MAKING DREAMS COME TRUE // disney on ice

Recently the girls and I watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory together for the first time (the Johnny Depp one, I mean; the old one – my favourite – wasn’t available at the time).

They absolutely adored it, and proceeded to watch it every other day for the next fortnight. Big Sis was particularly fascinated with the Golden Ticket, and how it had opened the doors to a magical world for Charlie.

When she found a gold-coloured Cinderella collectors’ card a few weeks later, she could scarcely believe her eyes. ‘Mum!’ she gasped. ‘What if this is a Golden Ticket, just like Charlie’s?!’.

‘It might well be,’ I replied. ‘You’d better look after it!’

She didn’t let it out of her sight after that, carefully stashing it away in her little handbag as she went about her kid business.

A couple of weekends ago OH and I announced that we were going for a drive; nowhere special, we told them, we were just going to get out of the house for a bit. Except that wasn’t quite true – we were going somewhere special, we were going to see DISNEY ON ICE at Wembley Arena.

‘Would you like to wear your dress-up clothes today, just for a bit of fun?’ I asked the girls nonchalantly. The answer (not surprisingly) was yes. Big Sis chose Cinderella, and Lil Sis chose Snow White.

We drove to Wembley and began to walk towards the Arena. ‘Mummy,’ Lil Sis chimed. ‘There are a LOT of kids wearing costumes.’

‘So there are!’ I replied. ‘I wonder why that is?’

We wandered by the side door of the venue, where we could see a queue had begun to form. I turned to Big Sis, ‘Do you still have your Golden Ticket?’ I asked her. She pulled it out of her jacket pocket, the ends all curled up from being constantly carried around. ‘Why don’t we see if it gets us inside here?’ Her eyes lit up: ‘YES!’ she gasped.

We shuffled up until we were at the front of the queue. While OH distracted the girls I quickly grabbed the ticket attendant, handed him our real tickets, and showed him the gold card. ‘Will you pretend this gives us entry?’ I whispered. ‘Of course,’ he nodded, giving me a big wink.

I handed the card back to Big Sis. ‘Quick, show the man the Golden Ticket, and see if lets us inside.’ She handed it over, shyly. The man took it, looked at it, and smiled widely. ‘Yes, this is perfect,’ he said. ‘You can all come inside!’

Big Sis’s jaw dropped open: her Golden Ticket had worked!

Inside we took our seats, with a perfect view over the ice rink. The girls has seen the Disney on Ice posters, but still hadn’t realised was about to happen. When the lights dimmed and the music began, they started giggling with excitement.

Then the skaters came out, and the girls were utterly transfixed by the dancing and the music, and the colours and the lights. As each new act came out, they squealed with recognition – ‘It’s Mickey and Minnie! Ariel! Belle! Anna and Elsa! Olaf! Rapunzel!’

By the time they all joined the stage for the grand finale, the girls were literally worn out by all the excitement. ‘I can’t wait to tell all my friends at school about the Golden Ticket,’ Big Sis mumbled sleepily, on the car ride home, a big smile plastered across her face.

Thanks to Disney on Ice for putting on a fantastic show, and an EXTRA BIG thank you to the ticket man on the door, who helped sprinkle some magic on a little girl’s day!

• Our tickets were provided for review.