By Lauren Schiavone
Hometown Weekly Staff
Photos by Lauren Schiavone
Children's entertainer Stacey Peasley is no stranger to Needham Free Public Library -- she's visited multiple times over the years, and has built a following amongst the town's littlest residents.
It goes without saying, then, that Peasley's appearance at the library on the morning on Wednesday, October 26, represented a special treat for Needham's kids.
Library staff ushered in a plethora of excited children, garbed in Halloween costumes, to the community room. Princesses, skeletons, and dragons all made their way to the front of the room and grabbed a seat close to the guitar-slinging Stacey Peasley -- though they soon would be on their feet and dancing.
From the start, parents and children alike were singing along to Peasley’s "Hello Song". Peasley came dressed in the Halloween spirit (as a way to banish the rain, she wore a rainbow hat and socks), and further channeled the season by bringing along leaves for her audience to play with. The sunshine followed in the library as the soloist, guitar in hand, tailored her songs towards the delightfully ghoulish season. Songs like “Halloween Creatures” had kids cackling like witches and flapping their arms as though they were bat wings. A song about apples, meanwhile, had the children jumping to reach imaginary apples high in trees. Peasley’s innovative lyrics and catchy rhythms always get preschoolers excited to move, groove, and learn -- and they certainly delivered on this seasonal day.
Parents, meanwhile, huddled to the side and watched their kids take the stage.
The concert, and the season, wouldn’t have been complete without a mini Halloween parade, which concluded the day. It had parents watching on, snapping photos of their little ones dancing around in costume.
For the smiling, costumed kids, many of which perpetually sing along with their favorite Peasley tunes on repeat at home, it was an especially perfect lead-up to Halloween.