I’m a little late writing this one.  This story starts in September 2024 when Esme was having trouble fitting in at school.  It was one of the contributing factors for us to decide to homeschool again.  Another was Nova’s distaste of early mornings and being told what to do when at school. 

Of course I was interested in spending more time with the girls during these critical years (almost as critical as those first years, especially for girls in my opinion).  But back in September 2024 I was pretty unsure this was the right path.  I didn’t like the idea of avoiding something important just because you didn’t like it.  I also had gotten pretty used to having time to myself when the kids were gone at school.  But you know I love an adventure, and homeschooling is an adventure. 

So we made a plan to take the girls out of school in early December.  Meanwhile, Esme had really gotten into watching a show called Owl House.  One of her laments about the girls at school was that no one liked Owl House or any of the other things she liked and she hoped she would find some friends through homeschooling that had the same interests as her.  I knew this would not be a problem.  My experience was that homeschooled kids have a wide variety of interests and many “special interests” i.e. things they know an awful lot about and get really excited to talk about.  But we were months away from that since this was still September. 

The girls were also working on their Halloween costumes for 2024.  Every year we usually make a costume for each kid.  Going back down memory lane, there were adorable costumes we made like a peacock for Asa, cotton candy for Esme, and Glinda for Nova.   Well as they got older, it was trending toward very obscure video game characters that you couldn’t buy a costume for if you wanted.  We would either buy fabric or thrift items for these costumes, buying an accessory or two along the way and sewing or glueing everything together. 

The point of all of this backstory is that I decided I would help Esme along in meeting others with similar interests by finding a convention for us to attend.  I looked up Owl House characters in a “con” database and saw that a couple would be at Galaxycon Columbus which was scheduled for December 2024. 

I bought tickets for Nole, Asa, Esme and myself (Nova was young enough to attend for free) and booked a room with points at the Hilton attached to the conference center in Columbus.  We worked on the girls’ costumes together.  Nova wanted to be a “preppy Lorax” and Esme wanted to be Cyn from Murder Drones.  Nova also chose a Murder Drones costume to use for trick or treating with Esme and their cousin Alaina. 

As December approached, Nole and Asa were not excited about going so we pivoted and invited Melissa and her kids, offering them our two extra tickets.  Melissa and Katy decided to join us.  I threw together a few last minute costumes for myself and we were on our way.

We loved having an indoor walking path to the convention across a skywalk.  We could go back to the room to eat, rest and change costumes.  When the girls crossed the skywalk they would chant “T-T-Tunnel-Time”. 

We saw “Hunter” (Xeno Robinson) from Owl House but his line was really long so we didn’t talk to him.  The voice actors and other B list celebs sit at tables where you can line up to meet them.  The goal of this is mostly for pictures and autographs which the stars charge anywhere from $40-200 for.  They usually allow you to just say hello for free and when we visited booths with the kids, most of the voice actors would do a line that their character is famous for and answer a question or two.  The girls loved this. 

There are also vendors selling merch and all kinds of animation, superhero and pop culture inspired things for sale – many of them handmade and sold by their artists and artisans.  My favorite part was going to panels and demonstrations.  They also had an activity room for kids where we made slime and took drawing classes. 

Here are some of the other cool things we saw and did at Galaxycon Columbus.

Esme even ran into other girls dressed as characters from Murder Drones who recognized her costume and asked to take pictures with her. 

I got a little emotional a few times at the convention just seeing everyone being accepted for who they are and finding a place to fit in. 

After that, we went to a few other smaller cons.  This one was Anime MKE.

At Nostalgia Con Milwaukee (with Alaina and Nova’s friend Alice) we saw Xeno again and this time he didn’t have a long line.  The girls pooled their money to get a picture with him.

In the meantime, Esme did make some friends in the homeschool group that liked Murder Drones and Owl House but over the past year she discovered that a friend doesn’t need to share your interest but needs to have an interest in you and accept you for who you are.