Every year, I secretly award Best Costume prizes at my local elementary school, and then not so secretly report them on my blog. As evidenced by last year's winner (a first grader dressed as a greek salad... see my archives if you think I'm making this up), I have a strong preference for food-o-promorphic costumes.

This year, our winner is the lovely Akari, dressed - and accessorized to the hill - as sushi. Akari won extra points for her knitted heargear, which unfortunately resulted in some people mistaking her for a bunny. In fact, she is the shrimp in the maki roll, and the hat is the curly tail part of the shrimp. She is carrying chopsticks and soysauce and was last seen being chased by a boy dressed as wasabi. Okay, I made that last part up.

Congratulations, Akari!!!


This next photo is my favorite candid photo from this year's parade. It depicts a five year old Darth Vader giving sage advice to a five year old Harry Potter. "Listen good, Harry... some day you're going to need to know this."

And of course, every year our beloved principal, Scott Cartland, outdoes himself in the costume department. This year he dressed as Mr. Monopoly and handed out homemade chance cards with fortunes like "Lost five minutes of recess due to heated real estate discussion" and "Get out of detention free."

Can you imagine a better principal? Neither can I. Too bad he can't sell Park Place to raise the money to rebuild our defunct neighborhood library or add a second bathroom to our 500-kid facility. Not that I'm complaining...

Happy Halloween, everyone!