The Birthday of the Princess

I've been the mother of Princess Marina for five years today.

Has she always been a princess? Yes.

The year she was born, her grandparents wrote in their yearly newsletter that she was a princess. She's always acted the part. In fact, my former mother-in-law says she's descended from Mary, Queen of Scots. It's an impressive claim, but most people don't realize what a terrible ruler Mary was. And her descendants were no better.

But I digress...

At this point, Marina has more tiaras than the Queen of Scots. She wears them for more than state occasions. Since she often wears them to school, she has earned the nickname Princess Marina. So many people think they are clever by calling her that. Little do they know... Today I pulled out the "Birthday Girl" tiara. She wore it happily.

Despite the fact that she was with her father most of the day, we did plenty of celebrating. When I picked her up she said to me, “I’m five today!” In the car, I had three balloons for her. She loved them, but on the way to dinner, she popped two of them. The third one flew out the car door later. Oh, well.

We met her Aunt Ann and Cousin Cameron at Chuck E. Cheese for dinner. As soon as she had tokens, she went off on her own. Marina would try one game and then move on to the next. Often she wouldn’t even stop to get the tickets she earned. She was so engrossed in the games she didn't realize she had a gift to open.

When we came home, there was even more for Marina. I had some gifts for her. Her favorite was the Barbie castle. She wanted to play with it right away. She didn’t even take time to eat the mini birthday cake I made for her. But she did enjoy having me sing “Happy Birthday “ and blowing out the candle.

Happy Birthday, Little Princess!