Yes, I Actually Volunteered For This (or Halloween Part II)

This morning I spent an hour with a classroom full of costumed, hyped-up five year olds. It was Nathan's first official class party as a kindergartener and he was so excited that he couldn't sleep last night. In addition to the mini-monsters (and dogs, and princesses, and superheroes), there were about a dozen parents in attendance. Which is a fact I wish I had known about last week when I was stressing out because I thought there would only be one other parent there besides me. I got on the phone and started begging people to please come help. (Thanks again, Joanne! You're a gem!) But whatever. I'm just glad there were enough grown-ups to keep the tiny masses under control. We played games and ate treats. The kids had a great time. And believe it or not, I had fun as well. Yup. That's me. The mom who loves a good class party.

Being a room-mother for my own children reminds me of all the things my mom did as a room-mother for me. One particular Halloween (I don't remember what grade I was in, but I'm pretty sure it was lower elementary), she arrived for the party dressed up as an Aborigine. Her face was painted dark brown, she had on a wig of short, dark curls and she even had canning rings as earrings. It was such a great costume that I didn't recognize her . . . literally. The other kids kept telling me that my mom was there, I would look around and then deny it. When I finally realized that the crazy Aborigine was in fact my mother, I probably should have been a bit embarrassed, but I wasn't because I was suddenly the kid with the cool mom. I don't know if my kids think I'm the cool mom for doing their parties, but I do know that they get excited about having me there. And like I said before, I love a good class party. It's just like being a teacher again but without actually having to teach anything, discipline anyone, or get yelled at by any parents.