Halloween 2012: Baylor's First School Party!

Baylor's preschool Halloween party was the first school party he'd ever had, and he was excited in anticipation for it.  Though he is not generally thrilled with the idea of Halloween (dressing up is not his thing), he loves a good party where there won't be any singing.

We struggled with what he would wear for his costume this year; ideas were batted about, from Peter Parker to Tom Cruise as he was in the singing-in-his-underwear scene from Risky Business.   (Hey, Baylor loves hanging out in his underwear ... it was just a thought.)  But he ended up only being okay with being a "Spartan fan", something he already is and can easily find clothes in his closet to wear to make it happen.  It might not have been as "Halloween-y" as I would have liked, but he was happy and that's really all a mom can ask for.

See how thrilled and excited he is in the picture above?  Now imagine the exact opposite.  That's how he looked when we walked up to the school, late, to find all his classmates and both his teachers dressed up.  The first day of school was a cake walk compared to this; he flopped to the ground, refusing to go in and starting to get really upset.  I ended up having to carry him into the school and prop him up on my leg just inside the door.  Mollie was with us, decked out in her Spartan cheerleader outfit, and she offered as much moral support as she could.  It took a lot of talking with Mrs. Fillman, the parapro in his class, and a couple visits from caring classmates to get him to venture into the classroom.  *sigh*  I said goodbye and told him I'd be back at 10:00 for the start of the party.  Then Mollie and I hopped in the car, and I called my mom for some support and to keep me from crying.

We arrived a little before 10:00 to find the kiddos watching a movie on the computer.  When the lights lifted, the Halloween party went into full swing.  First up was the Halloween parade around the school.  Yeah, Baylor didn't really want to do that.

But with a little coaxing and support from Mrs. Fillman, he went along with it and visited a few classrooms.

Mollie and I stayed back, hoping not to distract him more, and I snapped a few pictures of his classroom including this one of a costumed weather frog.

Once the kids came back ...

... they all sat down in a circle and prepared to be separated into groups for activities.

I was an activity leader for the party, and my little group consisted of Baylor and two sweet little girl classmates of his.  They tried out the pumpkin beanbag toss first, though none really wanted to back away from it enough to really toss the beanbags.

Next up we played "What's In Ned's Head?", a disgusting little game where you have to reach your hand inside a nostril or ear canal to find gross things inside this guy's head.

The kids enjoyed it, and that's all that matters.

After that we moved on to ghost bowling.  It was a lot of fun for the kiddos, but a bit of work for me and the two moms who came with me; lots of crouching and setting up pins.

Next they moved on to the slime table and cut slime with kid-safe scissors and cookie cutters.  Mollie actually got to join in on this one, and she was thrilled.

Finally, my little group moved on to the skeleton creating table, though there wasn't enough time to really complete the project.

They gave it a whirl anyway, though, and even had a few extra classmates join them who had missed out on the activity during their turn.

Once the activities were over, they went back to the circle mat to get ready for snacks.  The excitement in the air was palpable, likely because you could smell the delicious treats all around the room.

Each kiddo got a plate full of goodies and some white grape juice, though it was more than most of them could consume in two sittings.  (There was even more added to their plate once they got to the tables.  It was amazing.)

Baylor, though, was undaunted by the feast of food before him and set to work, double-fisted, eating as much as he could in the time allotted.  Who says a cookie can't go just splendidly with watermelon?!

Okay, so maybe he didn't finish in the time allotted.  In fact, he was the very last kid eating, and the very last kid in the room at the end of class.  They even started cleaning up around him.  He's just not one to let good desserts go to waste, you know?

Eventually, we packed up all the non-messy goodies into a baggie and went on our way, thrilled that the first school Halloween party ended so much better than it began.