We had a great time at Alamo City Comic Con this year.  It has grown by leaps and bounds since the first time we went two years ago.  Part of the draw this year was that David Tennant made an appearance as well as Billie Piper and John Barrowman.  Three Doctor Who cast members in one con!  We did our Penny Dreadful cosplay for Billie Piper while the kids wore their Doctor Who costumes.  Then we did our Tom Baker and Sarah Jane for David Tennant,  We got our photos taken by a professional both in both costumes.  Hopefully we'll get those emailed to us here in the next few days. 

Rob was very excited to meet Peter "Buckaroo Bonsai" Weller and Lando Calrisian (Billy Dee Williams), Admiral Akbar, and a guy who designed the robots whose name I don't know too.

As a bonus to an already great weekend, San Antonio was also having their Dia de los Muertos festival on Saturday and Sunday.  We went Saturday night and then enjoyed it so much we went back for lunch on Sunday to take more photos during the daylight.  The altars were beautifully lit up at night but didn't photograph very well, which is why there are two photos of everything.  I loved seeing two different altars for Gene Wilder (made by school children) as well as one for David Bowie.  The most impactful, for me, were the altars for the Pulse victims and the one for a group of suicide victims.  As a non-Latino, I am unsure of how celebratory/solemn I should be at this festival.  I kept my mom in the forefront of my mind and thought about how much she would like it there.  The experience made me want to create an altar for her.  There's been a lot of discussion about cultural appropriation these days and Dia de los Muertos certainly is one of the touchstones in that discussion.  There was a very long thread on my Facebook feed several years back about the offensiveness of Dia de los Muertos being called Mexican Halloween, a thing that it most certainly is not.  So I may be overly cautious while trying to avoid any appearance of offensiveness by stating that I want to make my mom an altar. I'm really just appreciative of the beauty, thoughtfulness, and solemnity of the altars.  Both the boys are studying the festival this year in school, Seth in Spanish class and Sylvan in World Cultures.  It was really great to be able to take them to a celebration in a much larger city than Waco to really be able to see it up close and personal.  For years MCC would host a small celebration at the Art Center that we would take the kids too.  There would be food for sale, music, dancing, altars, and crafts for the kids to do.  I loved going to it.  Then they moved it downtown a couple of years ago and we missed it.  I'm not sure what happened then, but I think the move killed it instead of growing it.  We searched for any listing for it this year and there just wasn't one.  So, if you haven't ever been to one, we took a lot of photos to share with y'all.  Enjoy!

We are big fans of Penny Dreadful and just finished the 3rd season a few weeks ago.  We are going to Alamocity Comic Con in two weeks but were planning on going in our Doctor Who regalia since David Tennant and Billie Piper will be there.  So at the last minute Rob decided he had to be John Clare and that left me as Brona, since Vanessa is totally out of my league.  My sister would make a much better Vanessa than me.  Anyway, Billie Piper, so Brona was really the only option.

Luckily I already had a black caped trench coat for Rob and he already owns black versions of everything.  I had to do some shopping.  I found a black skirt with a white pattern on it that was floor length and had a petticoat sewn in.  I found knitted finger-less gloves in maroon, a white tank with lace around the neckline.  those were easy and all came from the first Goodwill we stopped at.  The jacket was harder since it has to have a shawl collar and be green.  I found a double breasted black and white jacket that was 98% cotton that I can make work.

The first task on altering the jacket was getting rid of the brown buttons, the ties, and the belt loops.  After that, some judicious alteration on the sewing machine to take it in, close up the pockets, get rid of the pleating in the back, and change the shape of the collar and make it not double-breasted.   I ended up keeping the buttonholes and just turning the double-breasted extra fabric back on itself.  That meant I had to sew a new buttonhole on the side that had previously been underneath, but that wasn't a problem.  Then I dyed it green.  I found some tatty lace and two large black wooden buttons as well as four black satin covered buttons to add to the lapels. I just sewed the covered buttons back where the brown plastic ones had been. It looks really good.

I dyed Rob's hair black last night and we decided to do the scarring with latex.  So we'll partially shave his head probably Saturday night, so he'll be ready for the latex and makeup Sunday morning.  We are super excited to meet Billie Piper in our Penny Dreadful cosplay!

Change of plans, we shaved Rob's head tonight because we found out that David Tennant is only going to be there on Saturday, which moved Billy Piper up to Friday.  So we'll drive down there, check into the hotel, get into our Penny Dreadful cosplay, the kids will do their Doctor Who cosplay and then we'll go stand in line for Billie Piper first thing.  So she gets to see both of our cosplays at the same time.  Then if that's all we get done Friday, that's fine.  Then Saturday we'll put the kids back into Doctor Who and we'll do our old school Doctor Who and go stand in line for David Tennant.  Saturday night is the big Dia de los Muertos festival so that's going to be our after party. Sunday we are wearing our various superhero costumes that don't really go together.  Sarah is Capt. America as a girl, Seth is Nightwing, Sylvan is Deadpool, Rob is Frank Miller's Dark Knight, and the closest thing I have to a Superhero shirt is either Star Wars or Harry Potter.  I guess I need to remedy that.

In addition to Rob and I doing Tom Baker and Sarah Jane about 3 years ago, the kids are now doing Christopher Eccleston (Seth), David Tennant (Sylvan), and Billie Piper (Sarah).  Both David Tennant and Billie Piper will be at Alamocity, so this is something we are all looking forward to.

I decided to do "The Doctor Dances" for Seth and Sarah and "Runaway Bride" for me and Sylvan which left Rob with Tom Baker.  Seth already had black pants and boots and a leather jacket, he just needed a maroon v-neck shirt which I found at H2H.  I got Sarah a Union Flag shirt in her size which is ridiculously small and was hard to find. Sarah's shirt came from Yizzam on Amazon Marketplace.  Free shipping with Prime membership but a hefty $29.99 for less than a yard of fabric.  She already owned dark wash jeans and blue converse.  I need to find her a black leather jacket. 

I found a company that makes replica film suits and ordered Sylvan one in his size immediately, since they ship from Iceland.  Here is their website. https://www.fjackets.com/buy/David-Tennant-Doctor-Who-Suit.html.  They were having a sale and I only paid $179.00.  The pants and coat are ordered separately so if you're an odd size, like Sylvan is right now-- a 36" coat and 34" pant--then you'll be glad.  It should be here Monday.    His Converse shoes came from Academy online.  They were having a clearance sale, $38.00 and free shipping with no tax. The big problem for me was although I had access to about 12 wedding dresses but none of them fit me.  I didn't have time to fool around with shopping for one or making one, definitely too much trouble and not enough time.  So my fall back plan was just to go with Sarah Jane.

None of the boys remembered to bring a sonic screw driver and we have about a dozen at home.  I couldn't believe it!  And the photographers would have photoshopped in a magical glow too.  Missed opportunity.