I took my five and six year olds to Comicon today. I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into, but I’d already bought tickets months ago.

When our regular sitter couldn’t come (due to our negligence in asking until the last minute) my husband gracefully bowed out, encouraging me to take the kids instead.

( but not the three year old. We aren’t crazy)

They began the day with exclamations of delight over Frappuccino’s and muffins, with the five year old exclaiming rapturously;

“I’m so in love right now that I’m going to dream of strawberry Frappuccino and chocolate chip muffins.”

The six year old’s mouth was too full to say anything, so we drove there relatively peacefully.

But just as I created the hill into the stampede parking lot, the traffic came to a grinding halt.

When I saw the line up, I gratefully remembered my friend showing me a back alley to park down, and headed to my favorite secret spot, which was luckily still available.

We followed the rivulets of people into the main show area, walking through artist alley and exclaiming over every costume.

The five year old was surprising accurate about all of the costumes I didn’t know, while the six year old was in awe over how many Spider-Man’s were present.

Some pizza and bouncy houses later, they were ready to go. Faces flushed from a warm and sunny day, we walked back to the car and I wondered what next year will bring.

Will my books be on artist alley, next to other authors I knew?

Only time will tell.