The Magic of Childhood

Six years have already gone by so quickly.  I still remember vividly finding out that I was expecting our first child.  This Wednesday she turns six years old.  A third of her “Childhood” will be gone and I’m still trying to figure out where it went.

For those that don’t know us, my husband and I are basically big kids ourselves.  We were married at Walt Disney World in a Fairy tale Ceremony right down to riding in Cinderella’s carriage. I’ve never felt more like a princess than that day.  We call our daughter, Melissa, our little piece of Disney Magic as we found out we were expecting her not long after we got home.  She has always been our very own Princess, a role that has not diminished with the arrival of three rambunctious little brothers.  As a family, we love traveling and are always looking for the adventures in life, particularly my dear husband.  We spend a great deal of time at Disney World every year enjoying the magic of childhood with our own children. We want to see each of them embrace the joy of childhood throughout their whole lives.

Now when I talk about the magic and joy of childhood, I’m not just talking about Fairy tales and Disney.  I’m talking about the wonder and curiosity that children have for the world around us.  They look at everything with fresh eyes that really see what’s there and appreciate even the simple things.  They have boundless imagination and spend countless hours pretending to be princesses, knights, pirates, fairies, superheroes, or even kittens and puppies.  They notice the birds perching at a feeder or the squirrels collecting and storing their nuts for the winter.  The pick up the ladybugs and examine each ones spots.  They exclaim over the colors of a rainbow and search the night sky for a shooting star.  They take the boring and mundane in life and make it special.  In doing so they help me to remember and embrace the joy and magic of my own childhood.  Their excitement makes me want to continue to see the world through the eyes of a child.  God’s creation is a magnificent thing and all to often as adults we get weighed down by the priorities of life and forget to enjoy to beauty before us.

I order to foster these magical moments in our children we encourage them to look around us and see what’s there and imagine what could be.  We have invested stock in costumes of all varieties that are often changed hourly throughout the day.  We can be a knight in shining armor one minute and Darth Vadar the next, a few minutes to an hour later and Iron Man or Thor make an appearance.  In our household,  the little boys enjoy costumes even more than the Princess.  We read to them a great deal from a wide variety of literature type and watch even older movies like Wizard of Oz, the sound of Music, and Pete’s Dragon in addition to the new blockbusters. We also try to encourage them in the different plots that they come up with asking them questions about whatever the days mission is or what strange planet they are exploring.  They love when we are involved in their imaginary play and the sky is the limit in the ways you can encourage them.

Recently, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to take photos of my daughter and her best friend, Taylor for their birthdays.  Everyone involved had a wonderful time and I think the adults enjoyed themselves in some ways even more than the girls, at least I know I did.  We pretended we were princess for the afternoon and my dear sister-in-law, Allison did the girls hair and make up and then we took a great deal of pictures and had a fun Princess Tea Party.  I think you will see from the pictures below what a blast it was.  I hope to do more of this style of photography in the future as I really feel it captures the joy and playfulness that childhood is about.  Some of my favorite shots were when my friend Jill got down at the end to join the tea party with Taylor, what wonderful memories to treasure between mother and daughter.  Unfortunately, as we are seeing already, these days go by all too quickly .

I encourage each of you to take a few minutes today and not just watch your children play but get down with them and pretend you are a child again.  Be the princess or the dragon in their fairy tale and enjoy yourself immensely!  You won’t regret it!