Speaking of Aladdin...

...the university hosted an Aladdin festival for families this weekend. Actually, the brilliant move was to call it an Aladdin festival rather than a Middle Eastern culture festival. Families were there by the hundreds, and they really had put an enormous amount of time into planning a kid-oriented, educational, entertaining event. Almost every organization in town connected in any way to Arabia hosted a booth--and unlike most such festivals, none of them were selling anything.

I thought Edith might be disappointed when she arrived to discover there was no sign of Jasmine or anything Disney. But she did fine. First we greeted the camel outside. "The camel is surprised that a princess is saying hi to him," announced Edith, in her third-person, narrate-her-own-life mode. Then we went inside. We watched an ancient Ottoman shadow puppet show for awhile. We made a model banyan tree. We tried almond flour pastries. We watched the magic carpet demonstration by engineering students and the alchemy demonstration by a chemistry professor. Edith made herself some ears like a saluki, the fastest dog on earth. And she won her own Arabian steed for her successful goal in polo. We watched an ancient water clock operate (this version made with Legos), and she made an anklet with bells on it for dancing. We went to a show about falconry with a local raptor preservation trust and met a falcon named Georgette who was born on the George Washington Bridge.

But despite all the noise and confusion, Edith's favorite part was when we borrowed a copy of an Aladdin storybook and read the original version of the story. She didn't flinch when Princess Badr al-Budur (not Jasmine) made an appearance only toward the very end. And she was very interested in the genies. After the first reading, which we did with Harry and his family, Edith and Harry answered a question about the story and then received magic rings that they can rub to speak with a genie. Then Edith asked me to read the story of Aladdin three more times. Guess she had finally found the heart of the festival--from her perspective, at least.

Enter the saluki (or as Edith preferred, Lady the cocker spaniel)

Edith tried her hand at polo

But she couldn't quite manage the horse and the mallet at the same time

So she just rode off the field with the horse

Trying to show off the bells on her ankle, the ring on her finger, and her Arabian horse all at once

Afterwards we walked across campus to meet Daddy, and Edith checked out the local fauna. I asked if she were scared and after checking she told me, "No, because those are just statue teeth."