She-Ra and Elsa Trade Candy, Jokes at Local Park

Let me tell you, we have really gotten our money’s worth out of this She-Ra costume. It is possibly the most-worn Halloween costume in the history of our family, and Kina/She-Ra really pulled out all the stops yesterday, as we zoomed off to McGolrick Park in the mid-afternoon for some high-quality Halloween festival nonsense. Meeting us there was Kina’s buddy Futura, who came dressed as Elsa (one of six in the park, according to Laurea). The two of them, in classic form, terrorized the local townsfolk with their secret powers—chasing a hopped-up teen in an inflatable Pikachu costume, at least two unicorns, a pair of unrelated toddlers dressed as sheep, and a small child in a stroller whom Kina identified as “P.J. Maxxxx!!!!”

They also collected a substantial load of candy from various cleverly-built chutes and friendly young mutual aid activists around Greenpoint. That morning, Laurea had found Kina’s Halloween bag, full of last year’s haul (which she disposed of discreetly). With that in mind, we decided to hit up just six candy chutes before peeling off and sounding the Purge siren. The adults in our party, having decided that 2020 would be a good year to just not care how much candy our kids ate, looked on with resignation as Kina and Futura each plowed through several tiny candy bars, two boxes of Nerds, and a fistful of lollipops, growing more and more extremely psyched and intense with each bite. By the end of it, Futura was guarding Kina’s stash from strange children like a paranoid billionaire stranded in a shopping mall. Kina, for her part, was doing her “stompy dance” and gnashing her teeth. It was dystopian but also kind of cute.

At one point, Kina/She-Ra passed a group of three grown adults dressed as supporting characters from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power—Glimmer, Entrapta, and Shadow Weaver—who somehow had not engaged an actual She-Ra for their “Best Friend Squad” (a group that true fans of SRatPoP know canonically includes just Adora, Glimmer, and Bow, but I digress.) As they swooned, Kina sucked on a lollipop and paid them little mind. Even though they are clearly less invested in the canon, they were very nice and I took a picture for posterity.

As the sun began to set, we called it quits on the park, strolling off to end the night at a local slice joint, the kids somehow simultaneously twitchy and bleary-eyed, smearing cheese on their faces and dancing on the tables. On the whole, it was a great day.

Today’s Parade cover is an extremely accurate depiction of our favorite candy chute of the day—a dragon head in papier-maché, with a doorbell that summoned chocolate. Kina can be seen at far right. Laurea produced this illustration on her own, as Kina was being stompy over the fact that I’d asked her not to throw scissors at me. This newsroom is an HR nightmare.

The clock in Kina’s room is set to wake her at 6:15 AM tomorrow, which I believe means 7:15 AM. It is 9:19 PM now, which I think means it’s 10:19 PM. One way or another, we’re gonna end up drawing the short straw tomorrow morning, so off to bed it is. Sleep well, dream of Nerds.

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