Unicorn Festival

For months we have been looking forward to the first annual Unicorn Festival. Marina chose to dress as Tinkerbell. She also brought her mermaid fin and Jasmine costume along.

I wanted to get an early start, but we were a bit later than I’d hoped. We arrived and crowds had already started to gather. It took us a while to get inside.

Our first stop was at the Mermaid Lagoon. Marina really wanted to swim with the mermaids. However, they weren’t quite ready to start, so we made plans to come back. Next we just decided to check out the festival. We ran into Prince Charming and Giselle. Marina posed for pictures with both. We found the Princess Palace and Snow White was there. So we took pictures with her as well. Marina then tried out the castle maze which led to a slide.

We went back to the Mermaid Lagoon and found they still weren’t ready yet. We took a photo of Marina with a mermaid and then went to watch a magic show. Marina volunteered to help out with one of the tricks. We also found a fairy king and queen who we had photos taken with.

We wanted to meet Moana, but the line was really long and Marina didn’t want to wait. So we hung out at the bubble tower for a while and had a snack. By then Belle was available, so we got photos with her. Marina changed into her Jasmine costume and we got to the Princess Palace early to see Jasmine. We were very close to the front of the line so we got a chance to meet her quickly.

From there we went to the Mermaid Lagoon and settled in for the wait to swim with the mermaids. It took a very long time, but Marina felt it was worth it. When it was finally her turn, she put on her mermaid tail but it was difficult for her to put the fin on, so she didn’t. She did seem to enjoy her time in the water despite the freezing temperature.

Once she was done swimming we found the festival wasn’t as crowded anymore. We had pictures with Cinderella and Marina petted a unicorn, then she rode one. She even took a turn in the “Crystal Balls” activity. We also got a photo with Ariel. We were about to leave when we saw Captain Jack Sparrow. Of course she wanted to talk to him!

We’d spent the whole day at the festival and we were ready to go home.

Birthday Tea Party

Marina and I decided to do something special for my birthday this year. We've been to a nearby "castle" for tea parties before, but all of them were outside. So we went for "High Noon Tea" inside today. We were both looking forward to finally seeing this beautiful place from the inside.

Marina wanted to wear a new pair of white fingerless gloves to the tea, but was disappointed when the white dress she wanted to wear no longer fit her. She tried on her Giselle costume and found it fit well and looked like a fancy party dress, so she decided to wear it. She looked beautiful.

We arrived at the castle a little before tea time. We had a table in the middle of the Great Hall. It was gorgeous. Marina had peppermint tea and we were brought an assortment of sandwiches, muffins, scones and desserts. We immediately dug in. As we ate, Marina kept exclaiming how happy she was to be there. She tried most of the food and found a few things she didn't like. But we both were soon full.

After we finished tea, we went on a tour of the castle. We learned the history of how it was built and the story of the owners. Each room had antique furniture and impressive artwork. Marina especially liked a portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots, who we've been told is one of her ancestors.

After the tour was over, one staff member took Marina on a "secret tour" to a balcony that overlooked the Great Hall. She was very excited by that. Once the tea was over, Marina said, "I want to live here!"

Giselle Ballet

When I head the Colorado Ballet was preforming Giselle, I was interested. I looked up the storyline and found it a bit strange and dark. I asked Marina if she wanted to see it. At first she was enthusiastic until I told her it wasn't the same as the movie Enchanted. After telling her the story, she looked hesitant but said she wanted to see it.

Despite her misgivings, Marina was excited to go. She brought Saige along since she has never been to the ballet before. Naturally, they dressed alike. Several of the ushers checked in with Marina regarding Saige. They decided she didn't need a ticket as long as she stayed on Marina's lap. One even mentioned to Marina that she should make sure Saige knew how to act during the show.

Once the show started we were both amazed by the beautiful set and costumes. The storyline was not familiar to Marina like The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty, so she asked a lot of questions.

During intermission, they had two dogs which had been part of Act 1 in the lobby. Marina was happy to go and pet them. We had a snack and headed to our seats. There was a girl and her mother in our row a few seats away from us. Since no one sat in the seats between, they moved over for a better view. Marina showed them how the chandelier retracts before the show begins.

Act 2 was tougher for both girls - they were pretty wiggly. Still the dancing was hauntingly beautiful. It's funny that I had worried about Marina's reaction to the dark storyline, but I was the one who was an emotional wreck!

After the show we went down to see the orchestra pit. By then the musicians had left. But the ushers did allow us to take a few pictures.

Giselle was enjoyable, but I think we'll stay with stories Marina knows a little better in the future.

Trick or Treat!

