ConCarolinas 2017

ConCarolinas is one of my favorite cons. It's small but has a lot of activities. And a lot of my friends attend which makes it a lot of fun. ConCarolinas was actually Emily's very first con when she was only 8 months old! But this year we did a few new things, including staying overnight at the hotel for the first time.

Emily and I got up early on that Saturday morning and make the trek to Charlotte. We made good time but when we pulled into the hotel, I noticed that there were no parking spots anywhere nearby. I pulled the car up to unload it and made the decision to pay for valet parking. That was a great decision because we left the hotel several times to get food.

The bellhop loaded our stuff onto a cart and took it to our room. It only took a minute for us to get our badges and we got down to the dealer's room just before it opened. We went around the room and Emily exercised great control until she saw Pokemon cards. She had to get some! The only thing I bought was some decals for my new car.

After that, we went back to the room so I could change into my Tightrope Girl costume then hurried down for the costume contest pre-judging. Thankfully I was first to be judged, because both Emily and I were pretty hungry at that time.

I changed again (this became a theme for the day) and we went to get lunch at McDonald's. We had a bit of time, so we went down to the pool for a bit. It was really relaxing and nice to cool down because it was hot out!

After that, I changed in my Princess Leia costume and we went to the gaming area to play D&D. We had a lot of fun, and Emily's character helped us a lot in the combat with her sleep spell! Next year, hopefully we can go down on Friday and play in more D&D games.

Once the game was done, it was time to change back into my Tightrope Girl costume and go down to my friend Mikey's concert. It was great, though I did have to run back up to the room because I had

forgotten my gloves. I had to leave early to get lined up for the contest. Thankfully it was in the same room so I just got Emily settled in a seat in the 3rd row and left my purse and glasses with her.

This was my first costume contest I've ever been in so I was in the novice category. There were some other great costumes there too. I had no idea what I was going to do on stage and I started to feel really nervous.

In the end, I pretended like I was walking a tightrope and then posed in my pose for a moment. It was really fast. Then it was time to go back to the waiting room to wait for everyone else to have their turn on the stage.

Once everyone was done, they had us all come out on stage. We stood there while they read off the winners of the film festival as the judges decided who won. The novice awards were read off first and to my great surprise, I won 3rd place!

The best part of the whole weekend was when they read my name off, a tiny blur in the 3rd row jumped to her feet, her hands thrust in the air as she cheered for her mommy. It was awesome!

The other winners had great costumes too. A Newt Scamander cosplayer won best in show and he deserved it - his costume was really great!

It was about 6:30 pm once we got done with the costume contest so I got changed again. We went and got Cookout for supper. We watched Disney Jr. on TV as we ate and then we headed back to the pool for some night swimming. I was pretty beat by that time so we didn't swim for too long. I let Emily watch some tv while I got things packed up to make things easier in the morning.

The next day we got up and went swimming again for a bit. Then we got everything packed up. I went to the valet / bell hop station to get some help. I figure if I'm paying for valet parking they can come up and get our stuff. 

I knew it may take a while, and so did the guy at the valet station. He told me he would send someone up as soon as possible. Sadly, I had to call down several times before someone came up. It took over an hour. By that time, Emily was convinced that we had to live there now.

We got our car which they did pack up for us, and went to get some lunch. After lunch, we went back inside to do one more spin around the dealer's room. There was a booth that had geek-inspired sweets so I got Emily a Pokemon sucker and a BB-8 cookie.

As we were leaving the dealer's room, I rounded a corner and realized that Emily was gone! I freaked out as I paced the hallway not wanting to go too far away. My friend Mikey happened upon me mid-freak out and he went to the dealer's room to look there. All of a sudden, Emily reappeared! She had gone into the bathroom and had thought I was following her. I had lost her but she didn't know she was lost.

We went and told Mikey that we had found her and then headed out. After stopping at 7-11 for slurpies, we headed on home. It was a very fun weekend (except for the losing Emily part) and I look forward to next year's ConCarolinas!

ConCarolinas 2016!

This past Saturday, Emily and I made the trek to Concord, NC to attend ConCarolinas. It was the first time in years that we've gone and both of us were really excited.

I donned my Tightrope Girl costume and Emily in her Kairi costume and we made the two hour trek. Driving in a corset was interesting! We made it a little before 10 am and quickly got our badges. From there, Emily wanted to check out the dealer's room.

I tried to encourage her to look at everything before spending all of her money. She did ok but did end up buying a Beanie Baby Unicorn coin purse almost right away.

We saw my friend, Mikey, and bought one of his coloring books. We mostly wandered around after that until Emily declared she was going to die from hungry. We found that one of the food trucks was set up and we got a couple of hot dogs. We enjoyed our meal on a patio area and got to watch some SCA knights do battle.

After that, it was time for Live Action Hungry, Hungry Hippos. It was an activity for the kids but the parents had to get involved too! Emily thought this was great fun but it was hard for me! I was still in my corset and Emily isn't exactly a lightweight anymore. We did about five rounds until I basically said no more! She got a ring pop as a prize and she was very happy with that.

parents had to get involved too. We had to wheelbarrow the kids to the middle of the floor where the kids had to grab as many balls as they could then we dragged them back to their respective corners.

