Birthday Pictures

Marina had her picture taken today. First we had her in her birthday dress ...



Then her Easter dress ...

Dinner for a Princess

We wrapped up Marina's birthday with a special dinner with our family. She had requested "basketti," so I cooked up an Italian dinner with lasagne, spaghetti and chicken parmesan. Our house was full, but we had good conversation and good food. Marina was having so much fun, she didn't even think about birthday cake or presents.

Marina had requested a chocolate cake with layers and horses on it. So that is what she got.


Once she got around to it, she opened some very nice presents.

It's been a fun week, but an tiring one.

Party Under the Sea

Marina said she wanted a pool party. In March that's not so easy to do. A recreation center was recommended to me and it turned out to be great. We had two lifeguards. Katie and Tyler, who did a great job playing with the kids and helping them in the deeper parts. Marina had so much fun, I had a hard time keeping track of her during the party.


After a long hour of swimming, we went into the party room for cake and presents. It took s awhile to cut into the ice cream cake. During that time, we passed out leis and other accessories. Once the cake was passed out, the kids were very quiet as they ate it. Of course, Marina had plenty of help opening her presents.

Overall, I think it was a good party.

Ballet Class

It was Parent Watch Week at Marina's dance studio. Parents can watch through a window but whenever Marina catches me watching, she stops dancing and waves to me. This time, Marina didn't seem quite as distracted by me as she has in the past. In fact, she even asked to start one of the exercises. We also go to watch a rehearsal of their recital in June. It looks good so far!

Happy Birthday Princess!

Marina turned six today. I took cupcakes to her school this morning. She and I put one cupcake at each place. How happy were her classmates to come in from recess to see cupcakes on the tables. Marina loved it when the class sang "Happy Birthday" to her. The she happily ate her pink cupcake at a table with her friends Hannah and Bailey.

This evening, she got to pick what we had for dinner. She chose McDonalds. Our friends Chuck and Judy joined us. Then we all came back to our home for cake and presents. I made her a Tinkerbell chocolate cake. Marina was so excited by the presents that she hardly touched her cake. She had a good day today. This kicks off her birthday week. The celebrating will last until Sunday.

Rite of Passage

Marina finally decided she wanted her ears pierced. When given the choice, she wanted it done before her birthday. So we made a day of it.

First, Marina had her hair cut and styled. She decided to cut two inches off the bottom and I asked for layers. The stylist put it in a sassy ponytail which prominently showed off her ears. She also got a shot of glitter for her hair.


Then came time for the ears. Marina picked out pink jewel earrings. No surprise there. They had two stylists do the procedure, one on each ear. However it didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped. One ear was pierced several seconds before teh other. Marina said, "Ow!" and started to cry. I told her she was very brave but she denied that because she cried.


For about two hours, she was miserable. Her earlobes were bright red and she complained they hurt. She told me several times that she wished she hadn't gotten them pierced and she looked at me as though I'd done something terrible to her.


Finally after lunch and me spoiling her all morning long, she got over the pain and now seems very happy that she has earrings now. She proudly shows off her new earrings to everyone. She is eagerly looking forward to being able to wear all sorts of fancy earrings. I guess it was worth it after all.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

We went to see Mary Poppins the musical this evening with Lily and her mom. Marina has not seen the whole movie before, so this was a completely new experience for her. She was a bit restless during the first act but settled down for the second. She was particularly excited to see Mary Poppins fly over the audience for the end.

Before going into the show, we took pictures in front of the posters in the front of the theater.

A kind man came by and offered to take one of all four of us.

Turns out, that kind man was Admiral Boon in the show! He was kind enough to pose with Marina.

What a fun time we had!