02. August 2012 · Comments Off on Summer Crafting · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

Getting the family ready for Dragon*Con, Halloween and the Disney Princess running weekend all at once! I found the iron-on for stretchy-fabric paper at our local A.C. Moore.

The weather continues to get the best of us this week.  We were still able to hit the Pensacola MESS Hall again on Wednesday, and today I had some meetings on base while the kids stayed home and our neighbor’s son watched them.  With thunderstorms all around us this afternoon squelching our pool plans, I was able to catch up on some craft stuff.

Such as putting finishing touches on our Incredibles costumes.

“What in the world do you need Incredibles costumes for?”

Over Labor Day weekend, the family is heading up to Atlanta.  We got some Braves-Phillies tickets on August 31st, and then on Sept. 1-2, we are planning to visit Dragon*Con for the first time.

My writings with GeekMom have taken me on a wild ride into the world of sci-fi and fantasy fandom, and earlier this year there was a call for volunteers to serve on a GeekMom/GeekDad “geeky parenting” panel** at Dragon*Con.  Since we live a reasonable distance from Atlanta, I volunteered.  I have a press pass to attend and everything!  I’m incredibly excited about this, and I think Dave and the boys will have a fantastic time also.

**What authority do I have on “geeky parenting?”  I have no earthly clue. We’ll see how this works out.

Anyway, one of the highlights of Dragon*Con will be the parade down Peachtree Street on Saturday, September 1st. You choose your characters, make up costumes and align yourselves with a group for the parade.  Dave and I discussed many options (Han/Leia, Dave donning his Civil War costume in the spirit of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, etc.) but we were able to easily include the kids with a simple Incredibles costume.  We will align with the Kalidoscope track during the con and parade and march with other Disney/Pixar fans.

It’ll be interesting to see how hot it is on September 1st.  Traditionally it’s VERY hot outside on parade day.

Making these costumes has been so easy!  Thanks to the beauty of Amazon and eBay, I was able to find athletic red shirts and pants, black domino masks — which were trimmed down — and black opera gloves.  We also needed black underwear-like pants, red leggings and some gold-colored vinyl for a belt that we velcro to the black underwear.  We have enough black boots, black baseball socks and shoes to pull it all together.

You know what else is cool?  This will work for Halloween AND we can run in these outfits for the Disney Royal Family 5K race, which we’re running in February***.

***Yes, Timmy is signed up also.  He is looking forward to learning to run a 5K once the weather cools down.

And one more cool thing — the running gear Dave and I got can be used again and again, even after our cosplay adventures.

You can see a partial costume here, which Timmy was more than happy to model for us.  I really do love coming up with creative running costumes — a fun challenge!