Rapunzel

While we were at Hollywood Studios in Disney World, we saw a gallery dedicated to Tangled, the newest Disney movie about Rapunzel coming out later this year. When she saw the Rapunzel costume on the Disney Store website, she was sold. For several weeks she has said she wants to be Rapunzel for Halloween. So today, after a long day at work, I decided to treat her to a nice evening.

After I picked her up from school, we headed to our local Disney Store. I had called earlier in the day to have them hold a costume and hairpiece for us, so I knew we'd get one.

I hadn't taken Marina to a Disney Store since she was a baby, so I don't think she knew that stores like that existed outside of Disneyland and Disney World. She went from display to display just exclaiming over what she saw there. She was pleased with the costume but she didn't spend much time looking at it. She was off looking at other things.

When I finally got her out of the store we headed to the food court for dinner. Then we went home. She tried the costume on. She's going to be pretty this Halloween!

The Queen's Birthday

Today was my birthday. My age has, ahem, a zero on the end. So my sister planned a party with my whole family at a local Italian restaurant. Marina wanted to wear her Mardi Gras mask, I'm not sure what the significance of that was. We had a fun night. Marina and Cameron ran around the table taking pictures. Too bad none of them were really usable. Still we had a fun night with everyone.

"Holiday"

I told Marina today was Labor Day, a holiday. She asked, “For the holiday, can we go to the Museum?” I invited Kyle and Bethany to go with us to the Museum of Nature and Science. They wanted to start looking at the fossils. Marina went through everything pretty quickly, we had trouble keeping up at times. She liked looking at the dinosaurs but she didn’t spend a whole lot of time there.

We took a break for lunch. Then we went to the Gems and Minerals. We got Marina to go through the fake cave this time. She’s always been afraid of it. We liked looking at the rocks, but, once again, moved fairly quickly through them. At one point she decided she was ready to leave. Kyle and I have to chase after her, leaving Bethany behind. She wasn’t too happy about that! We went to Space Odyssey where her speed viewing continued. Until there was an announcement of a show in the Planetarium. So we went in for that. Marina loved looking at the planets, especially Neptune.

We went to look at the animal dioramas. Bethany wanted to look for the elves. We found the ones we could before getting the cheat sheet. Marina was excited to see each one as we pointed it out. Then she’d find other people nearby to show where they were. As we walked out of the animal hall, Marina spotted the Ancient Egypt exhibit. She just took off to go see it. We all followed her over. She’s been interested in Egypt for some time now.

We were all tired when after that, so we headed out. Marina nearly fell asleep in the car. But she’d had a good “holiday.”

A Day at the Zoo

This was supposed to be the last really hot weekend this summer. Marina and I decided to go to the zoo. When we arrived, she told me she wanted to see fish. So we went to the tropics exhibit where the fish are. She was interested in them, but she spent more time looking at the snakes. Who knew she liked snakes so much? But the tarantula really freaked her out.

We stopped for a snack near the sea lions. We had a nice view of them as they played in the water. It seemed like the four of them were chasing each other. It was fun to watch. The polar bears were in their pools. At the underwater viewing window, one was right in front. But Marina didn’t have much interest.

The zoo had a lot of new babies for us to see. We saw baby giraffes, a seal, mountain goat and a zebra. Marina loved them!

Because of the heat, many of the animals were lethargic, an exception was the brown bears. One of them kept following the other around the exhibit. Every once in a while it would agitate the other.

As usual, Marina took a ride on the carousel. This time she picked the cheetah to ride on - although she was hoping for a leopard!

Just before we left, we saw the lions. Two lionesses and a lion were resting right by the viewing window. Marina was eye to eye with a lioness! (A little disconcerting to a mom, I must say!)

First Day of First Grade

Today was Marina's first day of school. I can't believe she's in first grade! This time was less traumatic than last year. This is the second year at her elementary school and I've met her teacher several times. Marina seemed quite excited. The kids lined up shortly after we arrived. She happily talked to one of her friends from kindergarten while they waited for everyone to gather. Every once in a while she waved to me. At one point she called out, "I love you, Mommy." Won't that melt a mother's heart?

When I picked her up after school, she was in a great mood. She didn't have a whole lot to say about her day. Apparently her teacher gave her Skittles for good behavior. Good to hear. I asked if she had some of her kindergarten friends in her class. "And new friends too!" she responded enthusiastically. So looks like we're off to a good start this year.

Disney World - Day Six

Our day started with a mad rush. Marina had an appointment at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique and the shuttle schedule wasn't at all compatible with the appointment. It didn't help that the shuttle was ten minute late either. We were dropped off at Epcot and we did well making the monorails to the Magic Kingdom. But once we arrived on Main Street, we had to negotiate the crowds who were watching the morning parade. We passed Snow White and the Fairy Godmother who had short lines waiting to see them. But, fortunately, the Boutique was able to fit Marina in half an hour late.

