A Princess Life

Disneyland. It certainly does get to some people. I have always loved going there, I grew up about 65 miles northwest from there so we would go for a day if we had nothing to do, or had a birthday to celebrate, I always enjoyed it. When Bella was born I never pushed the Pink Princess thing, she just gravitated towards it when she starting chosing her own things. Her first trip to DisneyWorld she was about 3 1/2 and by that time we already owned princess dresses for almost every Disney Princess, as well as matching shoes and tiaras! (On a side note, that was around the time that Disney started marketing the Princess image, and we bought into it.) Luckily, she finally outgrew it and her sister wasn't into it as much so I have finally gotten rid of all the dresses and accessories.

But, we still like to go to Disneyland when we are in town visiting my family. We flew in on Thursday afternoon, had dinner at our favorite restaurant before heading to my parents house. This morning we got up, grabbed a cousin and headed to Disneyland for the day. The weather was nice and the park wasn't too crowded. We got to ride every ride we wanted to without long waits.

This picture was taken during the parade, and while I would like to say that my children weren't interested in it, they were entranced as it went by. It really was fun to watch, the costuming was very elaborate as were the floats. But, watching the Princesses go by you wonder to yourself if these girls are good or bad as images for the kids. On one hand, if you follow the stories, the Princesses overcome odds to come out ahead, marry the Prince and live happy ever after, so that isn't so bad, but don't we want our girls to be independent and be able to make their own happiness without having to depend on someone else?

Or, do we just enjoy the show and leave it at that!