For Joanna and Chip Gaines, 2025 is quite the transformative year for their family, with their second oldest child finally set to leave the nest and head off on her own.
Ella Gaines celebrated her 18th birthday just ahead of the 2024 presidential election, not only voting for the first time as a legal adult, but also graduating from high school, preparing to head to college and, of course, attending her senior prom.
However, when it came to limitations for prom night from her parents, Ella ended up skirting past them just a bit – and Chip, 50, and Joanna, 47, had some thoughts.
© Getty ImagesDuring a previous conversation with TODAY, Chip revealed that for her big night out, she was given a deadline of midnight. However, "she blew past that." He reasoned his ask with: "I thought that would have given her plenty of time to do everything she'd want to do at prom, but apparently, it wasn't enough."
"But what do you do?" he quipped, suggesting he ultimately wasn't upset. "What do you do with this 18-year-old human being that is now legally an adult? She could serve in the army if she had to, and here I am explaining that she has to be back at 12 o'clock."
Ella did protest her deadline, but to her father, that seemed like a reasonable ask. "When I was a kid, midnight was really late," he said, jokingly calling out his daughter for resisting. Although Chip had no idea what time she finally got home, given he was fast asleep by 9 PM.
© InstagramJoanna, meanwhile, was the one who stayed awake and waited for Ella to get back in the "wee hours" of the morning. "Jo is extremely thoughtful in that way and I guess I'm a little bit too lazy."
In fact, Joanna was quite involved in the entire prom altogether, handling all the flower arrangements for the event herself. She even prepared little bouquets for Ella and her two younger siblings, Duke, 16, and Emmie Kay, 15, who also attended.
"That was so sweet," Chip gushed, although was fuzzy on any details from the night himself. "There was a dress for sure," the former Fixer Upper host jokingly said of his daughter's prom dress. "And she had a pair of shoes on. In regard to the color or pattern… I'm going to have to text Jo."
© InstagramAt the time, Ella was still on the fence about where to attend college, and her eager parents were anxious to see how far from the nest she'd really be flying. "We can't wait for her to decide," Chip noted.
"Ella has thought about Korea [Joanna's mother is Korean], she's thought about sunny Southern California. She's not going to be in the Central Texas area when she goes on to her next chapter. She seems excited to be able to spread her wings and do something very unique and outside the bubble."
© InstagramOldest Drake, 20, is a student at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, much closer to the family's home base of Waco, Texas. "With Drake, we needed to send him to college to teach him basic survival skills, like how to do laundry," the dad-of-five joked.
"Ella is on the exact opposite end of the spectrum. It feels like we're sending this young lady off to become the next president of the United States. It's very the sky's the limit with Ella."
