Dispatches from the Crazy Hat Parade

Last year's hat parade was an entirely school-run affair, where the kids made rather identical-looking (and thus not particularly crazy when viewed en masse) hats. This year? It was changed into a family challenge, which rocks, because while I love doing art projects with the kids, I love it even more when I don't have to come up with every tiny detail of each project. Some parameters are always nice, is what I'm saying.

Anyhoo, after discussing various potential shapes and forms, and settling on a crown-like effect, we stopped mincing words and got down to business. Or rather, Lara got down to business, as she basically put this whole thing together by herself:



What's that equal?



Jakey isn't the art-projectiest toddler out there. (No, seriously, he actively avoids participating in the school art stuff. I'm just happy the teachers are low-key about it.) Still, hat day is hat day, so we whipped him up a little takeoff on one of those folded newspaper boat hats:



The end result of his look (Project Runway, here I come):



Crazy hat kids, striking a pose: