A Party Fit for a Princess

Danielly had her birthday party at the Columbia Marionette Theater yesterday. The show was “Beauty and the Beast” which tied in wonderfully with her Disney Princesses theme. As you can see from the picture, her favorite Disney Princess is Cinderella. Since receiving Cinderella on DVD for Christmas, we have watched it every time it is Danielle’s turn to pick on “Friday Family Movie Night”. The costume was a gift from Granna (Scott’s mom) earlier in the year. She even wore Cinderella’s “glass” slippers the whole day (another gift from Granna). As Danielle woefully discovered, as most women eventually do, high-heeled shoes leave blisters. This was her first fashion lesson… it is better to look good than to feel good… and she looked mahvelous. (Truth be told, I didn’t get her smocked birthday dress ready in time.)

The party went wonderfully. It was another Christmas for her, except this time there were lots more people involved. It was enjoyable to have close family and dear friends who are almost like family share her day. She took home quite a stash: a watercolor paint set, several books, Disney Princesses tea set, Care Bear with DVD, Cinderella Color Wonder, stuffed dog, Aqua Doodle, a set of 7 pocketbooks (one for each day of the week), dress-up jewelry, Care Bear Care-A-Lot house, Discovery Toys Playful Patterns, Care Bear stickers, do-it-yourself “Build-a-Bear”, Melissa and Doug Animal Abacus, Cinderella magnetic paper doll, 6 pairs of dress up shoes, and a set of wooden table and chairs (delivered later that evening by my family).

Danielle had to try several times to blow her birthday candles out. Someone even made the comment they were afraid she was going to pass out. Danielle and Aden’s godmother was there with two of her four children – God bless her! Most people think I’ve “got it together”, yet compared to this woman, I’m an amateur. She’s the type of women/mother I aspire to be. Since Aden was very little, he started referring to Ms. Kimberly as his “Fairy Godmother”. We thought it was adorable and the title has since stuck. These are the memories I will always cherish.

Danielle sat in my lap through the entire production because she got scared during the thunder storm in the beginning. I think Columbia Marionette Theater did a terrific job merging the original “Beauty and the Beast” story with Disney’s. Most people are only familiar with Disney’s rendition of fairy tales, but they’re missing out. I highly recommend Andrew Lang’s Color Fairy Books compilations. These are my favorite books I love to read again and again – even before I had children. I was surprised to find, the Beast in the marionette production was a very good likeness of the picture contained in Lang’s Blue Fairy Book, which actually looked more like a warthog/elephant than Disney’s lionlike Beast. (Yeees, I did go through my fairy tale books last night after a family conversation as to whether Beauty had siblings.)

We had lunch at Mellow Mushroom with some of our Charleston friends who had come up to see us. (Danielle was still wearing her costume and plastic shoes.) Although it had already been a full day, all of the children behaved very well during lunch. It makes a mother proud when complete strangers compliment you on how well-behaved your children are. I think Regina beamed as much as I did to have that reaffirmed. Each day might not be perfect, but you get a feeling you must be doing something right in order for people to say things like that while you are in public. My children napped while we visited with my Charleston friends and their daughter for a while until it was time for them to go home. Later that evening my family came for dinner and brought Danielle’s table and chairs.

Yesterday was exhausting, but now that everything’s opened and both kids have had a chance to play with each new toy, things a settling back into the normal routine.