Another Princess Partea

For the past two years Marina and I have attended The Princess Partea. While Marina said she wanted to go, at times she felt reservations about being too old. However, today she was excited to go. She wasn’t sure what to wear, so I suggested a Cinderella costume. She finished it off with sparkly shoes and a blue crystal tiara.

The hotel the Partea was at this year is fairly close to our house. So we were able to arrive early. We ended up in a long line when we arrived but it moved very quickly. Once inside, we looked for the princess meet and greet lines with the shortest wait. We quickly saw Merida, Mary Poppins, Tinkerbell and Sleeping Beauty. Then we saw Jasmine’s line was fairly short, so we met with her. Marina was particularly excited to see her with a new Aladdin movie coming out soon.

At that point, we were shocked that the line for Anna and Elsa was pretty short, so we went o see them. Last year their line was long the entire time, so we happy about that. Next we went over for pictures with Moana, who had an amazing palm tree made of balloons near her.

One of the longest lines was for Belle. But we were willing to wait. She was, as always, just lovely to us. After a few pictures, we went into the Under the Sea Tea Party where we sat down for a bit and had a snack. Then we got into the fairly short line to see Ariel.

The longest line during the whole party was for Cinderella. But since Marina was wearing a Cinderella costume we had to see her. While we were waiting in line, Marina saw there was no line for Moana, so she talked with her and Merida to pass the time.

After a lovely visit with Cinderella, we saw that the lines for most of the princesses were practically nonexistent. So we stopped by to see many of them again before we were ready to leave.

St. Patrick's Day Princess

Since today was St. Patrick’s Day, we made plans for a special dinner with Merida and a leprechaun. Marina wanted to go even though we didn’t have any younger kids to take with us. We both decided to dress up. I recently bought Marina a new Merida costume (she’d grown out of her last one) and she was excited to wear it. I dressed in a green medieval princess gown.

When we arrived we found our seats were on the patio, right where the entertainment part of the dinner would take place. When the leprechaun came by our table she gave Marina a lucky gold coin.

Merida was played by Danielle, an actress we have met before but we don’t know her as well as some of the others. Despite that, she spent a while talking with Marina. They even discussed marina’s desire to visit Scotland.
We ordered the Hawaiian pizza for dinner. Marina was too full to try the special St. Patrick’s Day dessert.

Unicorns, Fairies and Princesses

Last year we attended the first annual Unicorn Festival. It was very overcrowded and poorly organized, but we decided to give it another try, especially since some of our friends would be there!

Marina wasn’t sure what to wear this year. Last night she put together a dance costume someone gave us with one of her skirts, fairy wings and a flower wreath to be a fairy. It was a cute outfit!

We left the house fairly early because we knew a lot of people would be there for the beginning of the festival. We didn’t leave as early as we hoped but we did arrive at the park before the festival opened. We got into line to enter and talked with the people around us. While we were waiting, we saw Snow White arrive. It was one of our friends!

It only took us 15 minutes to get inside after the festival opened. So we went immediately to the Princess Palace to see Phoebe. There was no line to see her, so we took pictures and talked with her for a while. We also saw Moana.

We moved on to some of the vendor booths. Marina loves to shop and she happily looked around at everything on display. While we were looking around, we ran into Prince Charming. We’ve been running into him since Marina was six and he was amazed at how much she has grown. We also came upon a group of fairies and Captain Jack Sparrow.

The line for the mermaids looked short, so we got into it. It moved really slowly and we were roasting in line. Bur fortunately we finally got through to see the mermaids. At the end was Ariel. Marina spent quite a while visiting with her.

While we were waiting for the mermaids, we saw Anna and Elsa arrive at the Princess Palace, so we went over there. This time there was a line but it moved quickly and we got to meet with them before their sing along. By this time, Jasmine had arrived at the Agrabah Bazaar. Marina joined the kids for story time and then waited in a quick line for a photo with her.

