The Princess Festival

Every once in a while I will enter a contest or giveaway online.  I don’t ever expect to win, but sometimes enter just for the “hey, why not?” factor.  Well, a few weeks ago, I got an email informing me of something I had WON!!  Two tickets to the Princess Festival at Thanksgiving Point!!  This is seriously the most awesome thing I have ever won!  Winning the tickets gave me an opportunity to spend some one on one time with one of my girls, and now I am hooked!  I really want to go back!

So, only having two tickets, I decided to take Lily.  I figured she was at a really fun age for it, and would love to be a princess all day. 

She loved wearing her special princess dress and getting her hair done all fancy to go on a special date with mommy. 

There were a lot of fun things for us to do at the festival.  When we first walked in, she got “fairy dust” sprinkled on her, and a button with her name.  All of the characters would then call her “Princess Lily” all day, and she loved that they all knew her name!!

We loved meeting the special new princesses that are for the festival.  We went on a little tour where we got to meet each one, hear their story, and learn about what makes them “more than just a princess”.

She got to meet the 12 Dancing Princess.  She even learned a little dance with them, and got to “perform” it with them!  She really loved the dancing!  She also wanted a picture taken with every single princess at the festival-even all 12 dancing ones!!

They had cute little plays that we watched and lots of princesses and fairy tale characters around to meet and talk with.  They had “Princess Story Time” and throughout the day different princesses would come and tell their story.  We went to Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.  We watched a parade of all of the princesses and also watched a little concert.  Then we went to get some lunch.  Lily chose a hot dog with chips, and I got her a special treat: Frozen Lemonade, since it was so hot!

During lunch, Lily saw a butterfly fluttering, and kept running over to see her “mysterious butterfly”.  She wanted me to take a picture with her and this special butterfly.  She enjoyed watching it all through lunch, and it was fun for me to let her play and have a “magical moment”!

The only thing Lily asked for all day was to get her face painted.  It cost extra, and was a little spendy for face painting, but since it was all she asked for, I didn’t have the heart to tell her no.  So she got her special paint and felt even more like a princess!

The festival was held at Thanksgiving Point Children’s Garden, and Lily was so excited to swim in the Noah’s Ark pool!  It was a really hot day, and she loved cooling off in the water.

Lily also wanted a picture by the “Lily Pond” because it was her pond!

Another fun thing they do is have booths where the little princesses could help perform service.  We didn’t make it in all of them, but she did get to help tie a quilt.  I thought she might be too young, but the lady was really sweet and helped her so she really just had to pull the string.  She actually loved this and I think learning that it was helping someone else was a really neat lesson!

Like I said before, she insisted on having a picture with every single princess and character.  She was really cute and would go up to each one and ask for a picture.  This is definitely not all of them, but a cute little sampling of some of the characters we met.   Near the end of the day, we had found every one except The Little Mermaid.  I was ready to just call it a day and go home, but she kept asking me to find someone to help us.  Eventually we found her, and Lily was thrilled!

On our way out, she waded her cute little princess feet in the water one more time, and then she got some special presents for coming to the festival.  A little DVD of one of the new princesses, and a puzzle.  She was so excited by her special gifts!

She and I had such a great time together!  I always love the opportunity to spend one-on-one time with my kids, and this was an extra special way to do it!!  I am grateful for an awesome hubby who took the day off so he could be home with the rest of my crew.  It was definitely a day of memories for Lily and I!!