Emerald City Comicon

Okay.  I don't know why we have never - NEVER - attended a comics convention in our lifetimes.
It seems pretty strange that we have been on the planet for 40 years and never once went to one.
Renaissance Fairs - check!
Video Game conferences/conventions - check!
But no comics conventions.

Well, that all changed this past weekend when we attended the Emerald City Comicon.

The convention was HUGE.  It took up the entirety of the Washington State Convention Center and even had an area for table gaming and 80's arcade games in a nearby hotel.

And it was PACKED.

Okay.  So, for those who don't know what "comicons" are, they are conventions that cater to people who enjoy, well, comics in general, superheroes, sci-fi, fantasy and just about every other pop culture fad currently occurring.

And you know what, it's also an excellent place to check out totally tubular cosplay.

What's cosplay, you ask?  Go here to read all about it.

And cosplay we did.

Here is Ant Man (aka Hank Pym), a brilliant scientist who whipped up a substance allowing him to change his size.  Ant Man is mostly known for shrinking himself to insect size and using his antenna helmet to mind control ants to do his bidding.

Regular size.............

SHHHHHHHHHHHINK!!!!

(Mikey insists that you must make this sound)

........Ant size!!!!

Then there was a knock on the door and who of all people was there?

Hermione Granger!

She quickly gave Mini Ant Man a discourse on the proper way of wearing ones antennae.

The group was completed as a member of the Green Lantern Corp. took a detour from her return to Planet Oa to join in on the fun.

The kids LOVED it.

The first thing they did was geek out with some other kids dressed in costume and talk zombies.

Did I mention that there were A LOT of people there.

Many, MANY of them were dressed in costume.

So many that we just couldn't take pictures of them all.

Besides, you're supposed to ask them first, and that's almost impossible to do when you're chasing two kids (or carrying one).

If you want to see lots of pictures of some cool cosplay, check this out! 

If you scroll down far enough (really farrrr....you're almost there!), you might see some familiar faces. One face of which got a "Like".

And if you want even more, there are pics here.

You can click on "More Galleries" for pics from Day 2 and 3.

Oh.  They had legos there.

Totally awesome lego displays.  Beyond comprehension.

Jokers Funhouse WITH moving parts as well as a

Emmet and Wyldstyle/Bad Cop chase on top.

A complete model of Rivendell.

Elves, hobbits, dwarves and lofty arches present and accounted for.

And for the Potterheads.....

The Hogwarts Quidditch Stadium.

There was a lot of walking.

This Green Lantern wished that:

A) Her power ring actually worked and she could summon a stroller to roll Mini Ant Man around.

B) That female superheroes did not have to wear high heel boots. Ow.

(It's 4 days post comicon and my little toes STILL hurt)

Lunch time!!!

Then we were back at it.

We headed up to the Kids Area where they had a superhero obstacle course and some other things to do, like face painting and tattoos and stuff.

And then there was the "Blast-A-Trooper" charity booth sponsored by the 501st Legion.

Pay some bucks and shoot Star Wars bad guys for charity.....

But first a photo op!

Oh yeah.

Check out that Nerf blaster!!!

Katie...I mean...Hermione had extra incentive to put those bad guys out of their misery.

We learned that Anakin (with glasses in the middle) was a DEATH EATER!!

He had the Dark Mark tattooed on his left fore arm!!!

For reals!

Mini Ant Man had a turn too.

Clone Trooper Dude took the brunt of the fire.

This was a laugh out loud funny costume.

It was a kid in pajamas carrying a Mickey Mouse stuffy and a sign......

And because comics kinda wouldn't exist without the people that draw them, they had an art room.

You could go draw whatever you want using all sorts of art supplies.

It was a nice break.

Since I can't draw anything without copying from something, here is what I came up with.

Hermione was feeling flowery.

And then we were exhausted!

One stop to see the retro 80's arcade and we were done.

The kids can't wait to go back next year.

Neither can we.

Mikey is already planning his costume out even though I've reminded him that it's a WHOLE year away. He doesn't care.

The kids ask every day, "When are we going to comicon again?"

Hopefully, my feet will have recovered by then.

Next year, no heels.

Two Short Videos & Xbox Fitness

I totally forgot that I had some videos of things that I've posted about!

I have one from January of Katie's last dance class.....

And I have one from February of our sledding adventures and a jam session at the EMP. Katie on drums, Mike on electric guitar, Mikey and John's daughter, Hannah on keyboard.....

And now for the blabbing....

The Xbox One (aka Xbone) offers free workouts on Xbox Fitness for Xbox Gold members. There's all sorts of stuff on there - a couple of Beach Body workouts, some Jillian Michaels workouts, lots of kickboxing and stuff like that.

