Frozen

I am not a big fan of Disney, and especially not of "Disney princesses."  Our girls know what they are, and even have some "Disney princess" stuff, but we talk with them a lot about what we like and don't like and they've done well accepting our restrictions on how much they have been exposed to it all.  

But, when every little girl on the playground suddenly looks shocked and in awe when they realize that Elsa's name really is Elsa, and dear Elsa, completely perplexed by their reaction, keeps asking me why they are acting so strange, we thought we'd better check out the new movie.  We wanted to at least give her some cultural context for why everyone was fawning over her name.  Seriously, I have overheard little girls run back to their mother or grandmother just to exclaim "Her name is REALLY Elsa!"  I even had a mom ask me, "Oh, did you name her after the movie?" (um, no, she's almost six years old, she's had this name for six years...  Usually when asked about her name I explain that "Elsa" means "consecrated to God" - but I was so taken aback by the question I think I just politely said "No, we just liked the name.")

So Joel and I read a bunch of reviews and discussions online and previewed the movie.  Overall we liked it, and decided to let Elsa watch it with us.  After the movie we had a wonderful conversation with her (for over an hour!) about what happened in the movie and we liked and didn't like and why, what we wished had been different in the story, etc.  (I am not going to write a full, in-depth review here, but am happy to talk about it with anyone who wants.)  We've continued talking about since our movie night and she's had some great questions.  I've loved using it as a spring board for talking about all sorts of issues, from sisterly love to telling the truth and listening to advice from family and friends.  

Elsa loves to "play Frozen" now with Nora, who has not seen the movie but is happy to pretend to be Princess Elsa's sister, Princess Anna.  We usually have to keep reminding Elsa to let Nora play the girl sometimes (and not be forced to play Robin Hood or Peter Pan) so this is a nice change.  I'm just glad we decided against naming Nora "Anya" four years ago.  That would have made the playground girls go completely crazy.  

So, at a local festival this year Elsa requested a Frozen crown.

Here's Queen Elsa, for real!