Geek Girl Con: Day 2 - All Good Things Must End

Day 2 of Geek Girl Con was a post drizzle morning with just a bit of chill in the air.  My kids were a little sad I didn't want to wear my full costume again, but I did bring my cloak.  The girls opted out of their geeky woot tees and returned to the con in their full Princess Leia garb and I'm happy to say my skill with their hair was better the second time, by Halloween it'll completely rock!!!!

After breakfast we made it out of our hotel room and into the con (well the girls and I did) just in time for the Women of Science panel that we have been looking forward to since the panels were listed.  The kids missed out on making Labrynth sock puppets since Orcrist had to take care of the hotel room and moving the car to public parking, but at least Ver1 liked hearing from the scientists and they eagerly talked about not only getting into the sciences, but stuff even elementary school kids can do.  One of the panelists even gets contacted about having her research used at elementary science fairs.  Since we loved the science fair last year, we may start asking some local scientists for ideas and to use their research, I guess I never thought of that.  On my own personal mission to figure out if what I should do now that I have to grow up (at least enough to provide for our family), I was encouraged to take advantage of Mom's return to grad school scholarships and to harass professors to find where and what I really want to do.  Apparently, most professors don't find this annoying, so that's great news!

We regrouped after the science panel and had a full packed day.  Next time I really need to figure out more things like food, since this was largely an after thought and I have a really bad habit of just forgetting all about food.  We wandered into the game room where Card Kingdom was hosting a miniatures painting event.  The girls had a blast painting little warriors in a variety of bright colors.  I also barely finished my orc warrior before the Geeks raising Geeks panel.  Even the kids were excited about this one because their new friend Katie was going to be sitting up front.  It was very crowded and there were so many people with good questions I was very glad I'd been able to talk with a couple of the panelists the day before about some of my questions regarding keeping above grade level kids going, which didn't get discussed during the panel.  It was such a wonderful group with so much insight, if the kids could have sat through it, I would have loved to see it have another hour!

After the panel we went back to the vendor hall for more playing with the 501st Legion and to do a little looking around.  Unfortunately, our playing with the other kid cosplayers left us little time to eat before the puppet Yoda panel which we were initially turned away from.  However, some of the volunteer suggested hanging out to see if anyone left, so tears dried (my 4 year old had a hard time with being told she couldn't do crafts since we missed the sock puppets and the masks).  Thankfully two people at the back table gave up their seats long enough for the girls to make a sack puppet to bring home, which only took about 40 minutes out of the 2 hour panel.  Ms. Burton invited each artist to show off their completed puppets, many of which were not Yoda, and each of the girls got a Geek Girl warm round of applause for their efforts on their Yodas and I'm proud to say that aside from holding some felt steady and a bit of paste smearing each girl completely made their own puppets including cutting all the felt (yes I let my 4 year old cut whatever shapes she wanted) which was big for me because I like to get my hands in the stuff too.  And ya know what, they looked good!

After that we separated with Orcrist taking the younger kids to the game room, while Ver1 and I went to the STEM panel.  I was really happy there were so many science panels which seem to get overlooked at most cons in favor of games, media, and celebrities.  While the panel was mostly directed at encouraging women in science to talk with local schools and local girls to help tear down stereotypes that scientists work in isolation and can't be full human beings.  It wasn't really as helpful as I hoped for Ver1 and myself.  We are already excited about science and really wanted to see some more resources that we could introduce to the school or even our home, you know things I can do as a Mom.  Although based on what I was hearing a lot of, I'm doing what I can do now.  I guess I'm not such a bad Mom :)

After this I wanted to go to the Writing Through Real Life: How to Write With a Day Job or a Baby to Change panel, but the STEM panel let out 10 mins late and it was standing room only.  We'd also promised the kids 2 trips up the space needle (the day and night package since I'd never been up the space needle at night) and it was going to get dark sooner rather than later.  So Ver1 and I walked back to the game room to pick up everyone else.  While there the board game winners were announced.  Orc didn't win anything, but it was still fun to see who did.  The kids were completely absorbed in playing with IceDice and the Dr. Horrible/Captain Hammer siblings were playing against my Leias so we ended up waiting for the game to wrap up and the game room to close.  As a result we didn't go to the first part of the closing ceremony, but we did make it into the EMP theater just after Labyrinth had started.

I don't think my kids had ever seen Labyrinth, in fact I'm fairly sure they hadn't.  It was a bit scary for Ver2, but she wouldn't look away and she refused to leave.  I think it was a bit easier because there was a bit of audience participation and lots of laughing during the movie (both at the movie and at one-liners shouted by audience members).  At the end of the movie, Ver1 decided she liked it, Ver2 decided the beginning and the ending were good, but she thought the actual labyrinth was too scary.  Everyone was glad we went.  We followed it with using our other space needle ride and then started the trek for coffee (unfortunately, boxed organic - 2.5 days in Seattle and not once did I get real coffee) and returning home.  We hit our front door very early this morning, but it was all worth it!