Funny or Die posted this photo on Google + today and when I saw it, I wanted to cry. This picture says it all. How many times have you snapped at your kiddos and said things that you wished you could take back immediately. I know I have.

I am making a challenge to say at least five nice things about my kids to my kids everyday, even on the days that I just want to scream.  I encourage you (if you are a parent) to do the same and lets stop this picture from happening in our kids lives.

Wandering Havoc

I recently had the pleasure of writing a blog post for my local (and awesome) game store, Wandering Havoc. I had written a post earlier about finding the perfect game store and I am blessed to call Wandering Havoc my home.

I wrote the post about gaming with your kids, which I think is important. What I focused most on this post was how to game with your kids and not pull your hair out. Making sure that you know your kids limits and also that your kids understand the game store rules is very important, especially if you want to be asked back!

We are lucky that our fellow gamers at Wandering Havoc embrace us as well as our kids. In fact, when I don’t have the kids with me, everyone asks where they are! I love that feeling. I hope that you enjoy this post and get to know me as a gamer parent more and get to know the Wandering Havoc crew as well.

If you want to know more about some of the games from a

(new person) perspective, make sure to check out this link. Chris is hilarious as he explores the ins and outs of a lot of the popular table top games.

Maybelline's The Falsies Mascara

I normally don’t give much credence to the makeup companies advertising for mascara. I have weeny lashes and none of the volumizing, plumping, etc kinds have worked to make my lashes look halfway decent. Until yesterday… I picked up a new mascara to replenish my makeup box (with a minimal amount in it) and I picked up Maybelline’s The Falsies Volum’ Express. I gave it a try and I have to tell you, it actually works! I have big awesome eyelashes now! Finally a product that matches what the advertisers are spinning!

Now I thought this would be awesome for cosplay because you can now eliminate wearing those pain in the butt false eyelashes! If you are like me, you hate them, I can’t seem to keep the stupid things on! But now I don’t have to! Just try the mascara and tell me what you think!

So boredom struck one day and I decided to clean up the clutter in my house. The remotes are always plaguing me as they just lie about everywhere and are never where you need them! So I figured out how to make a plastic canvas remote control box with vehicles from Star Wars. Let me know what you think!

Y-Wing and Tie FIghter

“Cosplay is evil!”, “Why do people do this?” or “Aren’t the costumes too scary for kids?” As a nerd-core mom, I hear this one a lot. So we’re going to take some time to address this one.

First off, what is cosplay? Well here it is: is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea (taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosplay).

Cosplay is not evil, well not any more evil than dressing up for Halloween. If you have an issue with Halloween, then yes, you will have an issue with cosplay. (Nuf said on that)

Why people do this, well, for lots of reasons. It’s fun to dress up. It takes skill to make these costumes, and you can win prizes for them. Not only that, this is a great way for someone who wants to breakout into costume design to show off their skills.

Here are some great examples of great cosplay from Emerald City Comicon

Steam Punk Guy

Sophia with Rogue

Awesome Costumes

As you can see a lot of work and mastery went into these costumes. The hand on the Steam Punk Guy was fully articulated and really cool to watch it work! Rogue made her own costume and I love the Victorian/SteamPunk couple! (What can I say, I’m a sucker for the Victorian era!)

Are the costumes too scary for kids? I addressed part of this in an earlier post. However I will address this again. Yes, some costumes can be a bit scary for kids. But for the most part they are not. You will get some wild, crazy and scary costumes at times, but the people wearing them are generally nice people who will take the time to try and calm the kids down if they have freaked them out. As I mentioned in the post about kids and conventions, there was a very realistic zombie guy who yelled Boo to startle me at PAX, what he didn’t know was that I had the kids with me (he couldn’t see them). He scared the lights out of Sophia (6yrs) and made her cry. He apologized profusely, but I asked him if he could tell her about his makeup. So, he got down on her level and we talked about his makeup and color contacts. After that, she declared that not all zombies are bad. (Let her learn the truth later…) While some kids are scared of people in masks, the people in the masks are pretty aware of this and will usually take off the masks if asked, or will just take them off without being asked to show the kids that there is someone under there and usually that calms the fears. I think that kids genuinely like to be able to see a person’s eyes and face and when they can’t it scares them. I think this might be due to the fact that younger kids, who aren’t fully communicative relies on facial expression on how they perceive a person, take that away and the kids gets scared. (Enough psychobabble, get back to point!)

