The Fall, Demon, Ghoul and Harvest Celebration

Emily has been looking forward to today for a long, long time (which in her world is a week). It was the day of her preschool Halloween party (or Fall Celebration as they're now called). Her very first school party. She went to bed last night full of plans about the party preparations and the party itself. She could hardly get to sleep she was so overjoyed at the prospect. She must have finally gone to sleep because all was quiet when we went up to bed.

Then 2 a.m. rolled around. We were awakened by sobbing. After a stumble down the hall, we realized that Emily wasn't feeling great. She said she had a sore throat. A quick temperature check revealed a moderate fever. After a dose of medicine, I held her while the sobbing continued,

"Mom, I'll be better tomorrow!"

"It already is tomorrow"

"But I want to go to my party!"


A sobbing child at 2 a.m. can get you to promise anything just as long as there's a chance you might get to go back to bed. So I bit. I promised Emily that we would have our own party complete with trick or treating and that it would be better than the school's party. I figured she'd be too sick to want to party much anyway.


Morning came, the fever was down and Emily remembered every word of the conversation the previous night. She held me to it.

So we started the day with homemade pancakes, followed by a lengthy makeover in which I did my best to replicate Emily's Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique experience.

Then... trick-or-or treating. This one was a little difficult for me to figure out, but in the end, I went from room to room in the house while the kids knocked on the doors. I handed them a starburst at each room.

Emily approved.

Jane was worn out from trying to get starburst wrappers off with her tiny fingers.

By that time Emily was more than ready for pumpkin and bat shaped grilled cheese (I didn't think to get a picture of this since she has to have all her sandwiches in shapes).


I hope this is the last time Emily has to miss a school party but to tell the truth, I wouldn't mind doing this again... next year, that is.