I HATE running in the dark by myself. So, I've been doing the workouts.

My first observation: They need to have more, uh, normal looking people in these videos. All of them have super star bodies. They need more people like me; rockin' my white oversized t-shirt and Champion brand grey shorts. Oh yeah and they need to work out in bare feet.

My second observation: These people with the superstar bodies have not an ounce of fat on them. A lot of these work outs include plyometrics. Plyometrics = lots of bouncing/jumping. For those of you that don't know....fat bounces. And keeps on bouncing. Maybe for a second or two after you finish your jump.

My third observation: The background worker-outers are corny and need to be slapped. They have super smiles plastered on their faces and exaggerate every movement. Annoying.

My fourth observation: The Kinect sensor watches your every move and scores you. You get stars for working out good. Mikey likes it when I get stars. He cheers for me. It makes me want to get stars. When I don't get stars or when the Kinect crashes and boots me out of my workout without giving me my stars, I get Pissed. With a capital P.

My fifth and final observation: The people in the videos never get wedgies. They need to add an extra second or two in between exercises for me to pick my wedgie.

Good Friends, Good Times

Hey. Did you know that you are only supposed to use one space after the punctuation at the end of your sentence? Yep. I read an article about it and then did follow up research (you know me). It's true. I have been double spacing after punctuation since I learned how to type in high school. But, that was on a typewriter. So, double spacing after a punctuation means that I am old. In an attempt to make myself feel younger, I have begun to try to single space.

It is not making me feel younger at all. Just frustrated.

Enough composition talk! On to what's been happening.

It snowed.

It was on a Saturday night, so everyone was able to be home to enjoy.

Mikey's favorite part was throwing snowballs.

Katie immediately went to work sculpting.

A snow person and a snow dog.

Then we headed to the local Jr. High for some sledding before the rain came back.

Some things never change...... 

....they just get heavier.

I think you've heard me talk about Binky Superhero before.

Well, this is his Lego incarnation.

He was busy fighting the King of the Undead, who kills people and then steals their legs.

The King was assisted by his minion - Zombie Ghost Mummy.

I totally didn't take any pictures of Valentine's Day this year.

Bummer that you won't get to see my kids with chocolate smeared all over their faces.

Sigh. Can't believe I didn't take any photos.

Moving on.

One rainy weekend in February, we headed to the EMP.

There were Legos there. 

The Legos. They totally got built.

They've got fantasy stuff there too.

Annnnnnd, there's lots of music.

And they had this guy.

Wait. What?

Mike and his family came for a visit to the PNW!

Here's the whole group at dinner after a viewing of The Ultra-Awesome Classic DVD version of The Pendragon Legend.

Us.

John, Gillian and kid Hannah.

Mike, Leslie, and kids - Josie and hiding in the waaaaaay back is Henry.

The next day they came over to our place for dinner and games.

The men went to work prepping the meal.

"If you told me that we would be cooking dinner together for our families in 25 years, I would've said you were (deleted expletive) nuts."

Dinner was great and everyone had a good time hanging out and playing Apples to Apples.

(The kid boys were playing Marvel Superheros on the Xbone).

It was great to catch up.

Oh, and remember how I was mentioning feeling younger at the beginning of this post?

Well, there's nothing like hanging out with your other 40 year old friends to make you feel young again.

Does that even make sense?

Stuff from January and After Groundhog Day

Yes, mortal.

Thor, mighty Prince of Asgard, enjoys the occasional pajama party.

Especially if one is allowed to carry Mjolnir, Mountain Smasher, Hammer of the Worthy!

Which only Thor can lift.

Care to try?

Thor did not think so.

Katie met up with some of her preschool alumni pals.

Here they are free styling Rainbow Loom bracelets.

They spent most of the party doing this.  Too old for pj party rockin', maybe?

Well, that didn't stop the CURRENT preschool pals from 

gettin' crazy!

Hey.  Wait!

They couldn't resist.

After the jumping, and the dancing and the singing it was time to calm it down

for a bed time story by Teacher Dorothy.

The perennial favorite - The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Thor is tired of this pajama party.

  

Thor must rest in order to prevent worldwide disasters created by contemptible super villains.

This picture is so cute it hurts.

Hey!  Guess what?  I was there too.

Last preschool PJ party.  Evah.

Gulp.

Maybe a tear or two was shed by us moms.

Do you know what this is??

OH!  SNAP!

You were TOTALLY right!!!

I'm not sure what this guys name is.  There are so many created each day that I lose track.

This may be Supron's Master's Master or something like that.

Supron is the arch-enemy (and former brother) of Binky Superhero.

