This Week at the Library; or, The Longest Three Day Week Ever

I am packing about two weeks of programs and work into three days, plus being sick. It's a loooooong week.

The BIG program this week was our Annual Kids' T-shirt Decoration on Tuesday. I had about 70 kids signed up and 80 kids and parents showed up, so about 2/3 of the kids who signed up came, plus walk-ins. We had:

• one table outside the door with the t-shirts, manned by our adult svs librarian, who checked off their names as they took their shirts. She also popped in and took pictures and supervised the transport of wet shirts to the storyroom at the other side of the library to dry.
• I stood inside the door and directed people as they came in, while also running the ironing table.
• two tables (covered with plastic) with fabric crayons, stencils, pencils, permanent markers, tracing paper, regular paper, and books of outlines (my flannelboard books work for this). [Note: people were confused that the pencils and pens did NOT transfer. This section was very busy, could have used a third table - and a staff person to supervise and help with writing words backwards. Maybe more signage? Put items in boxes with signs? Need to put scissors at this table]
• one table with sewing materials - needles, embroidery thread, scissors, ribbon and misc. bits
• one table (by the door) with iron for ironing on the fabric crayon designs. Other half of the table had fabric markers, fabric paint, and newspaper to slide inside the shirts with a sign asking people to take one item at a time and return it and a sign reminding people to put newspaper inside their shirt and to use the paint sparingly. And a sign about the iron being hot if I had to step away. [I had meant my aide to man this table but had neglected to find out whether she knew how to iron - or how to iron the transfer designs! People didn't really follow the signs about taking one thing, but it's prohibitively expensive to buy enough for each table, so I ended up using my aide as a gofer and to collect the unused items from the t-shirt drawing/painting tables. I should have used her to escort wet shirts as well. Note to self - be more efficient in future. I also need to cover this table with something before ironing the crayon on as it gets messy, but plastic would melt. Paper from my large rolls?]
• table at the back with Culver's Coloring Contest sheets and markers for kids who were waiting their turn. [this wasn't really necessary, I could have just had the sheets by the door for the kids to take, but if this program gets any bigger I would need it]
• two tables with new books to look at for kids waiting their turn [could have just been one table]
• tables down the middle of the room for t-shirt decoration [there were seven tables left and we used all of them. Might want to see if we can make this eight tables next year.]

So, overall, a success! This program cost about $150 so the number of people that came made it worth it. I did registration right up until the Monday and the number registered vs. actually showing up was very maneagable. It would be great if we could have a second iron next year, as the kids get very impatient waiting for their design to be ironed, but I don't know if anyone will want to donate their iron to melt crayons with, since irons are generally not the same afterwards! I was considering needing two sessions in future, but I think we are fine with one.

I forgot that last year I cancelled all storytimes and this year I did two Open Storyhours on Tuesday and Wednesday. I wish I hadn't as I was also scheduled on the desk for a while around noon and then had to do the afternoon programs so I had very long days plus being sick. Note to self - next year only do afternoon programs. I just sang a couple songs, read some stories (with lots of coughing) and we did collage on Tuesday and beading on Wednesday. Nobody really came - a couple of Miss Pattie's regular babies/toddlers who were disappointed she wasn't there. A couple new people who had the days off b/c of spring break and were interested in our other programs. A couple older kids who were only interested in the crafts.

Lego Club on Wednesday didn't finish until 6pm but I'm DONE!!

Ooh, left out favorite sweet stories of the week - my storytime people on Wednesday morning were chatting with each other about how the seeds I gave out several months ago were still growing! This take-home project comes up at least a month, it was definitely a favorite with kids and parents. We'll do it again at the beginning of summer.

Also, had a 13 year old guy who is waaaaay smarter than his contemporaries - he's figured out how to talk to girls - you find out what they're interested in and study up on it. His request? "Do you have those comics that go the other way, that the girls read?" I gave him Cirque du Freak manga (didn't have the first vol. of Fullmetal Alchemist available) and a quick explanation of how to read the panels and he was satisfied.