Race Report: A Royal Family Weekend

It was a Fit Family Birthday Weekend at Disney. The 26th celebration of my 21st birthday was on February 21st and Princess Cara’s 9th Birthday was on the 22nd, so we decided to celebrate our birthday by playing the Mickey & Minnie and ALL of the other Princesses, Princes and assorted characters at Disney.

 

We had a blast.

 

But let me tell you, it’s a racket and Disney has this business down to a science. From shuttle buses to the expo (since parking was limited at the resort where the expo was) to brochures outlining where to park, where to spectate down to the CHear Squad (EXTORTION, but well worth it for your Spectathlete crew that gets up with you at 2am) – where for a mere $100/person you can have private seating, buffet breakfast etc etc. Mmmm Hmmm. We also went to the Pre-race Pasta Dinner at Epcot where for $40/person (cash bar) you got a pretty decent meal, DJ, dancing, activities, pictures with the princesses (we saw Cinderella, Tiana and Belle), access to the park just in time for the fireworks & light show. Princess Cara was in Disney heaven.

 

Ron and Princess Cara ran the Royal Family 5k on Saturday morning. Princess Cara had a stellar performance for her first 5k running the 1st 1.5 miles non stop, doing intervals for the next mile and running it in like a champ for the last .6.  The FireMarsall refused all attempts to get him in costume opting for the all black secret service look as Princess Cara’s Royal Guard.

             

After the race, we made it back to the hotel in time for our free breakfast which was included in my hotel package and the Princess was ALL ABOUT going to the pool. At the pool she made fast friends with a lovely girl named Evie and fanangled her way into going to SeaWorld with Evie and her mom. That required me to get up off my lounge chair and play meet the mom, break bread & libations while talking about our daughters all the while both girls are floating to the edge of the pool with “Please, Please, Please!” every 5 seconds.

 

Off to SeaWorld the girls went and once back…inseperable. Quick to change, dinner and then we HAVE to go to the poolside movie. The FireMarshall is such a good sport as I had no interest in seeing Hercules with a bunch of kids.

 

Early to bed, early to rise as I had to be in Epcot for the Disney Princess Half Marathon NLT 4:30am to park (for free) and get into my corral by 5:30am. Team Spectathletes were AWESOME and up with me at 2:30am with not nary a complaint. Of course I got them a CHEar Squad package, so once they dropped me off, they were off to get their viewing seats and hot cocoa at the 5.3 mile mark in Magic Kingdom

                

9000 – NINE THOUSAND RUNNERS – mostly women almost all in costume (and some AWESOME MANLY guys dressed as Princesses, Mr. Incredible and I saw a couple of Princess Leah’s and Wonder Men – LOVED IT) lined up to run 13.1 miles. I was, of course, adorned in fairy wings, tiara and glitter ready to see if I could get ‘er done despite not running for the prior 2 weeks trying to heal a foot injury.

 

At 6 am the first corral was off…corral E probably got going around 6:30am and at 3 miles in I knew I was in trouble. That bruised bone or whatever it is in my foot started up with shooting pain and I was hobbled into a shuffle. I kept moving though, bummed that I was not keeping a pace that would allow me to stop for all the photo opps with all the Disney characters out. It was so cool. To be honest, this is not a race to get a PR on. This is a run for fun, grins, giggles. Definitely a race to do with a bunch of friends and just have a great time.

 

I had a terrible time in this race because I had to walk a lot and stopped at the med tent to get some more Tylenol and BioFreeze, but I finished, walking away with some awesome BLING!

After the race, we went back to the hotel to hang out and I immediately scheduled myself some spa time at the Ritz Carlton Spa followed by max pool side time with some frozen umbrella type drinks. My version of relaxing and hydrating!

 

I put together a little video slide show from the weekend.

Have you ever done any of the Disney Races? What’s your favorite? Which one’s would you recommend?

I LOVE MY HAIR

I saw this on FB yesterday and thought it was so KEEEEE-UUUUUU---T.

I love my hair!

I don't talk about my hair (or hair period) much.

It's Hair. It just isn't that much of a big deal to me. I started learning how to do my own hair when I was bout 10 or so. My mother was sick of trying to figure out what to do with it besides two pic-tails or two ponytails on each side, I was sick of that too and she wasn't about to send me to the hairdressers at 10. Nerp. I've taught myself how to wet set, twist, blow out, flat iron, curl, put in relaxers, give a trim...blah blah blah...all on my own. Doing my hair now on a daily basis ain't nuttin' but a thing to me.

I like my hair how I like it. It is about as natural as it is gonna get - no relaxer, a little color professionally done every now and then, flat ironed or curled with a curling iron. From wash to final do - 1 to 1-1/2 hours. That's it. I use the products that my colorist recommends and that's that.

I love my hair...and I'm teaching Princess Cara to love her hair - though she is going through a spell where she wants "long hair" as she calls it. What that means is she wants to wear her hair "out" like the little white girls in the class and be able to fling it around. That makes my life a living hell because I'm the one that has to do it every dang on day. So, (and you hair nazi's are not gonna like this - WHATEVER!) I put a texturizer in her hair and we deep condition each week & wrap our hair every night. This week, I even was a HORRIBLE hair Mommy since I wanted to give her hair a rest (no heat, not pulling, etc) so I cornrowed her hair up into a bun on the top and (OMG!) I attached a couple of ringlets (it's her hair - I have a receipt) to the top. THE HORROR. She loves it. And it takes either me or The FireMarshall 5 min to "do" her hair.

