It took a while, but my face no longer rivals a tomato. That was not the case on Monday afternoon when we held our first real party with pizza. This year rather than play it safe and cool in the programming space, we held the Pizza Party outside and set up activities to keep the young ones engages while prizes were handed out.

In ascending order of popularity, we had Library of Things games. These were in the sun so it’s no wonder they were left largely untouched. The beautiful maple tree on the north side of the building was everyone’s favorite guest as most people sat in its shade catching the slight breeze. The bounce house from Martin’s Hardware was also in the sun and the next most popular activity. Miss Brandy kept the kids rotating so the bolder boys gave way to the littlest ones on a regular basis.

Next up seemed to be the balloon animals made by Miss Maria who made a lot of dogs and mice and Miss Jennifer who spent some time on YouTube learning more complicated designs. Perhaps even more popular than the prize drawings were Miss Anna’s face painting.  While the event was scheduled for just over an hour, Miss Anna was ready early and stayed late. Early arrivals and patient waiters kept her painting for nearly three hours. My one regret from the day is not having pictures of any of the faces covered in Batman, swimming turtles, tigers, mermaids, and more.

On the food side, we’d like to thank Genoa’s Pizza for their continued generosity in giving us a great deal on the pizza. The 140 party goers would have made it through all of the 18 cheese pizzas had volunteers not set aside some for the library staff.

The day would not have run nearly as smoothly without all the additional help from every staff member working, our two summer teen volunteers Thomas and Lena, Kathy and Kristina from the Library Board, Friends President Claudia, and Carrie who was the one guest I saw handing out pizza. If I missed anyone, I apologize. Once the party began, all became a blur.

Big thank yous go to the Friends of the Library, two patrons (the J & K families), and the Good Earth Church of the Divine. The later two donated additional prizes to the drawing including the very popular ice cream making kit and Squishmallow basket as well as the skateboard that grab the sole attention of at least four of the participants.

None of this would have happened without the continued support of the Friends of the Library who provide the funding for all the give a ways and prizes, prizes and this bounce house. We are lucky to have such a wonderful group supporting us.

Thank you as well to everyone who participated. The Friends provide the means, but you provide the reason. Don’t forget, we are still open in August and hope to see you at the Library Art Show and Sourdough programs as well as for books.

Reading Now: Killing the Witches by Bill O’Reilly

Listening to Now: A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire (Book 3 in the Wicked series)