halloween parade

our school has a really cool tradition; on the friday closest to halloween, the seniors and the kindergartners are allowed to dress up in costume, and then they walk together in a parade around the traffic circle at the front of the school.  all the parents of both the 12th graders and the kinders come and line the parade route, along with the majority of the students and teachers in the rest of the school.  one reason i love it is that the seniors do such a great job of picking fun, kid-like costumes.  typically, a 12th grader might pick a revealing or somehow inappropriate costume (sexy cat, for example, sold at every target and wal-mart in america.  tragedy.), but our kids are ALWAYS appropriate.  my favorite costumes this year from seniors were 5 girls who dressed like crayons (homemade costumes by one girl's mom), four boys who went as mighty ducks (the hockey team), and kids who went as the characters from the movie "toy story."  adorable.

we got a faculty group together this year to be old macdonald and his farm animals.  i was a chicken.  it was awesome.

while we were waiting in line, kinders paired with seniors, to begin the parade, i had this conversation with a kinder:

me: "are you an alligator?"  [i peak inside his felt mouth to find a very eager face with the remnants of a bloody nose.]

him: "no!  i'm a velociraptor!"

me: "oh, obviously!"

him: "i like velociraptors because they are the fastest, scariest, and coolest dinosaurs."

me: "do you know what i am?"

him: "a turkey!"

me: "close enough - a chicken.  can we pretend like the velociraptor is eating the chicken and someone can take a picture?"

him: "um, no - they didn't live during the same time period!" [said in a voice that implied that this was OBVIOUS...why do i have to explain this to you?]

me: "well maybe there were chicken-like animals back then.  can we do it anyway?"

and this was the result.

i almost stole him and took him and his homemade costume home with me.

happy halloween, everyone!