Hoco 2025

I didn’t get a chance to blog yesterday. I’ve been on the go since Friday.

I took the day off on Friday so I could walk with Ella in the homecoming parade. After the Grand Marshall and Alumni Couple of the Year, the Kindergarten classes from the district were featured together. They walked behind a banner that said “Our Youngest Students – Class of 2038!”

Andrew and Ella hung out before we split up. He went with my wife to watch the parade (and catch candy), while Ella and I went to the staging area.

It was sunny and hot. The teachers did a good job keeping them focused for the 45 minutes we waited for everything to start. They played “telephone” and sang songs to pass the time.

Once the parade got going, we waved and tossed candy to spectators. The cars that had the Grand Marshall and the Alumni Couple were starting to break ahead of us. We certainly weren’t walking slow. They were going a bit fast.

So basically you had:

Alumni – space – half of kindergarten – space – rest of kindergarten – group behind them.

At one point, Ella and I, the principal and a couple others were stuck walking in the middle of the space. 10-15 feet of pavement in front of us and 10-15 feet pavement behind us. We couldn’t stand out any more!

I cracked jokes to the folks watching our little group along the route. “We’re pacing ourselves.” “Did you happen to see the front of the parade, we seem to have lost them.” “Wasn’t that invisible float in front of us fantastic?”

Ella, of course, took the opportunity to let the spotlight shine on her.

After about a quarter of the walk, she got tired and she wound up on my shoulders. I got quite the workout the rest of the way.

After the parade, the kids went home with Nana and Pa and I stayed for the football game. As you would expect, I was focused on the marching band.

The home team was up 21-0 at halftime. I was excited for the halftime show. The theme was “Black Widow.”. They had spider web things on the field and every band member changed from their standard uniforms into a spider designed outfit. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen a band do a show not in uniform.

It was a long day/night but it was a homecoming win – 42-8 was the final score. We got home pretty late and Andrew just slept in his clothes because he was fast asleep.

Yesterday morning was soccer time for Ella. We were there early for pictures. The game followed. At one point Ella was a goalie. Apparently this meant standing in front of the net with both arms stretched across the top of it.

Aunt Margaret came to the game and took the kids to lunch afterwards. They love her. She brought them some books and some fun sensory toys.