The Best Laid Plans...

Yesterday, things did not go exactly as planned.

My first idea for our "family day" at Comic-Con was to wear our 2012 Halloween costumes. We went as Batman, Robin, and Catwoman last year and, while Amelia's costume was looking a little worse for wear after nine months of superhero dress-up, I knew that we'd have fun.

Well, two of us would have fun. Pete would be sweating like crazy in the batmask. 

Then, Amelia finally saw The Avengers (I'd deemed it inappropriate last year when she was six, but she's seven now, and a little less easy to scare). She fell in love with the Black Widow, and wanted to go to Comic-Con in a spy costume. With no time left to make another costume, I bought a Black Widow costume online. I figured that she'd go in costume to Comic-Con, and Pete and I would wear jeans and T-shirts and spend the day taking pictures of her.

Then, on Wednesday, with only 12 hours to spare, Amelia started to feel shy about wearing a costume in public and asked if we could all wear matching costumes. I had two options - throw together Hulk and Captain America costumes overnight, or figure out a way for her to take part in our Evil Dead themed cosplay. Since I was two hours away from my sewing machine and had less than half a day to work, I chose the second option.

Amelia hasn't seen the first two Evil Dead films, and she hasn't seen the reboot. She hasn't even seen Army of Darkness in its entirety. What she has seen is a brief scene in the middle of the film where Ash is tormented by several tiny, evil versions of himself. They tie him up and stab him with a fork in a scene that's reminiscent of both Gulliver's Travels and the Three Stooges. It's very funny, and Amelia loves it. So, we decided that she would go as one of the little Ashes.

You can see the tiny Ashes on the left, poking Ash with a fork.

I ran to Wal-Mart at 10:00 P.M. and grabbed a boy's dress shirt and a pair of khaki shorts. I tore the sleeve off of the shirt and, working in the bathtub of the Super 8 San Diego, splashed it with a bit of red paint. I also made her a holster out of brown duct tape. Fortunately, the tiny Ashes don't have guns or chainsaws, so I didn't have to worry about too many props, but I did cut a fork out of foam core that I painted silver. It wasn't a perfect costume, but it was what I could do with so little time.

We walked to Comic-Con together on Sunday, and fellow fans were approaching us before we even reached the convention center. Amelia was tickled to receive the attention and have a chance to talk about the "funny part of the movie." She wasn't shy about being in costume and had a great time hopping around all of the booths at the convention and catching previews of her favorite cartoons.

Amelia spent today talking about what she wanted to dress up as next year. (I'm just crossing my fingers that I can snag tickets for next year). I think I have a little Comic-Con fan on my hands, and I couldn't be happier.