Christmas Parade

Leighton is in the Walk It Out Club at school. Their principal promised the students that if they walked a certain number of miles before December 1st, she would walk in the local parade in a clown suit. The kids made their goal in the first month. All the members of the club were invited to walk with Ms. Perry-Manley in the parade. Leighton, shockingly, wanted to walk in the parade. We explained to her that she would have to walk down the street and people who she didn't know would be looking at her. She said that was okay. (This is the child who hates gym because: everyone will look at me, what if I don't know how to do it, everyone knows how to do it except me, etc.) We were not convinced it was going to happen. We bought her the shirt and cleared our schedule. Then we found out she would have to ride the bus to the parade and we would just pick her up at the end of the route. She was still game. Today was the day, she was still game. She got ready. It was freezing, so we dressed her in layers and lots of them. She had gloves and a hat and was ready to go.She cried once at the school. She thought I just left her in the office. I was really just outside, in the lobby, keeping an eye on #1 and #3 in the car. She calmed down and I left her in good hands with one of her favorite teachers and her fourth grade friend, Jordan.

We were near the end of the parade route and I took a great video of her walking down the street. I even got Jordan. I went to download it and realized I need a different cable, so sorry no video, yet. Here is a picture of (l to r) Taylor, Jensyn, Michelle, and Carly.

Yes, they are in the street, there was candy being thrown.

I picked up Leighton and brought her back to our spot to wait for Santa. She immediately started crying. I asked her what was wrong and she told me between sobs that she didn't know they were going to be throwing candy and everyone had more candy than her. Michelle and David to the rescue. There was so much candy that the kids had stopped picking it up and Michelle had started. Her pockets were loaded and Leighton was happy. David even offered to go chase down the firetrucks (they had boxes of candy).

I asked Leighton if she liked walking in the parade. Her answer was "Yes, it was fun, but I would rather watch and get candy." Surprise, surprise!

Note: Carly had NO candy. She spent the entire time taking pictures with the school's camera. She is pretty artsy with her shots. Maybe she should ask Santa for a camera of her own.