We did some wandering around after that. She got to spin the wheel at one table and I got to answer a trivia question. I answered it correctly and won Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. Emily practically screamed with joy! She also gathered a lot of candy from the different tables - it was like geeky trick or treating.

After a trek in the blazing heat back to the car, I got changed into my 2nd costume. My Kaylee costume is still very geeky but it's much, much more comfortable to wear. It was nice to not be corseted anymore.

We went to a panel about the lack of Rey toys and female characters in general. I found it interesting but Emily got bored after a bit. She is apparently still a little too young for panels

I wanted to see the costume contest but Emily didn't really. I offered her a compromise - that we could sit in the very back and she could play with her new stuff while I watched the costume contest. She agreed and had fun quietly playing with her Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. There were a lot of amazing costumes to see!

After the judging of the costume contest, we slipped out to get some dinner because now I was hungry. There were several other food trucks but one was wasn't open and the other was just a dessert one. So we opted to get hamburgers and chips. We went to the lounge area inside and had a nice little dinner.

It was getting to be closer to my friend Mikey's concert so we went to the room where it was going to be. We had an hour beforehand so we just stayed and watched the belly dance show that was happening right before the concert.

The belly dance show was very entertaining. The theme was Star War vs. Star Trek so all the dances were inspired from those shows / movies. By the end, Emily was trying to belly dance to the music herself!

After that, it took a few minutes for Mikey to set up and then his show got rolling. Emily, ironically, spent some time coloring in Mikey's coloring book while Mikey was singing. I enjoyed the concert a lot. I've only seen him live once before at the Browncoat Ball in 2014 but sadly I don't remember it because of my seizures. I pretty much sang along the whole concert!

After Mikey was done, we headed out. It was after seven and we had a two hour drive home. The drive home was uneventful and Emily slept most of the way. She says she wants to go the whole weekend next year.

ConCarolinas is a great con! Lots of great people, fun entertainment and lots of geeking out!

The Day of Halloween Events

I love Halloween, I always have. Once my mom passed away, Halloween vaulted over Christmas to become my favorite holiday. Mom loved Christmas so now it’s really bittersweet for me.

When I was not a child but was single, Halloween did become a bit of a drag. I never had any Halloween parties to go to. When we moved into our house, I stayed home and handed out candy. We got maybe three kids each year.

Then I was blessed with my own October baby. She was two weeks old on her first Halloween so we didn’t do much that year. The first few years we would just go trick or treating, but the last few years have been filled with Halloween goodness. Last year, we went trick or treating twice and Emily had a Halloween themed birthday party.

This year we have done a lot more. We went to Disney World for her birthday and I went to the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party by myself. Last week we went trick or treating with our church and last Saturday was two Halloween events.

I worked Saturday morning and then I started to get costumed up. Emily had requested I wear a costume but most of my costumes weren’t going to be warm enough. Todd had suggested I wear my Hogwarts student costume which is pretty warm. Emily was Periwinkle, though I put a layer of long sleeve shirt and pants underneath it.

The first event was the Fletcher Halloween Carnival. They had a bouncy castle, a bouncy slide, games and a costume contest. Emily bounced first then dragged me all over to play the games. When you won a game (which was pretty every time because the people running it let the kids play until they won) you got some candy. I didn’t think to bring a candy bucket, but luckily they were giving out little bags.

Emily also wanted to sign up for the costume contest. There were

lots of kids in costumes, but not a lot of other adults besides me. There was one four year old little girl dressed as what looked to be a Burlesque dancer, right down to the fishnets. I found that to be in poor taste, but the other kids were cute.

We played nearly all the games, Emily got her face painted like a kitty and she did a craft (a spooky necklace). Then it was time for the contest. Once she did her walk through, I didn’t make her stay over there. We did a few more games and then I let her do the bouncy castle one more time. At that point the carnival was over and they were shutting things down.

From there we headed over to Gerber Village in South Asheville. Gerber Village is just a shopping center but Todd had heard that they were doing a pumpkin wall. We weren’t sure what to expect, but when we got there we did see a pumpkin wall. They also had some games, a lady doing hula hooping (with extra hoops for the

kids) and there were snacks (popcorn and cider). We got there a little before five and they were just opening up.

We got a little treat bag when we came in since the games were giving out prizes. Emily played the games right off and then found the hula hoops. She hooped most of the time when we weren’t doing other things and she got pretty good at it.

Once the event really got going, they had a scavenger hunt where each kid got a prize at each station. They had a cake walk, which Emily was one of the winners. She got a prize bag and later a cupcake. Then there was a costume parade and then a costume contest which Emily participated in.

After she showed off her costume, she went back to hooping. Originally she had left her wings in the car, but got them back out for the contest. She was able to still hula hoop pretty well with her wings on. It was getting cold, though Emily kept saying she was fine (and she probably was because she was moving around a lot more than I was).

Finally it was the big moment and the lit up the great pumpkin wall. It was really cool to see, but I was sore, tired and cold at that point so we got out of there and headed home. I’m glad we went to both because Emily had a great time.