I was a big Strawberry Shortcake fan as a kid. Oh, I loved a lot of the girl-centric 80s cartoons; Care Bears, Rainbow Brite, My Little Pony, and She-Ra, but there was a point in time when my entire bedroom was decorated with Strawberry Shortcake. I had the sheets, I had the play kitchen (my cousin Vanessa inherited that when I outgrew it), I had the bookcase (I still do, holding stuff in the attic), and when I went to my very first Halloween party in playgroup (our version of preschool), my very first Halloween costume was, naturally, Strawberry Shortcake. The problem was, 80s costumes weren't...great. For some reason Ben Cooper, Inc. decided the very best way to depict a character was to make a thin plastic mask that cracked if you breathed too hard, held on to your face by a flimsy piece of elastic that usually snapped before the night was over, that you wore on top of a vinyl smock that felt like wearing a shower curtain and, rather than attempt to duplicate the outfit your character was wearing, instead had a picture of the character you were supposed to be on the front. Jesus Christ Bananas.

I don't know when the idea of throwing myself a birthday party started germinating my head. I hadn't had one since my 30th. I had dreamed about throwing a big Avengers themed one for my 40th, but I turned 40 in 2020, so that was obviously impossible. 2024 had been a rough year for me in a lot of ways, but I had gotten together with my OPIB friends for wonderful weekends in both August and September, why not try for October as well? My mom's place in Pennsylvania is much closer (about half the distance) to everyone else so it's easier for them to make the trip. And because I wasn't allowed to trick-or-treat until I moved upstate, Mom used to throw me costume parties for my birthday since it's so close to Halloween. With all of those nostalgia factors in play, I knew I had to recreate my very first costume for my party.

Licensed costumes have come a LONG way. The only thing I did different was buy a Raggedy Ann wig rather than the sleek wig recommended with the costume, as Strawberry's hair has always looked like thick yarn to me. I had found the perfect shoes on Amazon but they were out of stock by the time I went to buy them, so I just wore the brown loafers I had bought for my Tohru costume. My makeup came out *extremely* well, and I can't tell you how delighted my mom was when I came out in costume. And as my birthday present, my boyfriend Val paid for all of the Strawbery Shortcake party supplies you see in the pictures. If I ever have a reason to wear this again, maybe I'll try again for the shoes (and I would LOVE a vintage Custard plushie, I'm still searching eBay!) but if not, I'm just glad I did it--and that I have so many good friends that go along with my silly party themes.

Oh, and the quote? Normally I try to find something either quintessential the character says, or something that resonated with me personally that made me want to cosplay the character. This one's a little different; I watched Strawberry Shortcake so much as a kid, subjecting everyone in my family to it that, one night at dinner, at least thirty plus years later, my uncle started singing, starting with this line, the song "March Back To Town" from "Pets on Parade". It delighted my cousin and I so much that I now associate that song with him. Ridiculous stuff like that is exactly why we love him so much, and why we'll always miss him.