Last Wednesday, on Halloween, I volunteered to help with Henry's classroom party. The party was organized to celebrate both Halloween and all the October birthdays. I waited until two days before the party to inquire about volunteering and was told by the parent organizer that I was welcome to attend, however, there might not be anything for me to do - which sounded awesome.

But there was something for me to do and it was called reading-out-loud-for-one-hour-while-small-children-talk-loudly-and-eat-cupcakes-right-next-to-you-and-the-skirt-you-just-picked-up-from-the-dry-cleaner-on-Saturday! Yes, when the teacher asked for a volunteer to read Halloween stories she was looking right at me - a parent with nothing else to offer - so I nodded my head and agreed to read. Out loud. For one hour.

The party was divided into three stations: craft project, game, and eating treats/listening to stories. I think my job to was to keep them from checking out the two stations because they all kept getting up and walking around and talking to each other and dropping food on the floor. It was awesome.

It really was awesome. I enjoy spending time at the boys' school and volunteering.

Anyway, one of the books I read was titled, Skeleton Meets the Mummy. Apparently the kids had just read the book earlier in the week and didn't want to hear it again. However, during my last rotation of cupcake-eating first graders, I put my foot down and read the only book that had caught my interest. But not before I had to gulp down half of Henry's juice box to sooth my hoarse voice and tired throat. And not before one little boy told me that Ms. S could read for longer without stopping, to which I said:

Dude, you don't even know! I've been reading for almost 45 minutes straight with no break!  But yes, I bet Ms. S does read better because she is a really good teacher.

And then, with a kiss and a hug from Henry, I went back to work. And a few hours later I went home to my own little skeleton and mummy! See? They were a matching set after all.



After a rather chaotic start to our evening, we set out to trick or treat. Tia-D and Casey joined us and this year we made the rounds through a different neighborhood. It's still behind our house but it has more homes that participate in the festivities of handing out candy to small children who they don't know.



After seven years Henry and Wyatt still don't really get how this all works. They said "Happy Halloween" rather than "Trick or Treat" and they didn't always remember to say "Thank You". And Henry doesn't really like trick or treating. He just wanted to go home the entire time we were out, especially after his candy bucket became too full for him to comfortably carry. Even so, I have no doubt that we'll do this all again next year. And the year after that and so on. How could we not? They're so cute in their little homemade costumes!