran the games, served the ice cream at the dance and the ice cream floats at the superhero party.

Law has been chair or co-chair for seven or eight years, she said, and while it’s work there’s a reward at the end. “What’s fun for me is to see those little girls. It’s a fun thing to see them happy.”

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].