As the great culmination to Transportation Month, Kelly’s class held the much revered tradition of a Transportation Parade.  The kids dress as their favorite mode of transport, and parade through the entire school.  The 8th graders almost tear up, thinking of their walk, ensconced inside a cardboard box, so many years ago.

See Sara’s Transportation Parade here.

Times have changed.  While I steered much of Sara’s “decorating”, I handed Kelly a paintbrush and told her to have at it.  You might recognize her “Chariot” as Sara’s converted bus.  The Chariot’s wheels are lollipop decorations from Kelly’s first birthday party.  Kelly was having none of what she called, “a boy’s thing”, so we agreed on Cinderella’s Chariot.  I pasted glittery letters to the front that read, “Cinderella”, and from there, Kelly kindly asked that I stop messing with her PROCESS.  Exact words.  Her “process” took an hour and a half, and 2 full jars of paint.

I didn’t get any great pictures because I was perpetually walking behind her.  The whole contraption kept tipping forward, probably warped from years of sitting in the garage, awaiting the precious day Kelly would walk in her own parade.  In true Kelly fashion, she didn’t seem to mind.  Sara cried through her parade, Kelly tripped and giggled, and for both, I stumbled through with my heavy Nikon, trying to grab action of shots of kids dressed as rocket ships, trains, and race cars.  3 year olds are famous for NOT posing.  There are no actual awards, but one should be given to Kelly’s Best Friend, who won’t call this a Chariot, but rather, a Cardboard Princess Carriage. Now that’s what I call the Gold Standard in Cardboard Costume Creation.  Those blow up horses really set the mood, don’t they? This little girl’s sister was a helicopter and they started from SCRATCH for the 2nd kid, almost unheard of in our school’s history.  Just awesome!

Initially, I was hesitant at the idea of doing Sara’s school projects all over again with Kelly.  Doing homework TWICE.  Ugh.  But actually, it’s refreshing the 2nd time through, and not nearly as stressful.  The 2nd time through, I get to actually enjoy the ride. Oh wait, it’s the Transportation Parade, so I meant that literally.

So if you could be any vehicle, what would it be?  Don’t allow yourself to be limited by cardboard, which is far more malleable than you might think!