Day 1: Disney on ice
Confession- when I was a kid, I was convinced I would be an Olympic figure skater when I grew up. Okay, I can barely skate and never took a single lesson, but this was not going to sway me from my dream! :) So, I love to watch figure skating! On Friday, Hannah and I went to go see Disney on Ice. It was so good! I loved the figure skating - they were way good! I also enjoyed watching as they acted out the Disney stories via ice. They did the Little Mermaid, Tangled, Brave, and Beauty and the Beast. The Brave one was awesome!!! Lots of girl power there! :)
What I couldn't get past was the sheer number of little girls dressed up as Disney Princesses, buying Disney princess merchandise - seriously - who pays $12 for a SNOWCONE in a Disney cup? It is just water!!!! Disney must be making some serious bank off of this.
Hannah loved it. She giggled and smiled and sighed in all the right places. She sat on my lap the whole time and we snuggled for most of the production - such a great day!
Day 2: Fairy Tea Party
So I really enjoyed Disney on Ice because I felt there was sort of a balance with some gender issues. The Fairy Tea was PURE GIRL.
This was held at Provo City Library. One of my friends got a bunch of my mom friends and their little girls tickets. The ballroom was decked out in lights and fabric. EVERYONE was dressed up! Even most of the adults. I wore Hannah's "supergirl" cape....part in protest! :) It started and the lead fairy flitted out and talked about good manners, and being sweet, and lovely. I think I rolled my eyes like 10 times, and told myself I had to stop! Then there was a fairy ballet (actually very good) and then the girls promenaded and twirled in front of the Fairy King. Hannah said (and I quote), "mom - that was CREEPY!" That's my girl! Then we had a proper tea with biscuits, fruit, and lemonade. Hannah had a fun time with her friends, but couldn't wait to get out of her dress up because it was too itchy.
What do I think about these kind of things? Am I annoyed at how superficial they were? Yes. Am I annoyed at the focus on being pretty and fancy? Yes. However, I loved spending time with Hannah! She is 6 years old and is kind of growing out of this phase. I had to convince her to dress up for the Fairy Tea Party and she didn't dress up for the Disney on Ice one. There is something magical about having a little girl, and I guess if I need to tolerate a little glitz and glam and sparkles, then so be it! Sometimes you just have to embrace the girliness. I will miss this stage when it is gone.
Though I must say, I was extremely pleased on the way back - Hannah said, "mom did you know that girls can do anything boys can do?" She then told me about an epidose of Sofia the First (Disney's newest princess for preschoolers) where Sofia wants to play polo but only the boys play polo. She sings this awesome song "I can do...anything, so can you - anything!" about not letting people put you down - and then tells me that Sofia plays polo with the boys and she scores the winning goal! Now there's a media character I can get behind.
All of that sounds really fun and even the girly stuff can be a good experience to have together, especially if that "superficial" of an activity only happens every once in a while!
ReplyDeleteI used to want to be a princess. Then I figured out that most of the princesses in the books and movies I saw/read didn't want to be princesses, because they were always told what to do and never had their own freedom and were forced to marry people. So then I didn't want to be a princess. I still love glitter though. :)
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to have girly weekends with my little girls someday! I agree with you, endure it while this stage is still here! We all need to live in the moment. Also, I love the idea of "Sofia the First!" It's nice for a change!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how I am going to handle all the girliness with my little girl. I feel like I am feminine person, but I just don't get into the whole big shabang of princesses and glitter and high pitched squeals. Maybe that will change once she is born ;) I love how you find a balance and how you teach your kids both sides of the spectrum on various aspects of media. It is obvious that they are learning so much from you just hearing those cute comments of your daughter's!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how I am going to handle all the girliness with my little girl. I feel like I am feminine person, but I just don't get into the whole big shabang of princesses and glitter and high pitched squeals. Maybe that will change once she is born ;) I love how you find a balance and how you teach your kids both sides of the spectrum on various aspects of media. It is obvious that they are learning so much from you just hearing those cute comments of your daughter's!
ReplyDeleteI went to Disney on Ice too!! It was SO fun, I absolutely loved it. It made me remember the great Disney movies like Beauty and the Beast (which I watched the very next day.. haha). I'm a huge Disney princess fan, and I love the fact that they're adding a new "preschool" princess. Sounds like a great show that teaches kids good principles!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I have lots of "girly" times ahead of me with my two little girls (once they get big enough)! I'm kind of excited to do things like that with my kiddos. My favorite thing is spending time with them!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I posted some pictures of my baby girl on my blog if you want to see! :)
I love all the girlie girl stuff! My little sister really identifies with Snow White and was wearing the full on dress all day today, just like she does every Saturday! I think it is all so fun!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like so much fun!! :) I love girly weekends
ReplyDeleteThis makes me miss my girls (I have two) They are grown and married now. I loved that stage where they pretended to be princesses and would dress up. One daughter was much more into it than the other, but still both had that chance to imagine and pretend. I think princesses can be very powerful and do great things in life to help others. It's a good thing to focus on with little girls. As my daughters grew up, they went on to play sports, work, and graduate from BYU (one in Molecular Biology and the other in Exercise Science) They are confidant and courageous girls and married confident and courages men. They both married in the temple. Which brings me to the point I wanted to make. We do believe that if we marry in the temple and keep our covenants we will be queens someday but it is not about what we look like or how we dress it's about what we become through our Christlike actions. It is not just pretend, we can grow from a princess to a queen if we grow up in the "House of the Lord" because we are indeed daughters of a King.
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