Next, we checked out a petting farm with "unicorns,” goats and a bunny. Marina loved that! We also met a large white “unicorn” who was a bit restless. Then we stopped in a shady spot to eat lunch. We made our way over to the Princess Palace again to meet Merida. She had a bow that Marina tried out and they posed with them.

We wanted to walk around the rest of the festival and ran into Tinkerbell who remembered us from the Princess Partea last month. We looked around a some of the other activities and then went to make sure we got to meet Belle, who was another of our friends. We had a bit of a wait, but we were thrilled to see her.

We decided to look at the Creation Station to see what crafts they had set up. Marina decided to make a wand. We had to scavenge around for the pieces but she ended up with one she was happy with. Marina wanted “something sweet,” so we looked around the various food trucks and she decide she wanted a snow cone. We sat for a while as she ate it. The line to sit on a “unicorn” was as short as we had seen it, so we got in it. It took a while but it was worth it. Marina got to sit on a white unicorn and pet a baby one. The foal tried to eat part of her costume!

By the “unicorns” was a Harry Potter sorting hat. We both tried it out and were surprised we were put into the Slytherin House. Rapunzel was the last visiting princess and we could see it was another friend of ours. Even though the line was long, we wanted to say hello to her. We were both tired so we decided this would be our last stop. We got some really cute photos and then we decided to go back to the car. It was a fun day but we were both exhausted.

Party with Princesses

Last year, we attended the Princess ParTEA. When I got an announcement that they were having another one this year, Marina wanted to go. We just got an Elsa coronation dress last week and she wanted to wear that. We decided not to use the cape because it was so long we worried it would get stepped on and damaged.

There was a line when we arrived and we went through that only to get in another line to get in. When we finally made it into the ballroom. We headed to the back of the meet and greet area and saw our friend as Mary Poppins. She didn’t have a line, so we went over to see her. Then we found  Rapunzel. Her line was short, so we visited her as well. By then most of the lines were so long that we went into the tea party room. We got a photo with Belle and then got a snack.

After we ate, most of the other attendees were also in the tea party, so we went back to see princesses. By now, the liens had gotten much shorter. We saw Cinderella and Aurora. We also got photos with Merida, Elena, Moana, Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. Before tackling the huge line for Anna and Elsa, we saw Ariel and browsed the vendor tables.

The line for Anna and Elsa was long and slow.  Marina was tired by then. Fortunately, the line sped up after a while and we were able to get through it.a. Of course, Else had to make a fuss over Marina’s dress.

Once we finished with Anna and Elsa, we said goodbye to all our friends before heading out.

Springtime Spree

We were happy we had tickets for the Princess Spring Fling. Marina had a tough time choosing which character to dress up as. She finally decided on Alice in Wonderland.

The drive took a long time, but we arrived just before the princesses. Marina was a bit disappointed that Alice was not there as scheduled. But she got many compliments on her outfit.

The event was set up so everyone visited with each princess and received on part of a craft. After meeting with them all they had a flower photo holder assembled. Marina met with Merida first, Then Belle, Tiana, Elsa and Anna. The last one we saw was Moana – she had the longest line!

After the crafts were done, the Easter Bunny came to take photos with the kids. Tiana and Moana sang and Belle told a story. Then the girls and princesses all danced together.

At the end of the event, the princesses all gathered together for a group photo with all the kids. Marina waited until the end. When it was her turn, she shared our princess scrapbook with them. They all seemed to enjoy looking through all our photos.

Marina fell asleep in the car on the way home. It was a long day!

Fall Fun

It’s been a busy few weeks and Marina and I needed a break today. So the plan was to take it easy today. This morning, Marina had an appointment this morning. After that, we went home for some fall activities.

Lately, Marina has been crazy about cinnamon rolls. So she and I made a pan of them today. I made the dough, but Marina rolled it out and cut them. I also needed to make a dessert for a dinner party, so Marina helped me with that as well. She peeled and sliced apples for the apple cinnamon cheesecake.

The big project of the day was carving our Halloween Jack O’Lanterns. Marina chose stencils for Jasmine and Merida. These were tougher patterns than what we have done before, but we both did our best to get them done.