Clifford the Big Red Dog

Last week was the book fair at Kailyn's school. I volunteer every year with the set up and then work the parent's night. This year when I showed up on parent's night the librarian asked me how I felt about dressing up. I was like ummm not very good. She was having a hard time finding someone to dress up as Clifford and take pictures with the kids. The money raised from the pictures was to help buy books for kids who couldn't afford them and also to buy books for the classrooms. I told her I would call Allias and ask him if he would do it. I seriously thought he would say no but figured it was worth the try if it kept me out of that Clifford suit. Travis answered and told me that he didn't think Allias would want to do it- they were getting ready to do Allias' favorite thing in the whole wide world- throw the football around and then play some basketball. I told him to ask anyway and to our surprise Allias actually agreed.

I just have to say he did such a FANTASTIC job. He was soooo into it and he even made kids who were scared of him at first love him and follow him around. He was very concerned about "not ruining the magic". He kept coming up to me to make sure his feet were fully covered and that no other parts of him were showing. He also wouldn't let Kailyn tell anyone that Clifford was her brother. Even the older kids.

The funniest thing was when someone he knew from the middle school would come in and he would walk right up to them and stand like two inches away. It would totally freak people out. Then he would call them by name. I didn't have my camera but I would have loved to get some pictures of some of their faces, it was too too funny. For those of you who know Marcus Juarez ask him how he reacted when Clifford the Big Red Dog started stalking him. There was also a a teacher who had a serious aversion to him and he kept asking her for a hug and trying to talk to her. I was laughing my butt off.

He really did a great job and is soooo great with kids. A couple of the kids cried when their parents took them home because they didn't want to leave. He actually asked the librarian if she had someone to do it at the next family night and volunteered to help her out. I think a job at Disney is in his future.