We are happy & stress free, Daddy is learning how to do girl hair too (he is a monster with a flat iron - impressive) and Princess Cara is looking like the princess that she is. Happy Happy Joy Joy.

We love our hair.

Tooth Fairy Economics

Princess Cara lost another tooth today. That sucker was hanging by a "thread" for days but she refused to let us get it out. Today, she had a grilled cheese for lunch and it came out. There was much fan fare and hoopla at the school as we had to go to the school nurse who had these little plastic treasure chests to put the tooth in so we could safely bring said tooth home.

Of course, Princess Cara came home squealing with excitement..."Mom! Call the ToothFairy!!" Followed by incessant questions..."Did you call? Is she coming? When will she come?" Sigh. I can't believe I am still at this kid game.

Then I started to get the serious questions...What is the going rate for a tooth these days? I hadn't the faintest idea...so I went to Google and after playing a couple of rounds of Pac Man (50th Anniversary) I found The Official Fairy Poll and the TFI (Tooth Fair Index):

With the announcement of the 2010 Official Tooth Fairy Poll ® , the “Tooth Fairy Index (TFI)” is showing that the value of a lost tooth is closely related to the U.S. economy. Much like the Punxsutawney Phil’s Groundhog Day weather prognostication, the Tooth Fairy Index is an indicator of the direction of the economy. Through the past decade, the Tooth Fairy Index has closely resembled the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s yearly trends. The graph below shows the historical look at more than ten years of history.

GTFOOH! Now I know. Now we all can know.

The National Average is $2.16/tooth. Thus, we have decided that since the cost of living is higher here in the DMV we would round up to an even $3. And since Princess Cara is a spoiled little Diva with GMa's running amok...she gets double. The Queen Mother has spoken and she added to the loot. She has a total of $6 now for that single tooth. Jeeze Louise.


And just in case you wanted to know about Global Tooth Fairy Giving around the globe. Check out the chart below.
The internet is a beast when inquiring minds want to know.

So, what is your The Tooth Fairy's going rate for a tooth around your way.

Mini-TravelDiva

Field Trip

I went with Cara and her class on a field trip yesterday. This is the first field trip that I have ever been on with Cara. It was really cool to spend time with Cara (even the other kids were on their best behavior), but it was CENTER OF THE SUN HOT out there on that dang farm. Lord, yes.

Cara ranted and raved about seeing the animals on the bus ride over, but when she got there...OH HELL TO THE NAW...she wasn't touchin, feedin, or barely lookin at no animal. You would have thought we had touched her with a hot poker for the way she screamed trying to get away from those animals. She did managed to pull it together to ride the pony. Whew. I thought some drama was gonna go down for real.

After the field trip, Cara and I went to the mall and had lunch, stopped at the Disney Store and went home to ride on our new bike. She's got it good.

Perfectly Princess Tea Party

On the 4th of July, Cara and I got gussied up and went over to the Grand Floridian Hotel to meet Sleeping Beauty at the Perfectly Princess Tea Party. Cara can be so brutally honest sometimes (from the mouths of babes)..."You're not Cindarella" -and promptly burst into tears. It's just not so attractive to be wearing a beautiful gown and a tiara, while bawling your eyes out - but then again - it was her party.

What a wonderful start to our Tea Party. She recovered as soon as she saw the doll that she got at the Party. I knew all was well when she tried to cut off her dolls hair with the butter knife. I just take a deep breath, exhale and remind her of the horrors of cutting off hair (remember the Easter weekend ponytail fiasco).

She ate one peanut butter and jelly heart sandwich, a couple of grapes and drank all of her Apple Juice "Tea" - she got a real kick out of pouring it herself. Princess Aurora (aka - Sleeping Beauty) managed to coax a few smiles and a few words out of Cara long enough for a picture.

Diva in Training lessons can be a challenge, but are well worth it.

Princess Cara's Makeover

Cara loves to play dress up! Anything outfit that if frilly is absolutely in and she can wear a pair of heels better than most of us. She loves herself some Cinderella, big time. So, on our trip to here to Disney, I signed Cara up for an opportunity to get all dressed up as a Disnesy Princess. We went to Magic Kingdom to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique located inside the Castle. More of a salon than a store, there are 10 salon stations where girls can get their hair, nails and makeup done.

Cara started out by picking her dress, shoes, wand & crown. Then she went into the boutique where she was asked to pick her hairstyle - she picked the Disney Diva (of course) - her makeup, nailpolish, and the color hair she wants to add. Just hilarious.

She had the time of her life. Here is some video from here Princess Makeover.

Diva's in the Park

Mom sent me some pictures (all the way over the internet from the In-Law suite...AKA MTV Cribs) from "Sunday in the Park" .....



Cara is passing all of her DIT (Diva in Training) exams.