Librarian Leaps: Welcome to Wonderland 2

Disclosure: This happened two weeks ago. I'm a bit behind in publishing this post!

Tuesday we had another book birthday at Castleton Elementary School. Cupcakes, popcorn, beach jello, watermelon, cookies, and more. Everything but BALLOONS? What?! No, it's ok! You're thinking of the other amazing Chris Grabenstein story. This one is fun in the sun. And the Beach Boys songs are still roaming around in my head.

Fancy bakeries would have the book made out of fondant. I just printed out 75 covers and topped the cupcakes.

Daniel brought in the jello beach cups. Yum!

Ronan almost has me believing that we ARE at the Wonderland Motel.

I asked Chris a long time ago if he would be able to Skype with us during our party. Turns out he was in Albany for the day and could literally stop by to our party for 20 minutes. Lucky us! That was just enough time to do the Monkey Dance, answer a few questions from my "Chris Grabenstein Quiz" and sign some books.

Chris is like an old friend here in Castleton. He's had dinner at Doe's twice. No one else can say that. Yet. He's visited our school three times, Skyped once and given us a video or two here and there. He's had two galas in his honor--at the first one I practically begged him to show up (and I didn't even know him then) and the second one was the Olympics, so a "kind-of" gala. It had the energy of the Gala without the gowns and black ties.

The party was super fun and went without a hitch. I couldn't have done it without the help of other teachers, parents, Grandma Dottie, my principal, our future Superintendent and of course, Doe and her husband, Bob, who picked Chris up from his Albany school visit. I must add that Grandma Dottie was the waitress extraordinaire serving apple juice on trays and you would almost think that Mr. Chevrier, Superintendent-To-Be, was really applying for the Custodian-To-Be job the way he was carrying around the broom!