Marina chose to wear her Silvermist costume today. So she chose a fall with black hair. I found it humorous that the dark haired girls were choosing blonde falls and the blondes seemed to want darker hair. As she was getting started, the Fairy Godmother came in to visit. Fairy Godmother in Training Sabina worked on Marina's hair. Later on, Christina helped with make up. I noticed that their names rhyme: Sabina-Christina-Marina.

Once her hair and make up were done, we had her picture taken. I wasn't happy with the first batch, so I made them do another set. I hope the photographer doesn't hate me!

We went into Fantasyland where Marina's favorite rides are. Then we went off to meet the fairies. We had lunch there. A nice young woman at one of the food stands asked Marina for her autograph. It was so cute to see her sign her name in the book!

Since Marina was dressed as Silvermist (and we had managed to get her picture taken with every character she was dressed as, I didn't want to ruin our streak). Unfortunately when we went through, Silvermist wasn't there. We did meet Tinkerbell, Fawn and Terence though.

We finally caught a performance of Story Time with Belle that wasn't rained out. (It was the only show of the day that wasn't.) But it was important since that show will be ending next month, so we won't have another chance to see it again. I wanted to see the entire Castle show, but lightning was visible in the distance and the performance was canceled.

We went into Adventureland to say goodbye to Aladdin and Jasmine. Unfortunately, we missed their last meet and greet by five minutes. Marina was crushed. A cashier in the store next to them offered to take a note to them. Marina wrote, "I love you," on the paper and then signed her name. She added a flower she'd picked for Jasmine. I wish I could have seen them when they got that!

We went over to see Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen again but the rain started. We ducked into the Christmas store for a while. Marina loved looking at the ornaments and I bought one for our tree this year. But we got restless in the store, so we walked over to Toon Town to try to meet Silvermist again. The wait was longer than before but what else were we going to do? By the time we got to the front of the line, we learned that Silvermist wasn't there. The cast member let us wait about 15 minutes until she came. By the time Marina got into the room to meet the fairies, they all knew she was waiting for Silvermist. Tinkerbell even called Marina by name. So fun!
By the time were done with the fairies, the rain had stopped. So we caught the train to Frontierland. Then we went back to Adventureland where we rode the Magic Carpets of Aladdin and the Jungle Cruise. Then we went back for our chance to meet Princess Tiana. She wasn't there but the line was, so we got in it. Good thing because they closed it soon after. Marina had her picture taken with Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen. I asked if I could be in some of the pictures. Prince Naveen offered me his arm. So I was on the arm of a handsome prince while looking out at a castle. Sigh. Does it get any better than this?

We caught the end of the Electrical Parade, then went over to City Hall. We each had one day left on our passes and I wanted to know if we could keep them somehow. The wonderful man at the counter arranged for non expiring passes for our next visit. I left thinking our next visit should be next summer.

We watched the fireworks then made the made rush for the ferry. We were exhausted after nearly 12 hours at the park but I was sad to leave. I watched Cinderella's Castle fade into the distance. I hope we'll see it again soon!

Disney World - Day Five

We had another late morning after last night's fireworks. So we took our time this morning. When we arrived at Hollywood Studios Marina spotted The Voyage of the Little Mermaid. We were able to get into the next showing. It was a 15 minute live version of The Little Mermaid. It was a bit choppy, but the performances were good. Naturally, Marina loved it.

We did a little shopping and had lunch. Then we went over to see the Beauty and the Beast show. Marina had worn her Belle dress for the occasion. She loved this show too.

We went back to the Animation Courtyard where Marina wanted to meet Handy Manny. A cast member asked if we'd wait for a Make a Wish family to meet with him. I said, "Of course." Then she told me about an unannounced character meet and greet time. She told me there would be characters Marina would like. Naturally, I assumed that meant princesses, so I made sure we were there.

We went over to The Art of Disney Animation to meet the Incredibles and Frozone. Marina found some fun activities to keep her busy and we looked at animation from the next Disney movie Tangled.

And then, right on schedule, a whole group of characters came in. We saw Aladdin, Mary Poppins, Chip and Dale and Minnie Mouse. While we waited to see Aladdin, Marina said she saw Belle. So as soon as she was done with him, she ran off after Belle. Sure enough, we found Belle by herself in the gallery. Marina got quite a lot of time alone with her. When that group of characters left, another group came in. This group had the Genie, Jafar, Snow White and Mulan. It was quite a lucky break to be there.

Marina wanted to see the Playhouse Disney show. After that, we had dinner at the ABC Commissary, then went to see the Muppet Vision 3D show. It was much like Philharmagic. Marina loved it. When we exited, we saw Luigi's Garage with Lightning McQueen and Mater. She was excited to have her picture taken with them.

We planned to see the Fantasmic show, but it was canceled for technical reasons. So we left a bit earlier than planned. But that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. We would have loved to see the show, but we were tired.