Case in point: August parties. Every week in August, the library allowed children to sign up and attend a party with a different theme. We wanted to/were able to attend two: Fairy Land and Elephant and Piggie.
The fairy party had a general fairy theme. The librarian's read a couple of fairy stories. The kids got to eat pixie sticks and other treats. They played a freeze tag game involving wands. They made fairy headdresses. The posed next to the elaborate backdrop for cell phone pics.
Miriam in her fairy attire. She picked out her outfit all by herself.
As did this little fairy/babushka.
Bekah decided to buck the trend and dress as a vampire girl. She thought that every fairy story needed a good antagonist, and a vampire was the obvious choice.
The Elephant and Piggie party was based on a hilarious series of books by Mo Willems. (If you have young children and you haven't read any of these books, I command you to drop everything, go to your public library and check out AS MANY AS YOU CAN!) The girls love these books and couldn't wait for this party.
The librarians acted out two of the books, the kids ate a picnic on the floor (one of the books includes a picnic in the storyline), they made sack puppets of Pig and Elephant, they colored pages and they posed with props and by their favorite characters.
One of the titles in the series is We Are in a Book! So it's a joke. Ha!
Analee in her pig attire with Piggie. (Check out her tail.)
Gwendolen had to check out the backdrop.
Rebekah as Elephant and her stuffed seal Orangey as Piggie.
A word about Rebekah's costume. In I Am Invited to a Party!, Piggie receives an invitation. Elephant decides to help Piggie get ready for the party. He wants them to be prepared, so first they dress up in fancy clothes, then in pool attire, then in costumes because he's not sure what kind of a party it is. Hence Rebekah's dress, witch's hat and pool ring. One of the librarians immediately understood her costume and unofficially voted it as the best.