The Nutcracker Castle

Lily loves ballerinas and all things dance. Well, The Nutcracker has all of that and much more for a little girl (and maybe a grown up girl too) to love. You might remember that we took both of the kids to see The Nutcracker ballet last year around Christmas (when Eli was just a few weeks old) and Lily adored it. She's talked about it all year really. So, yes, Lily and I will be going to see The Nutcracker again this year (next weekend) and she is so excited! Almost better than that though was when we were in Wisconsin recently we discovered that a local art museum (The Paine Art Center) had recreated The Nutcracker castle in it's mansion. Of course my mom and I had to take Lily (Eli too- though he wasn't quite as excited as his sister)! It was really pretty amazing. They decorated each room of the mansion to recreated The Nutcracker story. It was elaborate and pretty spectacular! Lily and I both declared The Land of Sweets room to be our favorite (it was a dining room loaded with very real and beautiful looking sweets- that even smelled delicious). So very fun. My mom's favorite was the icicle room (glittery white snow and icicles everywhere). I would guess that Eli's favorite room was the grand living/dining room (with it's huge Christmas tree it was the only room where kids were allowed to get down and touch and play). The only bummer was that I didn't have my camera (it was already back in Maine with Joe) and that even with my mom's camera the art center only allowed pictures outside and in Eli's favorite room. Oh how I would have loved to photograph the rest of the mansion! Despite that though it was a really fun experience. I just love creating little magical memories like this for my kids (and I just know that this is something that Lily will remember for some time)!