Adventures in preschool parent helper land

Today was an exciting day for my son, his very first classroom party. And a Halloween party at that. We've been ready for this all week, costume ready to go, home made chocolate suckers to pass out to all his little friends it was all good in the hood. Only bummer was that there were already about 5 parents signed up to be classroom helpers and adding one more was just to much so I was a little saddened that I wouldn't be able to be apart of his class celebration but I would at least be able to go up and see all of the little ones as they paraded around the school in their spooktacular finery.

So we got him all dressed up as Count Dominic (my little vampire) and off to school we went. When we got there it seemed like a lot of kids were there  but a few adults were missing. So I asked the teacher if she needed any extra parent helpers or if she was still expecting a couple more people. While I'm talking to her one of the dads that volunteered drops his daughter off and proceeds to say he's not staying, he doesn't have anything else to do he just doesn't feel like it. I'm literally ready to smack this man in the head. Does he not realize how precious these years are and how much it means to our little ones to see us show an interest in things like this. So off he goes and the poor teacher is just standing there flabbergasted,she says well yes looks like I really do need you. I of course hadn't expected to be staying so I was pretty much in pj's and still had to grab my daughter who starts school a half hour after my son and needed to be dropped off. I now have to speed racer it home dress, and drop her in record setting time and get back to my sons class before sixteen 3 and 4 year olds on sugar highs over run the place. I managed this admirably well if I do say so, which I do.

For the next two hours I played games, sang songs, and fed what could probably be deemed as illegal amounts of sugar to these adorable kids. We made wicked witch hands with plastic gloves, candy corn and popcorn, ate cupcakes and drank juice (well I had pepsi)  and at the end of the day we paraded through the school for the big kids to see us and then outside for all the parents who couldn't or wouldn't sign up to be helpers the kids also put on a little sing along for everyone with all the Halloween songs they learned this week. I loved every minute of it and so did they. 

As annoyed with that dad as I was for his lack of interest in his own child, I have to admit for my own selfish reasons I'm kind of glad he bailed because it gave me another chance to be there with mine as well as all the other little munchkins.It's such a rewarding experience to be in that classroom with those kids and watch them learning and growing. They're only little for so long and I for one am going to eat up every single moment of it, and if I catch you slipping I'll eat up your moments to.