I suppose the grandparents want to know how the little princess spent her birthday. And incidentally she loves what you sent!
It is so easy to produce an extravagant birthday in New York City.
There was one scheduled event requiring the watching of clocks and hoping the trains ran on time. We attended a matinee of the Broadway production of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. My Kid has wanted to see this show ever since it opened a short time after her first Broadway birthday excursion to see Disney’s Beauty and the Beast when she was six going on seven– The Disneyfication of Broadway is shallow and disgusting and hateful except on a day that you have the honor of accompanying several six-year-old girls dressed in glittery yellow princess dresses into a grand theatre to sit in velvet plush seats and hear the live music that brings tears to your eyes because once you had a baby and now you have a princess in your life.
The theatre is part of my life so it is not out of character to be willing to pay for tickets. But, I really didn’t want to see The Little Mermaid (There are lots of Broadway shows I’d rather spend my money on like August Osage County, which is supposed to be amazing —but probably not a good choice to for the celebration of a 9-year-old’s birthday.) especially after I saw a promo for The Little Mermaid and learned that the fish moved about the stage on heelies and roller skates. (We may as well go to Disney on Ice!) But, it’s the show my kid wanted to see. I have been dropping hints for years; “You know, my kid wants to see The Little Mermaid and I don’t, so if anyone is going I’d gladly pay for a ticket and send my kid with you,” to no avail. So when she said she wanted to go for her birthday. Well, it was just that easy. We let her invite one friend to go with us. We didn’t find out until we went to buy the tickets that this show is going to close August 30, so I’m glad I didn’t put it off until we can go to the half-price ticket booth during the off-season, which is what I have been saying ever since it opened. An added bonus that thrilled me when we got to the theatre–Faith Prince was playing the role of Ursula the evil octopus and THAT was fun to see! (I guess she didn’t have anything better to do. Lucky Me!)
After the play we ate an early dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp, the Forest Gump movie themed restaurant in Times Square (again the birthday girl’s choice not mine.) Then we walked to Dylans Candy Bar to purchase some trademarked and themed sugar products. There was much discussion of Dylan’s Candy Bar within the 3rd grade ranks at my daughters school this spring, ever since two of the boys in her class made the excursion and returned with tales of this place. We were in mid-town Manhattan but we may as well have been at Disney World.
Fortunately, my child is a healthy and sane and the things that were most important to her about her birthday were the cake, her friend and one new toy, a Ripstick, (a skateboard like piece of outdoor sports equipment that makes her use up a lot of energy perfecting her balance).
She made her own birthday cake from a mix. Pillsbury Funfetti, the kind with colored dots throughout. We cut it into the shape of a 9. Then she frosted it a lurid blue-green teal and decorated it with gummy sharks and Swedish fish and the piece de resisdance, a barnacle covered rock made out of an ice cream scoop of cake covered with flowerets of pink frosting. “It’s just like I imagined!” She was so proud of that cake. It was the highlight of the day.