The Hunt for Constance

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Maddie had youth tonight, but while she was at church, we went over to a thrift shop to assemble a costume for her that she was asking to dress as. She wants to be Constance Hatchaway.  That's the ghost bride from the Haunted Mansion, or the bride in the attic.  She was just a creepy bride at one point with no real significant effort of a story behind her character, at least in the ride.  But soon that evolved, and there were portraits of ex-husbands, or rather axe-husbands.  See what I did there?  Anyway, she's somewhat of a black widow character, and not the super spy sort of variety.  Apparently she's a ghost now, and she's looking for a new husband perhaps?  Or she just likes using her axe.  Either way, that aspect of her story has really developed over the years.   Based on the 2003 movie, the ghost bride had an entirely more innocent background, and the short story of "The Bride in the Attic" has another story that makes the bride a lot less menacing.  I think my favorite rendition of Constance may be version of her we see in the comic book series, where she's a bride in the attic that even the ghosts in the mansion know to stay away from.  Imagine that, all these ghosts scared of a ghost.  Anyway, Maddie always loves this ride at Disney, and while at the parks you can always hear Maddie semi-singing, "Hurry back.  Hurrrrry baaaack."  So tonight we found some items that can pass as a wedding dress for her, and material that Mom is going to convert into a veil.  The plastic axe will be from the tin woodman.  Or maybe she'll have a cleaver instead - we have a plastic version of one of those too.  Oh, and a bouquet too.  Got to have that.  She'll look great on Halloween!

So Youth was tonight, as I said, and it was a FCY United Night, which meant that all the kids from the Georgia campuses came to the same location for a night of worship, a short message, and then basically a small amusement park outside.  There was free food, slides, rides, music, and just a lot of fun for everyone.  Maddie had a great time, and it was a little chaotic, but it was a whole lot of fun.  We picked her up a few hours later after we dropped her off, and she said she had a great time.  

We got home, and it was late - so we read, and we said our prayers and got to sleep.  It was a fun night!