Cosplay in and of itself is not evil, weird or really scary. A lot of times it is just plain cool. Taking the time to educate kids about cosplay and how they made their costumes can be awesome. This can foster a kids creativity and excitement about something. Maybe they having a hard time with something in their lives and this could be a great outlet for them to create and have fun. This is also a great way to teach kids to sew, knit, create jewelry and etc. Sophia told me that next year, she wants to dress up for Comicon, and I encourage it!

Image via Wikipedia

So, the nerd-core community has gotten a lot of flak about kids and nerd-core. “Video games are violent and lead to obesity!” “Cosplay is evil! Kids shouldn’t dress up in those costumes!” “Comics are violent and not helping kids learn to read!”

I could go on, but I think you get the point. Let’s address these one by one, shall we? This first part of a three part series will address video games.

Video games are violent and lead to obesity. While there are violent video games out there, there are also ratings for each game. There is a great rating system put in place called the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board). This board determines each video game rating and they are accurate! They have a great website to check out each game and what the rating is as well, so if Johnny wants to play Gears of War 3, you can look it up and check it out on the site before you shell out the dough for it. Not sure what the ratings mean, their website also explains what each of the ratings mean. If you are a parent with any gaming console, you better know what these ratings mean! Don;t expect the people at the store to automatically help you on this one. I once saw a clerk suggest Gears of War 2 (which is rated M for Mature ages 17 +) to a mom of a 7 year old. I quickly told the lady about the rating system and suggested a much age appropriate game. Just because it’s the hottest game on the market, doesn’t mean it’s E for Everyone! With Sesame Street jumping on board with Nintendo for their Elmo’s A to Zoo Adventure and Cookie’s Counting Carnival , kids can actually learn in a fun new way!

As for the obesity issue, yes if you let your children game for over an hour a day they might get bigger! Of course if one sits in front of the TV for hours, the same is true. As parents, we need to have limits on how long our kids game for. Each of the gaming consoles have a timer set up on them that you can control how long your child can game for. (Hint: it’s usually in the system settings) Now there are days here at our house where we, as a family, will game all day. However that is few and far between.

With game systems like the Wii and the Xbox Kinect, people are getting their derrieres off the couch to play and I happily applaud both Nintendo and Microsoft on this one! One of Sophia’s (my 6 year old) favorite game is the Zumba game for the Kinect. She loves it! Whenever Brad (hubby) or I do a workout with the Wii or the Kinect, Sophia is right there with us doing it too!

So to wrap part 1 up in a neat little bow, parents need to realize that it is their job to watch the ratings on games and to make sure that their kids get plenty of fresh air and healthy food. Playing video games isn’t a bad thing, but it can become one if not supervised. So, please if you hear someone saying things like video games are bad, please stop to reconsider.

At Emerald City Comicon, I got a chance to talk with Jacob Chabot, of the Might Skullboy Army comic, which is a kids comic! (YEA!!!) As a mom, finding kid-friendly comics can be hard, so I jump at the chance to find a new one for my kiddos!

Jacob talks about how he got into kid comics and why he got into kid comics as well. He talks about the new Spongebob comic as well!

TRON cupcakes

(This was sent to me by a dear friend Wendy!) I am a HUGE TRON nerd. I love TRON! I can’t help it, I do! So when my friend, Wendy sent this my way, I had a nerdgasm!

This great website, TipJunkie has the coolest birthday party stuff! They have printables, great ideas and everything you could need, including a birthday planning worksheet! This is a new favorite of mine, as I have two little girls with birthdays coming up!

But most of all, they have TRON birthday stuff!! How awesome is that!!! So make sure to check out TipJunkie for you awesome party needs and ideas!

Image via Wikipedia

Lately, I have been on a kick about going back in time to doing things the old way. We no longer have a microwave, which I have to say, I really don’t miss. I’m baking bread from scratch (no bread machine use) and I’ve been doing more knitting projects.

