Becoming A Real Princess

This will forever be known as the day my daughter became an official Disney Princess!

I managed to snag us a spot for the coveted Royal Court Royal Tea Party, and one could not simply just arrive at a tea party with princesses in normal attire. Oh no! One must arrive in her very best, and that meant one thing... reservations at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique!

To start off our Mother/Daughter day we went to a Frozen gathering to meet Anna and Elsa, and then it was right upstairs to the boutique! We got there a little early and immediately began the transformation process.  First we had to chose which package. Katura's closet is full of princess gowns, but with this being such a special trip I decided to leave her dresses at home and let her pick out a new gown on the ship. Well obviously you need new glass slippers if you have a new princess gown, right?!? Next was hair. What style - a Frozen hairstyle with fake hair, or real styling with her own hair. We chose real hair. The Frozen hair just looked corny to me.

Now that we had it all settled and paid for we walked through the boutique looking at all of the dresses. She kept saying yes to every dress, and then she found THE dress and we all knew THIS was the one she truly wanted. The two of us went into a fabulous dressing room (see the photo at the top) to get her into her new proper attire.

Up in the chair, and on with the shoes... they light up, too!

Virginia, from Italy, was her Fairy Godmother In Training. We all really liked her, especially Katura! Virginia kept Katura's back to the mirror, getting her in the official salon cape, and started working on her hair. Katura chose what she wanted - a bun, with the back of her hair still down and long.

To get the bun started Katura was temporarily a unicorn?? She thought this was hilarious, but said this is not how a princess looks and she couldn't go out like that. Funny girl.

On went the donut over the unicorn spike, and down came the hair. I always wondered how they mode those buns look so perfect. Now I know -- and I still have the little donut so we can do this at home on our own!

With the hair all done naturally she needed her little tiara. Not only did she have that in front, but she also had a sparkly Mickey Mouse clip on the back of her head. There is nothing they didn't think of.

Next time for nails. Katura loved everything Virginia did and said, and getting her nails done was a highlight. She took very good care of them and wouldn't touch anything for a very long time after. Why can't she do that at home when I paint her nails?

Make up - all the girls in the boutique seemed very giddy about having their own makeup that they got to take home.  With a variety of colors to chose from, Katura wanted green and pink for her eye shadow.

She was loving this. She says "all of it" was her favorite in regard to our epic vacation, but I really think this experience was probably at the top of her list.

Now lipstick. She chose red. Good girl!

And last but not least, a little pixie dust to finish it all off! It was during all of this that she and her Fairy Godmother In Training had some semi-private, serious conversations. Notably Virginia let her know that princesses don't kiss anyone until they are 35! It was then that Katura let it slip that she kissed Beckett -- something she has later denied doing. We may never know!

Virginia also let Katura know that she cannot wish to be beautiful, because she already is. Awwww. It was during all of that that two complete strangers walked through and got the sappy mom tears with me when they saw the big reveal. At the tie of this photo Katura was excited, too nervous to smile, and unaware of what she looked like.

Time to turn around.... and she was actually speechless! She just smiled, almost seeming to be in disbelief that she was a real princess now!

We couldn't leave without a photo of Katura and her new favorite person!

And she wanted to show off the sparkly bow face gem she picked out. Those gems last an impressively long amount of time. Katura was sent home with her nail polish, eye shadow, lip gloss, face wipes to remove the make-up, face gems, a pumpkin carriage necklace, the pink sash, an Elsa purse, fancy snowflake/icy headband and some shampoo - all put in a pink cinch sack back pack.

Let the photo shoots begin! We took advantage of the beautiful decor on the ship because really, how could we not?

I love this staircase! Katura, however, wasn't really feeling like giving me her princess pose. She wanted to get to the kid's club!

One more photo on the way to the room first!

We went around the corner on our way to the stairs and we found Donald Duck! His line was done, no more meet and greets, so she just patiently watched him with other kids. He kept looking at her. She just wanted to wave Hi as he left. Well Donald had other plans! First a big hug, and then he grabbed her little had and they went for their own walk just the two of them. Seriously?? Dang Disney Cruise Line, you did it again! So many sappy mom tears from me!

This dress came off pretty quick. In that photo with Donald you can see her Elsa purse she got with her dress. As part of that dress and the package we chose she also got the very nice, sturdy headband you can see in the finished outfit photos. I'd say all of the items we left with her top quality! And these all came back on later in the day for the tea party, but you will have to wait and read about that one next time!