The Family That Fights Evil Together...

One thing about working with "young adults" is that you often find yourself agreeing to things outside of your comfort zone.   Meeting with a "stranger" and agreeing to be a mentor, giving "talks", sitting on panels - stuff like that.  What I didn't see coming was being asked to participate in a Disney costume party.  That's one of those things you find in the mail and go, "Ohhhhh...what do we have already going on that night?  Anything?  Nothing to use as an excuse?!!"  Especially, when I read the invite more carefully and discovered that our family was being asked to come dressed as "The Incredibles".  Well, that's a fun choice, alright.  That Disney hit might just be behind "Tangled" as my all time favorite from Disney movie.  It never gets old.  But, let me just say that this body of mine does not resemble "Elasta-Girl".  And, John did find himself a little at odds with posing as "Mr. Incredible".  But, we knew "Violet" could pull it off easily enough.  (Though, if there's ever a next time, I think it would be worth it to use a "one wash coloring" to have her hair black....then she'd be spot on!)  Sadly, "Dash" would not be able to be in attendance as that was the same night and time as his Homecoming Dance.

It really came down to who asked us to attend - I just can't say no to Alysha - much less her two housemates, Joanna and Taylor, who have had the idea of a dress up Disney party in the works for years.  I did mention we'd not be staying long - the Washington State/UO Game was also taking place at the same time - a late decision by the athletic dept. as far as game-time, which resulted in us selling the tickets since Brayden wouldn't have been able to make it anyway.  

As far as costumes, we were pretty certain we wouldn't be doing the "jumpsuit" kind - not enough Spandex to ever make that ever happen.  But, we were able to find t-shirts that fit all of us online, and with the help of a box of $4 foam masks from Target, and some gold material purchased at Walmart - we were able to pull a semi-decent costume out of it all.  John was even brave enough to wear his Underarmour Thermal tights - yes, he's a man's man.  We were literally hot-glue-gunning the gold sashes around our waists right before leaving to the party (immediately after returning from the Meyers where we took pics for Homecoming....we thought it appropriate to don our costumes AFTER that experience.  While Brayden's been a bit of a pill this last week, even he doesn't deserve that kind of parental mortification!)

So - this is how it turned out - picture taken in the room that they put together as a photo-booth spot.

Doesn't Mikayla have her impersonation nailed?  We'd already ordered a costume for her for Halloween (Alice in Wonderland...she kind of has that look-alike down too) - otherwise, we might have made a "Family Act" out of it on October 31st...maybe next year if we still feel brave enough!

With the Riley smiles in place...

I still need to download a picture of all three of them together, but our hostesses were the three girls on the right side of these pictures.  "Snow White" (Joanna), "Jasmine" (Taylor), and "Rapunzel" (Tangled) was Alysha.  What they did to make this party happen - with all of the backdrops, treats, props, and decor was amazing.  But, the way they looked - WOW!  And, I'm not sure if anyone that we saw arrive actually purchased a pre-made outfit.  This crew is a crafty and creative bunch - lots of thrift store finds were pieced together resulting in dramatic transformations.   It was like the old "House of Mouse" show, where all of the heroes and villains came together in one place. 

In the left picture, those four girls are all sisters - whew!  What proud parents they must have!  "Esmerelda" (Hunchback of Notre Dame), "Pocahontas", "Princess Kida" (The Lost City of Atlantis), all joined their sister, "Snow". 

This was what the back of Alysha's hair looked like - there's no doubt when you see that who she is supposed to be.  So pretty!

Taylor said that she picked her character ("Jasmine") based entirely on the fact that her fiancee, Phillip, already looks so much like "Aladdin".  Yup, he nailed that.  

This couple, Emily and Matthew were "Meg" and "Hercules" from the movie, "Hercules".  

"Anastasia" joined the princesses in this picture.

The two characters in between "Hercules" and "Meg" are "Zeus" and "Helena" - appropriate as they are the real life parents of those four sisters above.

 One of the "101 Dalmations" along with "Cruella De Ville"

"Maid Marion" (Robin Hood), and "Prince Eric" (The Little Mermaid) joined the crew in the photo booth.

Right before we left, "Silver Mist" (Tinkerbelle) - aka Ashley Krause and "Alice in Wonderland", aka Alli Mertz showed up and took pics with us.

At the point we left (about an hour after the party started), the house was overflowing with Disney characters.  They had invited about 115 people and researched enough to assign characters to every single invitee.  As it turned out, about 50 or more folks ended up coming.  Based on the pics from Facebook, it looked like a fantastic time was had by all - full of Disney re-enactment skits and other activities.  I think John and I had felt like we'd stretched ourselves enough by that point, and were happy enough to retreat to the safety zone of the Whites house to watch the Duck game.  =)

Here's a pic I put on Instagram giving some of the broad effect of the evening.  We were definitely honored to have attended...as it was an "Incredible" evening!  =)