Pre-Halloween

Every year, the school my 6 year old daughter E and 5 year old son C attends has a pre-Halloween event that is a huge hit. Lots of kids attend and there are tons of games, candy stations, and a huge cafeteria for dinner set up around the school. My kids look forward to the event and I was glad I was able to attend given my work travel fiascos. It hadn’t rained all week, so of course it rained on that day.

There were mitigations in place to squeeze the games and candy stations to one covered area. It was quite crowded and my kids were all over the place. E and C were running around and seeing their friends. They were also grabbing tons of candy. My 1 year old son L was also meandering around in a sea of people. It was hard to wrangle him and keep him close by.

It felt like we were there for a few hours, but turns out we only could last an hour there. E and C were literally climbing up a wall and jumping off of it over and over again. I had to pick them up to get on the climbing section. They were full of sugar and very energetic. L saw his big sister and brother eating candy and wanted some, so my wife let him have chocolate for the first time. He then proceeded to eat 3 pieces and wanted more. When we wouldn’t give him any more, the tantrum started and it was time to go home. The decision to go home was reinforced by C hurting his foot a bit jumping off of the high wall he was climbing. That was enough for the night.

This was very different from last year where L was contained, not able to run around, and not exposed to chocolate. Now that those things changed, the hour was complete and it was time to call it a day before things got any worse. It didn’t feel like we were missing out either since it was very crowded and rainy. My kids had fun also and I was just glad to experience another crazy pre-Halloween with them.