Flanked by parents hauling enough mini-cams and still cameras to start an all-news network, the sequined, plumed and painted children in the parking lot sorted themselves out into a parade and started marching on time at 2 p.m.
Led by the Highland High School band and cheerleaders, a troupe of tiny twirlers from the Eden School of Dance and a red fire truck carrying Mayor Ann Mullen and a Dalmatian named Sparky, the parade meandered past subdivisions and landscaped yards for an hour.
Families set up lawn chairs and picnics along the parade route, taking one last opportunity to lounge outside under the blue afternoon sky in unseasonably warm weather.
"Our kids are little yet, and it's too long for them to walk," said Judy Penner from her encampment along the parade route. "But they like getting into the feeling of the parade."
And the stream of harem girls, football players, Frankenstein's monsters, a three-foot-tall Crayola-brand crayon, and a Walt Disney Pinocchio kept flowing by.
"It's a great day for it," said Jim Lyon, the father of two Gloucester Township super heroes marching in the parade.
Andy Lyon, a 7-year-old Batman, wore a blue cape and pointy-eared cowl sewn by his mother.
Bobby Lyon, 4, sported Superman's red cape and the yellow-and-red diamond-S logo.
"I've been sewing for years," Dot Lyon, mom and super hero wardrobe mistress, said.
Dressed all in black, from a pointy hat as tall as herself to her black robe and black rubber rat, Jacqueline Leary, 3 1/2, came as a witch.
She had her father, Dan, carry her hat and her cauldron of worms and spiders for most of the parade route.
When the parade reached its destination, the clowns and cowboys, Donald Ducks, Mickey Mouses, pumpkins, brides, bunnies and their parents found cold sodas and fresh pretzels.
