Frozen on Ice!

Back in February, I bought tickets to Disney's Frozen on Ice.  That seemed like a blue million years ago and I pretty much forgot all about it until I got the email reminder this week to print my tickets.  And today was finally the day to take the kids.  

We didn't tell them about it until this morning.  Mostly cause I didn't want them asking me for the last  240 nights how many more times they have to sleep until they get to see Frozen.  And I guess no one was talking about it at school because Lily never mentioned it.

The kids had a great time.  Even Joel and I enjoyed the show.  But I have to say that watching Lily's face was probably better than watching the show.  The whole experience gave me the Disney bug again.  You know, the one where you get the itch to spend thousands of dollars to walk around in the heat and wait in endless lines with a couple whiny kids.  Oh wait, I mean, make memories and meet Mickey.  Yeah, that bug.  I've got it.  Must wait.  Will not take kids till they are done with naps.  Be strong.  

Anyhow, we told them this morning about an hour before it was time to leave.  Lily got all dressed up in her Elsa dress and when I was fixing her hair into an Elsa braid, Tyler comes over and tells me he wants to wear a costume.  Whoops.  Did not even think about that.  I told him he could wear his fireman costume but he didn't want that.  He wanted Spiderman - which barely fit him LAST Halloween.  No way to fit in it now.  Uhhg.  Mommy fail.  Fortunately for my guilt-meter he forgot all about wearing a costume a few minutes later and all was good. Whew.  Bullet dodged.

We flew out the door and made a pit stop at Crackerbarrel for some pancakes.  Then off to the show.

We got to our seats about 5 minutes ahead of show time which was perfect.  Any more and I think I would have gone nuts with telling Lily to be patient for just a few more minutes.  She wanted to see Elsa NOW.

Our seats were perfect.  We were close enough that we could see the characters faces but up high enough to see the whole arena at a glance.  And no one was immediately in front of us - we had a completely unobstructed view.  

 

 

The opening number was of lots of Disney characters - but none from Frozen.  Lily looked INCREDIBLY disappointed.  Where's Elsa?  Where's Anna??  Mommy??!  Where are they?!?!?  Relax child.  They'll be here soon.

We bumped in to "Elsa" on the way out.  Lily looks up at me and asks if she can give Elsa a hug.  I said, "Of course!" and she practically mows some people down trying to make her way through the crowd to hug Elsa (aka some random woman dressed up in an Elsa costume hugging children outside the arena...standing next to two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles....with a tip bucket in front of them....that's not weird at all...).

Both kids were snoring within minutes of getting on the road after it was all over. Success!

I think I teared up at least 4 times during the show.  1) Lily was freakin cute singing those songs and watching Tyler clap and smile was priceless and 2) I just kept feeling grateful that we can afford to give our kids these memories and that we were taking the time to do it all together as a family.  When we were at Crackbarrel, a waitress came up to say hi to our Elsa and comment on her beauty.  She was talking about how she remembers getting to see Smurfs on Ice as a kid and how memorable that was her.  Then somehow it becomes clear that she has a daughter but will not be taking her to the show.  It wasn't like a "poor, poor pitiful me" kind of conversation but I just felt so sorry for that woman who had fond memories of Ice Capades but couldn't give that same gift to her daughter.  

We are so lucky.