Trick or Treeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeat!
Ok, not tricks. I'm going to share a treat...or two. Might just be a treat for me to write and more of a trick for you to read, but buckle up and let's go.
Today, Mr. Enthusiastic was there in all his glory. He really had a pretty good day today. My whole class dressed up and we went trick or treating to the 4th and 5th grade classes this morning. What was Mr. Enthusiastic's costume? Wait till you hear this...errrr, read this. It's so appropriate. He was a volcano. No joke. It was an extraordinary costume. His dad made it and it was the best homemade costume I've seen...ever. Just wow. And little Mt. Vesuvius does erupt from time to time, but not today.
In fact, my entire class was just really good today. And I was so glad. I had no volunteers in my room and it just worked out fine. I kept things fairly low key, calm, but still Halloweenie and a break from regular school work and all the "festivities" were really pretty modest. But I did not get one gripe, one whine, one complaint about any of it. Every other year I've had whine-fests and people saying "this is all the candy we get?" when they walk away with a BUNCH. This year was 15 stops which equaled somewhere between 15 and 20 pieces of candy and they were as happy as larks. It was the best school halloween EVER.
Change of subject.... Last week, here in KindieLand, my kids were sitting on the floor around my chair and we were TRYING to read a book. Emphasis on TRYING. It was a little difficult because in the midst of the TRYING, a bit of a kafuffle broke out.
Boy A said, "Ms. B, he said I stink!!!"
Boy B said, "Nooo, I said you STANK!"
Boy A said, "He said I stink AGAIN!"
Boy B said, "NO! I said you STAAAANK!"
Boy A said, "He said I stink A G A I N!!"
Boy B said, "NOO! I said you STAAAANK!"
So I intervened and instead of making sense of it for them, said, "He didn't say you stiiink, he said you staaank." (laughing on the inside all the while)
Meanwhile B is saying again, "I said you STAANK!"
And A is going on with his, "He said I stink!"
Sometimes it's like talking to a wall in KindieLand.
Another change of subject.... Halloween is one of those holidays that I would just as soon skip, as an adult....except for one thing. When I was a kid, I liked Halloween like every other kid. I got over my first trick or treat outing resulting in a busted lip at the first house. I got over the "razor blade" scares although that always freaks me out. I even got over the sugar highs. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh the sugar highs.
You see, in 2nd grade my family moved to a very small town in southwest Missouri. One of my best friends, Nancy, and I began a tradition that year of me spending the night on Halloween and going trick or treating with her family. From that year forward, every year on Halloween, even if it was a school night, my parents let me go spend the night at her house for Halloween. Rarely did either of us know what we were going to be for Halloween. We'd just head to Nancy's house after school and start scheming. Now I have trouble remembering what we were. I think one year we were clowns. And the most memorable for me was the year we were ballerinas. I found two tutus in our attic, from the family who lived there before us. I brought them to her house and she and I were thrilled. We were going to be the loveliest ballerinas EVER. Then her mom saw us, dug out some long underwear and made us put those on, too, so we wouldn't freeze. We were so disappointed, but she was right. Halloween was freezing! I'll never forget knocking on the Lutheran pastor's door. He opened it. We yelled "Trick or Treat!" and he said, "I'll take a treat please." And then he asked us to dance. We stood there and stared at him as if he'd lost his mind. He said something about us being ballerinas and that we needed to dance. More staring. He finally dished out the candy and we thanked him and took off. Lesson: Ballerinas who ALSO wear long underwear do NOT dance for candy.
I also remember the first year that I spent the night with Nancy for Halloween. It was a school night. We stayed up talking and talking and giggling, like little girls do on sleep-overs. Then, suddenly we noticed that the yard lights were shutting off....which meant one thing. There was enough sunlight to shut off the sensors. Whoops. We had stayed awake all night. We felt like pretty big stuff. I imagine we didn't feel that "big" by the end of the day, but I'll never forget seeing the lights shut off at dawn, lol. (As most giggling young girls, I developed a habit of staying up all night or most of it on sleepovers. Kind of makes the name sound ridiculous, huh? And the day after was usually a puke-a-palooza...which made my mom more and more reluctant to let me go. Imagine that.)
Anyway, fond memories make me appreciate Halloween as an adult. Take the costumes. Take the candy. But leave me my memories..............and ok, don't touch the chocolate. It's mine.
