I Want to BEE a Princess!

The dates for the Beevention this year coincided with Gloria's 60th birthday, and since Disneyland was also hosting its 60th birthday celebration, Southern California was the perfect location. Thus, the theme for Beevention 2015 became "I Want to BEE a Princess." The royal guest list included Anna & Elsa, Rapunzel, Pocahontas, Snow White, Aurora, Cinderella, Belle, Jasmine, Ariel, and Tinkerbelle.

I took the chance to spend a few extra days celebrating with Gloria, so flew to Phoenix on Wednesday. Gloria's girls surprised her with tickets for us to see "Wicked" Wednesday night! So...Glor picked me up at the airport, we met Kent for dinner, then she and I went to the show. It was such an unexpected treat for me!

Thursday morning Sarah & Jenny picked us up and we were on our way to California. The Thorpe Bees and the Christensen Bees flew into Orange County, got rental cars, and we all met at the Newport Beach Fairmont Hotel.

Once we were all checked in, our first destination was the Irvine Spectrum outdoor shopping mall. We enjoyed dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, taking our cheesecake "to go" for dessert and the hot tub back at the hotel. Our last official event for the day was to draw the name of our "secret princess."

Friday was Disneyland!! It was a beautiful sunny day, and 11 princesses had a great time enjoying the sights, sounds, flavors, smells, thrills and magic of everything Disney.

By evening we were ready to sit on the curb in front of the huge pumpkin with perfect seats for the electrical parade and fireworks. (Thanks to some help from some impromptu friends who were anxious to secure our seats!!)

It is hard to find a way to make a day in Disneyland more exciting...unless you're sharing it with 11 princesses!!

Saturday morning we donned our workout wear and started with a walk/run along the San Diego Creek Trail.

We enjoyed breakfast together, then it was back to the hotel to get dressed in our official "I Want to BEE a Princess" shirts and head back to check out the shopping at the Irvine Spectrum. The Newport Beach "Old Spaghetti Factory" hosted Gloria's 60th birthday celebration, complete with dinner, party hats, games, yummy cake, and spumoni!

We made our way down to the beach and found a firepit for our official BEE Meeting. Each princess gave advice/lessons learned from her princess, and presented gifts to her "secret princess." Mandy was crowned "Queen Bee" for the coming year and received the mink coat, sceptre, and crown. Tara, aka Rapunzel, had given each of us big paper lanterns with her advice, and we climbed the dunes and set off our lanterns over the ocean. It was a beautiful, magical end to a lovely day. (The beach security guard came by to tell us that the beach was closing, and that actually our lanterns were illegal, so we quickly packed up and headed back to the hotel!)

Sunday morning we walked to some nearby shops for breakfast, then it was time for farewells. Beevention 2015 was a fabulous and fun weekend shared with some of the kindest, most thoughtful, creative, talented, generous, happy, and beautiful people in the entire world!

Lucky for me, the fun was not over....yet! I drove back to Arizona with Gloria and her girls, arriving just in time for a big family 60th birthday party. It was such fun to be able to celebrate with Gloria and all of her cute grandchildren. Kent had barbecued ribs and even baked a cake!

Gloria and I had the great idea that while we were together for a few days we could make a quilt for Dad for Christmas. So, Monday we went shopping for fabrics, cut the blocks, and created the quilt top. Tuesday we sewed the top together and got it ready to be machine quilted. It was such fun creating something together, and we are looking forward to visiting Dad and putting it on his bed for Christmas.

How do people make it through life without a sister?!!!