Happy Easter!

Marina slept late this morning. Something I never did on Christmas or Easter morning. When she finally woke up, she was reluctant to get out of bed - that is until I said, "Happy Easter!" Then she bounded out of bed and and headed downstairs.

The Easter Bunny apparently underestimated Marina's searching ability because she found the eggs pretty fast. Her baskets were a bit harder to find, but she managed it. We made really good time at home, so she could get to church and get more loot! The kids had an Easter Egg hunt and each received a bag of goodies for their efforts. As if that wasn't enough, "Miss Judy" at church provided a bag for each child at church as well. In there she had a tiara and a plush rose which she called a mermaid.

Overall, Marina collected a lot of new stuff. Just what she needed!

The End of Marina's Birthday - Finally!

The way Marina's birthday is celebrated is so different than what I grew up with. I would usually get to pick what I wanted for dinner, have a cake made by my mother, open a few presents and call it a day. The fact that my sister's birthday was the day after mine meant we'd do it all again the very next day - and often even the presents were the same! I used to think it was unfair because she already knew what she was getting. Now I realize, it was unfair to her, not me.

How I wish I were Marina.

Her actual birthday was three weeks ago. It feels like we've been celebrating her birthday the whole time. Not that I mind. Her birth was the greatest thing to ever happen to me.

Today, I had my family over for lunch to celebrate. First of all, you have to understand I have a small townhouse and a large family. The two don't go well together. I'm sure they all groan when they have to crowd into my house for Marina's birthday. At least I only make them do it once a year.

The highlight for the party for me was the cake. I made an Ariel one at Marina's request. I thought it turned out pretty good.

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!

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!