Disney on Ice

This past Sunday at church the woman I was sitting next to asked if I'd ever taken Leta to Disney on Ice at the State Fair and how much she thought she would love it.  I'd never taken Leta before (we have sleeping schedules to keep after all!!) but she mentioned that they did some matinees.  During nap time that day I spontaneously decided to look at the schedule.  It turned out the only time that would work for us was that evening at 5:30.  I quickly bought two tickets and waited for nap time to be over (even though Leta didn't nap that day).

Luke was sad to find that he had to stay home and this would be a fun trip for "Just the Girls", but a promise of watching a movie at home that night pacified him somewhat.  Leta was very excited to go and on the car ride over was very concerned as to why we were not there yet.  On the walk through the park she was very concerned that we were missing the movie and that it maybe had already started and we were missing it.

We got to the area and got something to eat and went and found our seats.  There are no bad seat in the arena, but ours certainly weren't GOOD seats.  We waited until the show started and we moved over to some empty seats.  There were plenty to be found.

Leta LOVED it soooo much.  There were 3 stories, first the Princess and the Frog, Cinderella, and Tangled (or according to Leta, Miss Punzel, the MOVIE!)  In between each story Minnie and Mickey Mouse came out to entertain.    Leta sat in my lap almost the whole time and was completely enthralled.  After every song or big dance movie, she would clap her hands as loudly as she could and yell, "Yay!" or "Yay Cinderalla!" (or who ever else might need cheering for).

After we arrived home late (for Leta) (after some drama with getting the car unlocked in the parking lot) I told Kyle that I thought it had been the best night of Leta's life...no exaggeration.  And it was THE MOST FUN I can remember having....in a LONG time.  It was so much fun to see HER having so much fun and enjoying the "movie".  It's definitely top 10 best nights EVER.  (including wedding, 3 births and Christmas'!)  I'm so glad we went.

I'm not very good at going and doing special things with the kids, in part because they're so young, but it's something I want to improve upon.  With all the blessings of living in a first world country and having plenty and excess, I really don't want my children to just have more and more things.  I need to shift my focus to experiences that we can share and memories that we can make together and let those things be our gifts to each other.  And this night with Leta?  Probably my favorite gift of all time.


Oh, and on a tangent...can I just say...the people at the state fair? Oh my.  There are no words.  The theme at the State Fair this year was Home Grown Fun, and let me tell you, there was some Home Growin' going on.