His brother was skeptical, and wouldn't even wear the shirt to his costume. "What if I get mud on it!?" he asked with a teenager-like-eyeroll. He stuffed his costume in his backpack, and tsked his little brother.

"If it gets dirty, it will just look like Mew was in a great battle!" my younger son reasoned.

Still, something kept me asking "Are you sure you want to wear your costume all day?" several times. I even suggested, "Maybe you'd like a change of clothes in case nobody else is in their costume until the parade?"

But my son's excitement kept him from wanting to be practical. "No! I want to be Mew all day!"

When we arrived at school, nobody was in costume. This didn't surprise me.

My older son scoffed, "Bet the parade isn't today since Monday is Halloween."

My younger son's eyes went wider than those on his hat, "Mom, is that true? Do you swear the parade is today? Do you promise?"

I didn't hesitate when I told him, "Yes, absolutely!" I was convinced that I had copied all the dates down properly.

But as I drove back home, I started to second-guess myself. I pulled up the latest school bulletin, only to discover the parade is actually on Monday.

I glanced at the clock - just a few more minutes of before-school Spanish class until the campus would be crawling with kids.

I glanced in the mirror - me with rumpled hair, no makeup, glasses, wearing an argyle sweater that I pulled on last night for warmth paired with baggy sweatpants. I didn't have time to change, but reasoned that since my son was probably pretty embarrassed right now, I could stand a little humiliation myself.

I expected to just pull my son out of class to change. But of course I had to explain to the teacher why. I stumbled over my Spanish, unable to conjugate the past tense of a verb, so I used the present tense and cocked my head to the side with an arm movement that I hoped would sufficiently signify "in the past." I was doing horribly, and it didn't help when a young student rolled her eyes, calling out, "You have to put it in the past tense - duh!"

I gave up and spoke English. My son was nearly in tears as he told me the other kids were making fun of him, and given my stress over speaking Spanish, so was I. The teacher focused on how my son was wrong to be upset, but I would have hoped that he'd use the opportunity to encourage others not to taunt each other.

Nonetheless, we left Spanish class and ran to the restroom before any other student could see this boy dressed in head-to-toe pink one school-day too early.

The panicked look on his face when he went into the bathroom was replaced by calm relief as he exited dressed like a regular ol' boy instead of Mew.

Bet he brings his costume in a paper bag on Monday.