I think this might be due to the fact that our family has been watching a lot of the Love Comes Softly movie series,  Little House on the Prairie and the Anne of Green Gables series as well. While some people might call this place in time archaic, I find it comforting. I love how simple and uncluttered with stuff their lives were. Not to say that they didn’t have their problems, but they were simpler back then. Now, it’s a lot more complicated!

What I love most about this time period is that you reaped what you sowed. I love knowing that the bread on my table is the bread I made with my own hands, a machine didn’t make it for me. Or the sweater that Sophia wears is made by my time and effort. I find comfort in this, that this is not only from my work, but that my daughters can see this as well and benefit. One day they will teach their daughters, just as my mom, Grandma and Nana taught me.

In the world that can seem crazy, busy and cluttered, there is still time to make bread, knit a sweater and provide with manual labor for my family.

I have moms ask me if I take my two daughters to comic book, gaming and sci-fi conventions. I always tell them yes, I do! Nerdcore newb moms usually do one of two things at this point: 1. they look at me funny or 2. they ask me questions about how we do it as a family.

So, here’s my answer as to making conventions a family affair. First off, know what your kids can handle. If they don’t do well in crowded spaces with lots of people dressed up in cosplay (in character), a convention is probably not the best idea for them. I started my kids off young. Sarah was a baby (and almost born at Emerald City Comicon 2009) and Sophia was two when they attended their first cons (conventions). I choose to use cons as teachable moments. Sophia (6) can’t get enough of Penny Arcade Expo (PAX, for short), she loves playing the games and talking to the people who made the games. At PAX Prime, she played Epic Mickey and loved it! So much, that she was telling her friends at school that they needed the game and it wasn’t set to release until four months after the con! Most con people love seeing kids at the con. In fact, I can tell you that Sophia has gotten up on stage every year at the Harmonix booth at PAX and they remember her and love her to death! She gets up to sing and rock it out and they eat it up! Sophia has actually been featured on the Harmonix website. (Not bad for a 6 year old!)

What moms also ask me a lot is what do I do about my kids and scary cosplay costumes. As I have a theater background, I am really big on turning these types of moments into teachable moments. For example, Sophia was terrified of people in masks at previous cons, but all it took was one guy dressed up (in amazing) Master Chief (Halo) armor to take off his mask and get down on her level for her to stop being scared. Once Sophia saw that it was a real person inside, she was just fine. Most cosplay people are really cool about things like that. At PAX last year, there was a guy promoting a zombie fest or something like that. His makeup was amazing, but scary! It scared the poo out of Sophia, but I nicely asked the guy if I could borrow him for a moment and he got down on her level and told her all about the makeup he was wearing and that it was just makeup. She then thought that was the coolest thing EVER and she gave the zombie a hug, because zombie need love too! Sarah was a HUGE hit with the Frag Dolls and as you can see from the video, they loved her!

Now for the essentials to have at a con with kids:

• Baby backpack! Strollers are really not practical, because you spend most of the time fighting the crowd and hitting peoples ankles. Totally not worth it if you have small kids!
• Snacks (if allowed). Snacks are always good to have on hand as cons are typically all day events.
• Knowing what the event staff shirts look like. This is important! Make sure that your kids know what the event staff shirts look like, in case God forbid they get separated from you, they know who to go to. (As a former event staffer, it happens and we are all prepared for it)
• Knowing the layout of the con. Again, really important, especially for knowing where all the bathrooms are. If it’s emergency, you don’t want to have to consult the guide for 5 minutes while your kid is trying not to have an accident, which brings me to…
• Extra clothes. Accidents happen and not just the potty kind. I got drenched one year as a staffer by someone who bumped into me with a full soda. Luckily, I had an extra staff shirt.
• Bring a camera! I have some of the best photos
• Lastly, remember to have fun! This is a chance for kids to explore, learn and understand the world around them! Sophia has comics this year that she wants signed at Emerald City Comicon and again, she is ready to go when PAX comes around. Go to the booths and let the kids talk to the people, who knows they might learn something new. Sophia learned about roller derby one year and she loves seeing the gals at Rat City Rollergirls now!

Here’s a video showcasing our family experience at PAX Prime last year! And a big shout out to my friend, Jessica, who inspired this post!