This year for Halloween I got to take Marina trick or treating. We met up with Madi and Noah. We all had dinner at their house, then the kids all got into their costumes. Noah was a pirate and Madi was dressed as Giselle from Enchanted. Marina was happy to show off her Rapunzel costume. I also put make up on her which made her very happy.

We went to a nearby neighborhood to start. There were plenty of kids out even though the sun hadn't set yet, but many of them were well decorated. A woman dressed as a witch was in front of her house, Marina was a bit hesitant to approach her but was happy with the candy she got. At another house, there were sound effects and spider webs. The kids tripped a motion activated fog machine and came running back. Jenn had to walk them to the door. As we walked around, we met many other kids. Marina met her newest "best friend," a girl dressed as an angel. Marina nearly filled her pumpkin, including a few full size candy bars. She was especially pleased with a large bag of Skittles. She spent a while talking about her costume to them people who gave it to her.

We wanted to go to another neighborhood where she knew someone. So we went there. We ended up walking quite a ways but we saw some neat houses. One had lots of decorations and a shark handing out tubs of cotton candy. Marina was thrilled! Another house had a large spider web with lots of little spiders all over it and a ghost that lowered after the kids were on the porch. All three of them just stared at it, afraid to try and walk past it. We also went to a house with talking witch lights along the stairs up to the door. There Marina got a large bag of Teddy Grahams. By the time we were finished she had more candy than would fit in her pumpkin.

At home we had pumpkin pie (she had asked for it for Halloween) and she had a little candy. It took a bit to get her into bed. It had been an exciting night!

THANK YOU!

I am so overwhelmed by the support Marina got during the "Fairest of Them All" contest. Marina's Snow White picture ended up with 78 votes. That was enough to put her in the top 200 out of over 6,000 entries! That's an amazing result.

The pictures are still visible, but you can no longer vote. The highest vote getter had over 5,000. I have no idea how that is possible, but I don't think it was anywhere as cute as Marina's pictures. :-)

The winner of the Disney World trip will be chosen by the lovely folks at Disney. So we could still get a prize.

But I think we're already winners - thanks to our wonderful friends!

Picture This!

Since we had the matching Giselle dresses, I decided Marina and I should have our pictures taken together. So, here we are:

Of course, the best pictures were of her:

Vote for Princess Marina!

Aunt Ann forwarded me an email saying Disney is having a contest: "Who is the Fairest of them All?"

Well, Marina, of course!

The hardest part was picking which pictures to send in. I submitted and had six pictures accepted. Please vote for Princess Marina! (You are able to cast a vote for each picture every day. Feel free to vote often!)

The Fairest of Them All
http://family.go.com/princess-picture-contest/who-is-the-fairest/the-fairest-of-all-15288/

Sleeping Beauty
http://family.go.com/princess-picture-contest/who-is-the-fairest/sleeping-beauty-15285/

Belle's Book
http://family.go.com/princess-picture-contest/who-is-the-fairest/belle-s-book-15287/

Castle Bound
http://family.go.com/princess-picture-contest/who-is-the-fairest/castle-bound-15274/

Off to the Ball!
http://family.go.com/princess-picture-contest/who-is-the-fairest/off-to-the-ball--15273/

Ariel Sighting
http://family.go.com/princess-picture-contest/who-is-the-fairest/ariel-sighting-15264/

Thanks for your support!

The Birthday Ball

So, I'd been planning Marina's birthday party for about nine month. Yes, I have no life. Last year I saw a birthday party where a teacher taught ballet to a group of girls. That morphed in my mind into a Ball. So, this year, we had a Birthday Ball for Marina.

Last year I bought Marina a Giselle dress from Enchanted. Then this year I saw the Disney store had a sale on the Giselle dress for adults. I couldn't resist. Marina was thrilled to learn we'd be matching Giselle's for the party. Of course, her dress was glamorous and beautiful. Mine made me look like a house.

Since I had so much time to plan it, I had time to fuss over the details. I planned everything down to the napkins. So there was plenty of room for something to go wrong. Plenty did, but no one seemed to notice. I had wanted each prince and princess to be formally introduced. That didn't happen. Everything went so much faster than I planned. My friend Joe acted as MC (He was dressed as Hagrid - it was awesome!). He really kept the pace up. So we served dinner way earlier than I planned.

I made the cake myself - a wedding-like tiered cake which was followed by presents. Marina got a ton of them! I must have done a good job with the pinata because it took the kids more than 20 minutes to scoop up all the goodies.

The party was over 2 1/2 hours after it started. That was good considering I was worried it would be over three hours. But clean up took two hours. As we got everything together, Marina said, "I want another birthday." Yikes!