Once Upon a Dream - Sleeping Beauty Bento

Plum District, one of the group-deals sites I get emails from had a deal for 12 tickets to a Children's Theater nearby-ish, on Mercer Island. Since she did so well at Harold and the Purple Crayon and Pinkalicious, I bought the deal just in time to snag some Disney's Sleeping Beauty tickets! Since the deal was for a 12-ticket flex pass, and I only saw three age-appropriate shows for the season, I figured I'd make Grammelena go with us to use up the 4th ticket. So once I 'reserved' Grandma for that date, I called to get my tickets.
While ordering them, the lady told me that one of the other shows was also great for Z's age, but I couldn't tell from the description... but now I only have 8 tix left for 3 shows! Ah well. Will have to figure something out.

While eagerly awaiting the day of the show, it occurred to me that my 4-year-old niece Tually might enjoy the play. And since Gramma was coming, we'd have a 1-to-1 adult-to-child ratio, which is the minimum required for my sister's peace of mind. For public venues anyway, without her present. The only downside would be that Tually would be using my husband's ticket. Let me tell you, he was just ecstatic heartbroken.
Since my niece had a birthday party to attend earlier in the day, my sister (Auntie Kayneen) asked if I could have a healthy snack ready for her. No problem! And while I was at it... one for Z as well!

Top (Z's lunch/snack): PBHoney 'Aurora,' pretzel stick and string cheese 'spindle,'
Colby Jack crown and string cheese, carrot flowers, apples and blueberries
Bottom (T's lunch): Just Jelly sandwich, Colby Jack crown and scraps, pretzel sticks,
carrot flowers, apples and blueberries

Tually is one of the pickiest eaters I know, stealing the crown from even me! When she was over last, she didn't like the sandwich I made using store-bought strawberry jelly, so I made sure to use my homemade raspberry-blackberry freezer jam, which is closer to what she's used to (my sister makes and jars her own jam, using berries from her raspberry bushes and wild blackberries that grow behind her yard and down the lane. And she does it RIGHT, with boiling water and some special tool, so she doesn't HAVE to go the lazy freezer-jam method.)
And she doesn't usually eat a lot, so I was skimpier on the food than I normally would be. Plus it was supposed to be more of a snack, since I had no idea what she'd eaten at the party.

Aurora: I used my princess/bride cookie cutter, which was too tall for the bread, so I just made her a little shorter. Looked fine to me! On Tually's sandwich I cut the bread individually first, since it's such a skinny cutter I didn't want to tear anything. But for Z's, putting PB and honey on skinny princess-shaped bread is kind of a pain, so I made her sammie up first, then cut it. Lo and behold, it split her head wide open, oozing honey and PB everywhere. ("Not tonight dear. I have a splitting headache!")
So I flipped her and had her face the other way. Luckily the bottom slice was fine. And the bit of crust that was on top looks kind of like a crown!

Royal Bouquet: For the carrot flowers, I just cut ridges along a large carrot and coined it up and split it between them. Normally I'd give Z most of one, and save the extras in the fridge for another day.

Fairy Berries: I had an open packet of apple slices (Z really likes the organic ones from Costco, and I don't ALWAYS have time to chop one up and slop it in juice to prevent browning, so it's nice to have some on hand. And I must say, they are pretty darn tasty! And some blueberries. I added jewel bow picks, since both girls are fans of stabbing their kill food before eating, and tend to eat more when they get to do this.

Spindle and Needles: I added some pretzel sticks (in cute butterfly cups!) for a little more grains, since the white bread my husband had bought for stuffing was all but nutrient-free. But Tually likes white bread the best, and I figured Sleeping Beauty would look prettier without seeds poking out all over. I had the idea to make one into a spindle somehow, using bits of peeled string cheese. The cheese was not a fan, so I only did one, and put it in Z's lunch.

Royally Cheesed: I used my Wilton crown cutter and managed to squeeze out two crowns from one slice of Colby Jack cheese. I tucked the scraps ("puzzle cheese") in a red silicone cup (her favorite color) for Tually and set the crown on top. I chopped up the rest of the cheese stick for Z (in a pink cup, of course!) since I wasn't sure she'd eat the 'orange and white spotty cheese,' since she hadn't been lately.

The girls loved the play. But Z at least was a little confused. The plot rushed by kind of quickly, so she kept asking where the baby Aurora was while the grown-up Aurora was prancing around the forest mooning over imaginary princes. She didn't understand that the fairies had changed her name, or that it was supposed to be her all grown up.
There was actually a lot she didn't understand. But she enjoyed it nonetheless. Except the 'wicked queen.' She did not like Malificent at. all!
I was kind of disappointed, since I thought these would be plays FOR kids, not plays BY kids. The oldest cast members were 17 (Malificent,) 16 (prince,) and 14 (Aurora.) And they broke for intermission once she touched the spinning wheel and fell asleep. I (foolishly) assumed they'd stretch out the stuff after that, but no. The last bit of the play (Malificent dragging the prince off, the fairies giving him a sword, Malificent turning into a dragon, slaying the dragon, kissing the princess, everyone dancing around) took almost less time than the intermission itself! Although they did the dragon pretty well. They did a silhouette scene with a large paw, tail, and a head and neck with smoke all being operated from offstage. And after the show they got out the parts and showed the audience what it had really been, so they weren't scared.

We busted out the snacks during intermission, then again after the show while we waited for Auntie Kayneen to meet back up with us. The original plan had been for Tually to go with Gramma, but since the play only lasted, like, 5 seconds, my sister was still nearby checking out the local thrift shop.

The cheese crowns were a bigger hit than the Princess sandwiches, surprisingly!

By the time we left the theater, they'd each eaten their sandwiches, some carrot flowers, some fruit, both the cheese crowns, and all the pretzels. There were some cheese nibblets left, and a few CoJack scraps, plus carrots and fruit. Which turned out great, since we went to one of those conveyor belt sushi places after, where I set out the leftovers (condensed into just one EasyLunchBox, with all the picks and extra silicone cups removed) for Pilu. She polished off the cheese, and made a dent in the blueberries and carrots (as well as some edamame and rice from the restaurant.) The rest of the fruit and carrots got absorbed into the collective at Grammelena's house, where I left Z with Auntie Kayneen and Z's favorite "sister-cousins" for a sleepover! Huzzah!
Hubby and I, giddy with our child-free night, went out and saw The Help! Worth it! Not quite as good as the book, but pretty darn close!