DISNEY ON ICE.

When I was pregnant with Nugget, I couldn't wait to do all sorts of things. Like buy oodles of adorable itty bitty pink clothes.And decorate her nursery just so. Read every book about pregnancy and motherhood that I could get my hands on. And enter the world of ECFE classes, and have the opportunity to meet other moms and connect over our kids. I've talked a lot about ECFE here and there, but it has really been one of my favorite activities to do with my kids. I have learned so much, shared concerns, had questions answered, made projects galore, and made many lasting friendships for both myself and my kids.

One of those friendships is with my friend Jen. Now I kid you not, I type in 'Jen' on my Facebook page, and eight of them pop up. I have lots of friends named Jen. But this particular Jen is also known as 'Landon's mom'. I loved Jen from the moment I met her. After the first few classes we had together, my girl kept talking about how much she liked this Landon kid. It was her first friendship with a boy, and I was happy that my girl was stepping out and making friends on her own. So one day at class, I told Jen how much my Nugget was talking about him at home, and we decided it would be fun to have a play date outside of school. Our friendships grew fast, and before we knew it, we found ourselves not only in ECFE together, but also music class, gymnastics and library story time.

We spent many winter days last year hanging out with Jen and her sister Sarah (and her girls), which was a fun way for all to pass the cold, indoor season. And it just so happened that Jen's awesome Reuben sandwich sent me into labor with Brother, which I'll forever be grateful for.

Anyhow, Jen has been a great friend, and she's always so good about reaching out and getting things on the calendar. She called me one evening a week or so ago, and invited the kids and I to go to Disney on Ice. It was not something that I would have attempted on my own, but sounded fun, so we jumped right in. We had never done anything like it before, and geesh, we haven't even taken Nugget to a movie theater yet, so I was a little worried about how it would play out, but it was awesome.

Wow, who knew I could get so wordy and sentimental on a post that's supposed to be about Disney on Ice? Sorry. Moving on...

I surprised Jen (and myself) by making the kids some fun shirts for the occasion...

We all rode together in Jen's van, and Nugget was so excited to watch a movie on the way. My next vehicle will have a built in DVD player. We made it downtown with plenty of time to spare, which really meant time to browse and purchase some way overpriced crap souvenirs.

 Although I didn't initially, I eventually caved and bought Nugget a matching Donald Duck.

She was so happy, and has actually played with it since.

The show started and the kids were enthralled.

I have to say it was very well done, and even I enjoyed it.

 Lion King.

 Aladdin.

Nugget watched intently and patiently through the first half, asking with anticipation with each scene change if Ariel was going to be next. So when the second half was pretty much dominated by princesses, my girl was in Heaven.

 Snow White.

 The Little Mermaid.

 Tangled.

Princess Finale.

I could not believe how well everyone sat for the entire show, totalling two hours or so. Brother fell asleep during the second half, as well as Landon (although just for a few minutes!).

Afterwards we ate lunch at the nearby Cossetta's (yum!), then headed on home. It proved to be an eventful and exciting day when both my kids almost fell apart at the seams after dinner...Brother went to bed for the night at 5:30pm and Nugget shortly after at 6pm. Nick and I were cringing at the thought of what time they would both wake up the next morning, but one got up at 6:30am and the other at 7am!

It was such a fun and memorable day, and we're grateful we had such good friends to share it with!