Fancy Nancy Ain't Got Nothing on Fancy Gracie

Above: For those of you unfamiliar with Fancy Nancy...I thought I'd include a snapshot of her too!
Above: Gracie poses as Fancy Nancy!

Above: Gran and Gracie in line for refreshments at the Fancy Nancy Tea Party.

Above: Gracie gets the opportunity to hear a 3rd Fancy Nancy story!

Above: Gracie poses with her tiara that she made all by herself.

Above: The photo above shows the Tea Party set up before all of the Fancy Nancy's arrived!

Above: Gracie learning about her glue stick and how it works!

Above: As you can see in the photo above, Gracie was as into the story as the older kids!

Above: Gracie, front and center watching and listening to Fancy Nancy!

In children's literature, the appeal of beautiful dresses is as old as Cinderella. No grand parent nor parent of a young girl can be unaware of the princess-themed books that overflow the shelves of the chain stores and the pages of book club catalogs. No one loves the traditional tales more than I, but recently, I was introduced to the work of Jane O'Connor, who wrote the "Fancy Nancy" series. What a refreshing change from the traditional literature revolving around fancy dressed princesses. Fancy Nancy is a series of stories about a little girl who is a ball of fire and who is always dressed to the nines. Nancy dresses in wild tutus, feather boas, ruby slippers, fairy wings and fuzzy slippers: this heroine is never demure, never subtle and probably never quiet. So enterprising is she in her pursuit of fanciness that she offers lessons to her plainly dressed family.

A few months ago, I began introducing my little Gracie to Fancy Nancy. For Christmas I got her a couple of books. For Valentine's Day I got her the Fancy Nancy dress up trunk and another book....and so on! However, the highlight of our Fancy Nancy adventure came this week! We attended the Fancy Nancy Tea Party hosted by the Bob Kirby Branch of the public library. We had a blast! Gracie was the only 2 year old, but as you can see from the pictures she held her on with the older girls. As a matter of fact, she loved it! All of the little girls came dressed as Fancy Nancy. We began the evening by hearing 2 great Fancy Nancy stories. Gracie was an active listener to say the very least. The next item on the agenda was for each little Fancy Nancy to design and create her very own tiara. Gracie loved using the glue stick to glue her jewels onto her tiara. Then we had yummy refreshments, Riley's Bakery tea cookies, and tea (which was actually grape Kool-aid served in a fancy tea pot)! The final surprise was each little Fancy Nancy got to choose her very own fancy jewel ring to take home with her.

Although I enjoyed the entire evening, my favorite part of the night came later when we got home. While I was giving Gracie her bath, she looked up at me with those big black eyes and said, "Dan (which is Gran... she still pronounces her G's as D's but Tyra assures me it is nothing to worry about) I had a great day!" It melted my heart. I don't often have the opportunity to have Gracie stay all night with me during the week, so it was a great day for me, but to hear her say it was a great day for her too....well it was the icing on my cake!