This Katie created guy is just cute.

And dancy!

Speaking of dancing......

It was parent observation day at the dance school.

What a ham.

Mikey was not impressed.

He sat and looked at his Lego Superhero sticker book.

Finally, she stopped mugging for the camera and kicked out some moves....

...and leaps!

At the end, even Mikey couldn't resist the dancey beat.

Katie decided after class that she wanted to move on to something new.

So, no more dance class...for now.

She's decided to try gymnastics.

And then, Mikey got sick.

Super sick.

Temp hovering around 102 for three days and then he ended up with a double ear infection.

After a 4:30am trip to the Urgent Care center, he came home with The Pink Stuff (amoxicillin).

Which he hated!!!

I had to give it to him twice a day for 10 days.

But it wasn't until, like, day 7 that he gave up fighting me.

Even with all the medicine drama, after 24 hours of antibiotics he was back to his lego-playing self.

Here's Ice Man and his Ice Ship.

Katie had her Science Fair and Art Walk this past week.

The question she picked was ...

And because you can't see bacteria with your eyes, she created models made from clay.

Trust Katie to find a way to marry art and science.

She was very proud of her project and was excited to share with her friends.

Actually, she spent most of the evening off with her friends somewhere.

Social butterfly.

Mike spent the evening playing Angry Birds on Daddy's phone and eating this ginormous hot dog.

Philtastic!

Hear ye! Hear ye! Hear ye!

Now on this February 2nd, 2014, at the One Hundred and Twenty Eighth Annual Trek of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club at Gobbler's Knob, Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, Punxsutawney Phil, the Seer of Seers, Prognosticator of Prognosticators, was awakened from his winter nap at 7:28am by the huge crowd of his faithful followers.

Phil looked to the sky and gazed around his stump. Then, speaking in Groundhogese, he directed President Deeley to the proper scroll, which reads:

A Superbowl winner I will not predict,

But my weather forecast you cannot contradict.

Why, that's not a football but my shadow I see!

Six more weeks of winter, it must be!

Good on ya, Phil, my friend.  Another year, another whacky woodchuck weather prediction.

The calendar aligned crazily this year to give us not only the yearly rodent regalia, but also Superbowl Sunday AND our anniversary all on the same day.

And it wasn't just some boring ole Superbowl.  It was a Superbowl in which we could actually kinda root for someone.  

We didn't have a choice.  It was like St. Patty's day around here.....EVERYONE was a Hawks fan for these past few weeks.  

You would think you would be safe at the grocery store.  Nope.  At the deli counter I was required to "WOOT!" upon receipt of my deli meat selections in response to "GO HAWKS!" from Deli Gramma (that's what I call her).  She had dyed blue and green hair this past weekend.

Mikey decided that he wanted the Seahawks to win "da whole fing".  And one day Katie came home from school singing, "What does the HAWK say? Win, win, win, wuh-win, wuh-win, win!"

Craziness.

You know what else is crazy?  When die-hard Seattle fans - life fans! - start rooting for the other team to score some points.  Just a few anyways.  Insert sad emoticon here.  No one can say Hawks fans don't have big hearts.  

But, trust me, that did not stop them from cheering every single Seahawks score/forced turn-over all the way to the bitter end.  Every SINGLE one.  There were lots of happy people in the PNW that night, let me tell you.

Watching the game with fans makes it SO much more interesting and fun.

Huzbend cooked up some blue and green manicotti (yes, he succumbed to the Hawk fever) for dinner.  It was kind of appropriate with the game being held in New Jersey and all.  All other food items were ceremonially blue and green as well.  Green guacamole, blue tortilla chips, blue ranch dressing.  All kinds of awesomeness!

Annnnnd, the kids pigged out on Skittles, potato chips, and pumpkin muffins.  We celebrated the win with brownies and ice cream.  It was good times.

The day before, Saturday that would be, Huzbend and I went on a date for our anniversary.  We drove into Seattle for a pizza lunch and caught Spamalot at the 5th Avenue Theatre.

It's a good show.  Catch it if you can.  I've seen it twice and it was still as funny as the first time.

There's been other things going on, like sickness and stuff, but I can't really remember them.  So, I will sign off for now and hope to come back in a few days with more time and a bigger update.

Merlin's Beard!

The Harry Potter book progress has become too slow for Katie.  She wants more!

Waiting for Daddy to read to her each night is just not working.  So, she has begun reading to herself after kisses goodnight.

She finished 'The Chamber of Secrets' by herself because she was impatient to see what was going to happen.

They just started reading "The Prisoner of Azkaban".

The other night I peeked in on her and found this.........

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz