The Children's Museum Storybook Ball

So I surprised Maddox Friday night with tickets to the Children's Museum Storybook Ball. We had an absolute BALL and my expectations for the evening were far surpassed.  The theme for the Ball was Alice in Wonderland and they had decorated the museum up with playing cards,  wooden trees,  rabbits,  tea party accessories, but I was also pleasantly surprised to see ALL the Disney princesses….. Belle, Snow White, Tinkerbell, Cinderella, and Aurora.   We entered the beautiful museum and they announced over the loud speaker that 'Princess Maddox' had arrived for the ball. We were then greeted by Aurora who took us too our table for the evening.  All the back rooms they use for dance lessons had been transformed into a beautiful ball setting with table decorations, beautiful lines, and lots of baskets with princess type themes for raffle. We enjoyed a lovely dinner with both adult and kiddo friendly food and then the dancers put on several little skits/dances. Maddox loved them all but probably liked Tinkerbell's dance, Cinderella and the Mice and the Alice and Wonderland dances the best. The dancers did such a good job. After the presentation we all went back out to the Great Hall of the museum where there was a DJ and disco lights and we all danced the night away.  All the princesses danced with the little girls and the museum was open as well so the kiddos could roam free to all the exhibits.  I was so overwhelmed with excitement and watching Maddox's face as she was loving being able to dance with all the princesses ( after a bit of a warm up period…she was a bit timid initially but warmed up in time)  She LOVED Aurora and especially Goldilocks who was just a pretty blonde haired girl who seemed really sweet, which is why I think Maddox latched on to her.  All the kids got to decorate a tea cup as a souvenir to take home.  The museum had hired Walgreen's to take pictures of each of us entering the ball ( which they had printed for us to take home) as well as they stayed on staff all evening and took pictures. They are compiling them on a website and have put together purchasing packages. I think they had just as fun 'working' as we did as participants.  I know the Walgreen's photo ladies and they are Grandma type people and were just LOVING all the little girls. Maddox and I had such a great time!!  I"m so glad we went.  The tickets sold out in 1 day as the space is limited to about 160 people I believe. The event is a fundraiser for the Children's Museum Dance Company which I have looked into getting Maddox in but none of the classes ever matched my work schedule…. hmmmm going to have to look into that again eh??  Enjoy the pics. Unfortunately it was pretty dark in the Great Room and I only had my iPhone so the pics aren't great. I"m looking forward to getting the link to the Walgreen's ones and I'll forward it on to you. 

We just happened to get this adorable dress from the girls across the street in the 'hand me down bag' they brought over on Sunday. The timing was so perfect!!  She looked adorable in it and it fit her perfectly. I only had to go find some black patten leather shoes. We curled her hair and she got to wear make up just like Mom. 

So Tinkerbell happens to be the daughter of the director of Our Savior 'Church School'.  So she came right up to Maddox and said 'I know you Maddox…you go to Our Savior' . I thought Maddox was going to pee her pants to have Tinkerbell know her name.  She told Maddox who she was but I don't think she ever made the connection. 

This is one of Maddox's good friends from church school. Her name is Rowan and we hear a fair amount about Rowan at home.  

Maddox dancing with Cinderella 

Maddox decorating her tea cup. 

Maddox and Aurora  aka Sleeping Beauty… I didn't know that was her name until like 2 months ago. 

Goldilocks and Maddox. 

Belle and Maddox

Surely I don't have to tell you who this is :) 

Once Maddox warmed up she was SOOO chatty with all the princesses but particularly Goldilocks ( as you could see Maddox was talking to her in the picture above ) and Aurora.  I love this picture.  You can tell Maddox is saying something truly important to Aurora and Aurora is just playing right along….very engaged. 

Our entrance onto the red carpet to the ball. 

So a couple of quick notes. We have officially booked our Disney trip, flight and hotel!! We are really going!!  I am so excited. I finally just called in an expert to help me get organized. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. She is a travel agent that came highly recommended and so far she is SOO great. Apparently there are a lot of travel agencies who book only Disney trips and literally give you the same prices as I would get if I just called Disney myself. They do so much business for Disney they are able to offer the same rates. She is this bubbly gal from Georgia who herself has been to Disney great than 25 times!! and has taken her 2 girls as well…great to be able to chat with a Mom. We talked on Monday for 1.5 hours on the phone!! I thought I had been talking for like 30. She gave me tons of insight which allowed Eric and I to make some good decisions and get the thing on the calendar. She will also make all our dinner reservations as well.  We can make those 180 days before our arrival and NOT a day before. There are several eateries that are fairly difficult to get reservations for so I"m hoping her expertise with the computer/phone/ and her ins with Disney will allow us to get the places we want. She'll tell us what parks to visit when and when to ride which rides based on the crowd factor. We can book our rides at 60 days out which she doesn't do so I"ll have to be ready for that…but I"m assuming that won't be quite as difficult as getting some of the special reservations we need. I"m so excited. I think I can multiply last night's ball by like 200 and that would be Disney!!

*Kennon is soooo terrible two's right now. I really think he spent the majority of the day today throwing a fit on the floor about something or another. But he does still throw us a cute saying here and there.  Right now he says 'mines'  instead of mine. So like he'll point to the Shamrock shake on the counter ( yes….got the kiddos one tonight after church..YUMMO!!)  and say 'is that mine's??'  Cute. I just can't correct him. 

*Maddox has another funny thing she has been saying.  If you tell her something really cool like 'Maddox we are going to a Storybook Ball tonight' she might say back 'Are you seriously?' she has been adding that 'LY' for quite some time and again I just don't want to correct her.  The other thing she is saying a lot lately is 'ya better believe it'    So yesterday on the way to the museum she spotted a herd of deer up on the hill.  So today she was telling Eric about them and he said 'really Maddox you saw a herd of deer' and she promptly and excited replied ' Yep, ya better believe it'.  Too cute!!  

Till next time…enjoy!!