One Week of Disney Fun (day 7)
Today is our last activity brought to you by @shimelle
Sleeping Beauty Day!
Our family project in 2020 is to watch the collection of Disney animated films from the beginning, in release order. Thank goodness for Disney+ making that task simple! With every film, we make sure we always have some reading, some making, and some play! We’re up to Sleeping Beauty just in time for Mother’s Day in America… or hopefully the arrival of some warmer weather here in the UK.
Dressing up is a big part of play in our house, and my six year old son now loves Disneybounding (or ‘dressing like characters’) so much that he will choose my clothes as well as his own.
Today we have been dressed as the always brave Prince Philip and a very ‘make it pink’ Aurora. His top tip for princes: a red cape comes in handy! He cut this one himself from some plain red cotton fabric, and has worn it to be Snow White’s prince as well.
I was just slightly too old when Polly Pocket toys hit the scene: they were always the toys my little sister had that I secretly wished I had too. We love the Disney Animators’ Micro Playsets for a very similar reason: all the little pieces and lots of detail! They come with a good selection of characters for retelling a story or making your own adventure, so that’s brilliant for youthful creativity! The Sleeping Beauty set includes Briar Rose, Prince Philip, Flora, Fauna, Merryweather, Owl, and the leaning birthday cake and a table, plus there’s a blind bag. We got a squirrel to add to the woodland adventures! When you’re ready to take your play on the road, these playsets pack up with room for all the figures inside and a handle built into the design.
We had two Sleeping Beauty books for our reading list today: one old and one new! We’ve been picking up secondhand copies of the Disney Wide World of Reading collection for years, and have a beautiful rainbow of their spines on our bookcase. Of course there was a Sleeping Beauty title in the collection!
These books always have to leave out substantial parts of a movie to get the storyline to fit the short story format, so a great way to link the books to the films and check understanding is to ask your child what’s missing from the storybook! This book left out the entire time Aurora went to live with the fairies in the cottage! Our new book is such a beautiful treat: there’s a Sleeping Beauty edition of the Story Orchestra, a special series of books that play classical music as you read the story. We know Disney films for including hundreds of brilliant original songs, but Sleeping Beauty’s music is largely based on Tchaikovsky’s ballet, so it’s a great way to introduce a classical piece and to tune in on melodies we might recognise even when they don’t have words. (I particularly like that these books can grow with the child, as they tell a fairy tale and play pretty music, but they also include musical terminology and information about the composer and his style at the back of the book.)
Then time for some making! His request today was painting, so we brought out our watercolour paper andMickey-shaped paints! There’s a Sleeping Beauty Mother’s Day card on the Disney Family website, and I printed that design straight onto the watercolour paper. (The thicker paper may need a little help to get picked up by the printer wheels, as a heads up!)
We like to tape the paper to the desk or a clipboard with watercolour, so it’s less likely to accidentally smear the painting with your non-painting hand! If you have little ones who tend to rush their painting and not be totally happy, and you have the luxury of the time, you may find they slow down if you sit near them.
Mine will slow right down and look at little details if he can tell me all about them. As soon as I stand up, he heads back to big broad brushstrokes. Though at this age, I love both!
While his painting dried, we mixed up some pancake batter to make a Sleeping Beauty snack: a towering stack of pancakes with blue whipped cream and sprinkles – just like Briar Rose’s birthday cake! Hands down, my favourite pancakes in the world are from Clinton Street Bakery in New York (please don’t tell Mickey) and learning that they whisk their egg whites was a game changer for our breakfasts. Later a WDW chef told me they follow the same technique with the batter for Mickey Waffles! We made our pancakes with just a tablespoon of batter each, so the stack could be as high as possible, then topped them with blue whipped cream (literally whipping cream, blue food colouring, a sprinkle of sugar, and whisk until it thickens!) and plenty of sprinkles!
Wishing you a very happy day, wherever you may be, and may it be filled with the magic of Sleeping Beauty!
Thank you so much for joining us on our week of fun. Links to all the days are below!
