Halloween goody bags for Layla's school

Layla's school has a Halloween parade on Friday. The kids get dressed up and the teachers take them to walk in a circle and show off their costumes. And somehow, this becomes a source of stress for me....

Last week, Layla's teacher handed me an envelope with a letter and detailed information explaining the Halloween festivities for the day that included a list of every classmate's name, as well as each teacher's name, and floating teacher's names. This is just in case I want to bring presents for everyone. So I read each page over and over because it's pretty dense in information. Yes, this is for a toddler's Halloween parade, not college application process.

You'd be surprised how much pressure a mom can put on herself to offer the perfect present to these little buggers. You don't "have" to bring gifts for the kids,  but  you sort of feel obligated to participate. Because otherwise, you're not a bad person, you just kind of suck a little bit.

 For Valentine's day, I hadn't gotten my act together after going back to work and gave the kids Valentines a week late. They consisted of little squirting bath toys, because I couldn't think of anything else to give infants. You can't give them food because they mostly drink milk only and if you give clothes or toys it can expensive when you're buying for 16 babies. Plus you gotta get goodies for the teachers too.

So for Halloween, I found the perfect gift. Again, I went with the bath toys. Halloween themed rubber duckies:

Are they cute or what?! I made little tags with each kid's name on it and  "Happy Halloween! Love, Layla".  Half were duckies dressed as a witch and half were dressed as pumpkins. I didn't want to do candy because they are all just barely 1 years old and I don't think most parents let them eat junk food yet.

A lot of thought and effort went into choosing, buying, and assembling these. Half of Tuesday was devoted to this. Like I have so much time on my hands, right?  Unless the other parents out-do me, I think I'm going to feel pretty good about my Halloween goody bags. I'll finally get to feel like the Joneses that everyone is trying to keep up with. Isn't that the point?

(note the last three sentences aren't as pathetic as they sound. i was trying to be ironically sarcastical)