Have No Fear, the Pink Spider is Here

One of Char's favorite games is "chase". She runs around the house, and you have to pretend you can't catch her as you follow her path.

To make sure you can't get your hands on her, Char has invented two super powers. Her first super power is "speed button". When she thinks you are getting too close, she'll shout, "Speed button!" and start sprinting. Her other super power is the ability to shoot a spider web. She momentarily stops, points her bottom at you, and makes a "pew" sound. Your job is to abruptly stop, throw up you hands, and mime being caught in an invisible web. Usually I say, "Boing!" when I mime her web catching me.

Last summer her super powers morphed into a super hero persona. Now when it's time to play chase, Charlotte becomes the Pink Spider! Like her super powers, I have no idea where she came up with this name, but I like it.

Last month Char announced she wasn't going to be a fireman or a witch this Halloween. She is going as the Pink Spider. Okay, that's cool. We want to support her creativity, but that means we can't just go to Target and buy her outfit. We have to make it. Hmmm...

Luckily, my friend Tim is an artist who teaches art at my school. I asked Tim if he could design a Pink Spider logo for a super hero outfit, and he took the job seriously. First he did some preliminary sketches for us to look over.

We chose the design in the middle, and Tim concentrated on getting that design refined. Once he was satisfied with the spider and it's "speed button flames", he experimented with different fonts.

In the end, Charlotte chose the design on the left.

I made the decision to have Tim remove the word "the", and then it was time to do some screen printing after school.

Here's Tim laying down the textile ink to test the screen on a piece of paper.

Now it's time to try it on a test shirt of mine.

Looks good!

Drying time. Looks like I can now be an official Pink Spider henchmen.

Now it's time to get nervous. Here comes Char's costume.

Yea!

Daphne got a henchman shirt, too.

But wait, there's more!

Daphne thought the costume needed webs to connect the sleeves to the sides of the shirt, so she got to work.

Throw in an eye mask from Target's "Dollar Stop" (I take back what I said about Target not helping us), and you're all set.

Tonight we went to the Blank Park Zoo's "Night Eyes". And the Pink Spider was ready for action!

Did people "Ooooh and Ahhhh" over Char's costume? 

No. Everybody else was more concerned with their own children... as they should be. But Charlotte was so excited to be the only Pink Spider in the crowd. Silently I was bursting with pride.

I think I know what our RAGBRAI team name will be next year.