How old is too old for an Easter hat parade?

Josh is too old for Easter hat parades.

Much too old.

He doesn't want to be in the parade.

And yet, at our school, it's for kids in K-2.  And he's in year 2.  Suck it up mate.

I'd feel a little sentimental about his last year if he wasn't so desperate for it to be over.

So, armed with my note of suggested hat decorations (which has been the same since forever as far as I know-feathers, colours cotton balls, easter chicks, no chocolate), I hit the two dollar shop.

One of my favourite bloggers, Mrs Woog, has written about her own experience with Easter Hat making.  Her kids aren't nearly as cynical as mine, and armed with a glue gun, she manages to produce prize winning creations.  

She made something amazing for her older son out of a sombrero.  So I bought Josh a sombrero, thinking something big and funny might bring him round.  He was unimpressed.

The rejected sombrero.  Waiting for a Mexican party.  

So I bought him a black trilby.  See top right of photo.  Luckily for me he has embraced the trilby and selected a bag of little yellow eggs he can tie to it, and a large amount of shredded yellow paper.   

Luckily also for me, two dollar shops have an amazing selection of hats.  Fancy a cowboy style, it's there, thinking of a top hat, it's yours.  Trilby and sombrero?  Piece of cake. 

Issy is fully into the whole thing, as indeed a Kindy kid should be.  She is beyond excited to be allowed to redecorate Sarah's old hat and I have bought her an enormous amount of crap to put on it.  

The accepted trilby.  And the recycled Sarah hat.  And the crap. 

I also bought a black boa, which I thought Josh could use to enhance his black hat, in order to create a kind of cynical, ironic anti Easter hat.  He rejected that too.  Issy has commandeered it for her dress up box.  What I want to know is, how did she know how to strike a 'boa' pose for the photo.

Check out the 'tude and the toe point.  What's with that?  

After everyone had selected their hats, perused their hat toppings and everything was put into plastic bags for the trip to school, I sat at the computer to look up ticket prices for the Easter Show.

Issy came and asked me what I was doing.  I told her I was buying Easter Show tickets.  She was very impressed I was paying so much money to watch her Easter hat parade.  And when I told her there were 110 tickets in the prepaid rides voucher, she wanted to know who the other 109 people were who were coming to watch her and Josh.

It took a while to explain my way out of that one.  And my plan of surprising them with the Easter Show trip is in tatters.

And it'll be just me watching them parade in their black and white hats.  Free of charge.