Fun and games

For the last few weeks, the girls have been busy putting together costumes to attend Pac Con (described on the website as “the region’s largest Pop Culture and Comic Convention attracting fans of TV, film, comics, anime, animation, art and collectables and costuming from around the region”).

My nerdy girls wanted to “cosplay” as time travelers (à la Doctor Who), specifically Mary Poppins and Ms. Frizzle (from the Magic Schoolbus).

The costumes required either clever finds at thrift stores, or sewing from scratch. Here’s a cut-down straw hat with flowers and grapes (couldn’t find cherries) to imitate Mary Poppins’ chapeau.

Younger Daughter made Older Daughter’s Ms. Frizzle dress from a gaudy cotton print with a planet and space theme.

Older Daughter couldn’t find any screaming-yellow thrift store pumps like Ms. Frizzle wears, so she settled on patent leather flats and attached some space and school bus stickers. Here they’re clamped on so the glue will dry.

The final result.

GG, our resident jeweler, made Older Daughter a hasty pair of planetary earrings.

Friday night she also braided Older Daughter’s damp hair into multiple silly braids in order to “frizz” it the sufficient amount for the big day on Saturday.

Don made Younger Daughter a wooden parrot head to fit on the end of an umbrella. Here Younger Daughter is painting it.

The final result.

She also constructed a carpet bag out of cardboard with a tweed fabric covering (not exactly matching Mary Poppins’ bag, but the best we could do).

She added a last-minute cloth handle in the car while I drove to the event.

Our friend GG (of Dreamwire Designs) got here too late to plan an elaborate costume, so on Friday she made herself a “spacey”-looking headpiece…

…with accompanying earrings. It was fascinating to watch the creation process and I plan to do a blog post on how she makes things in the future.

Here all three girls primp, getting ready to leave on Saturday morning.

The girls pose just before leaving for the event.

But before we left, we had to all join forces and scoot a recalcitrant calf back where she was supposed to be. Little Lucy has become quite the escape artist.

This is my grumpy group after chasing a calf. Hey, life on a farm.

I dropped the girls off at the Convention Center in Spokane. (They had tickets. I didn’t.)

They certainly weren’t the only ones in costume!

Older Daughter took a few photos from inside the convention.

The original Batmobile.

Princess Merida from the Disney movie Brave.

Just some guy in a costume Older Daughter admired.

But the big draw — and I specifically asked for photos, if possible — was William Shatner, the original Captain Kirk of Star Trek fame.

Among the nerd crowds, there is some disdain for ol’ Mr. Shatner (beautifully spoofed, of course, in the movie Galaxy Quest), but having grown up on the original television series, I have an abiding affection for him.

Therefore I was absurdly pleased when the girls said his talk was packed and he had several hundred people lining up for autographs at something like $80/pop. Hey, a guy’s gotta make a living.

The girls were asked to pose for pictures numerous times by strangers. Little children stopped in their tracks at the sight of Mary Poppins in the flesh. The president of a science club in Spokane asked Older Daughter to make an appearance at his “Girls in Science” club meeting next summer since so many girls entered science due to Ms. Frizzle’s influence. (Older Daughter will be at nanny school next summer, so she won’t be able to attend.)

Here the girls paid a small fee to have their photos taken in front of a life-size TARDIS from Doctor Who.

All in all, the kids had a terrific time in this nerdy atmosphere and chattered about it for hours. As Younger Daughter summarized, “As far as nerds go, it’s nice to know we’re not alone.”

Source: http://www.rural-revolution.com/2014/10/fun-and-games.html