You guys are so amazing. I do not consider myself crafty at all. I have many talents, but crafting is not one of them.
That being said, I was encouraged to register in a local parade this year. I've actually never done that. So we're taking Phillippe and Jasmine and my nieces and some extra kids and giving it a shot. We're promoting Phillippe and Jasmine with their therapy animal visits, so no riding. The kids have 2 buckets of 599 stickers in each to hand out (cause 2 stickers out of the 1200 were too awesome to give away...)
The theme of the parade is Rural Life. A zillion years ago, my mom made a pair of cardboard box horses for my sister and I to wear for a local parade in Saskatchewan for our day-camp float. Inspired by her brilliance (we LOVED those things!) I built cardboard box animals for the kids. The purple pony is for a birthday girl turning 8 that day. The pig is for my 9 year old niece who adores pigs. The paint is for my other niece who is 5 and wanted a black and white pony and the dinosaur is for the birthday girl's 3-year-old brother, who obviously loves dinos...
I feel like they fit the bill pretty well. Hopefully the kids love them. I think the total cost was less than $20 for paint, brushes and crafting supplies (minus the money I spent on Amazon to get the boxes...) and it took me maybe 4 hours to get them all completed. Just need some binder-twine suspenders and away we go!