So we have a new friend at the library ... Pikachu! He likes to help out at a lot of library things, including storytime sometimes! Today we had one of the dental hygienists and Pockets the kangaroo come for a visit and talk about how important it is to brush and floss your teeth. Pikachu had to get in the action and came  for a visit to brush his teeth too. We tried to explain to him that his tooth brush was a little too big for him, but he decided he would figure out a way to get it into his mouth.
Make sure you keep an eye out because Pikachu has found his way into our hearts and I think he's bound to show up again soon!

Thanks to those of you who voted, we will have a new home! I am so excited because there will be so much more space to hang out, play and for us to have events. Not only that, there will be more space for books! We have to get rid of books so much that it hurts, but because we don't have the space that's what we have to do.
I have already been thinking of all the things we need to do:

• obviously another kids bathroom with a small toilet :)
  
• a place for more parents to sit and hang out while kids have fun in different interactive areas
  
• a larger makerspace for people to play with technology
  
• a quiet spot for those who want to read
  
• a TEEN SPACE that's JUST FOR TEENS! I think that I am most excited about this because our teens deserve something better, somewhere that they can hang out and be loud, because that's who they are.
  

So what do you want to see in our new kids and teens areas in our library? No Negative Nelly's. Only positive thoughts and ideas. Now that its happening there's no looking back and negative thoughts will be removed.

I know I am ready for the sun and I'm guessing that you are. Hopefully thoughts of summer will encourage the sun to come out. With that in mind, we've got tons of great things happening this summer. Here's a teaser of what we'll be doing!

​TRUCK SHOW
Monday, July 9 at 10 am. For all ages and families. 
Our annual Truck Show is back again! Come to the library to get up close and personal with all kinds of trucks and other vehicles.
No registration required.

BUBBLE PARTY
Wednesday, July 11 at 2 pm. For ages 3-7.
Join us for music, bubbles, and summertime fun! 
No registration required.

MUSIKGARTEN
For preschoolers (ages 3-5): Monday, July 16 at 10 am.
For babies (ages 0-2): Monday, July 16 at 10:30 am. 
Join us for a fun time of music and play.
Registration is required and begins July 2. 

THE CHECKERS SHOW
Wednesday, July 18 at 11 am. For all ages and families.
Music, magic, and more! No registration is required, but this is a (free) ticketed event. Tickets will be available at the door 15 minutes before the start time of the program, and you must have a ticket to enter. 

​OMNIPRESENT PUPPET THEATER PRESENTS THE LITTLE MERMAID
Monday, July 30 at 2 pm. For all ages and families.
Our favorite puppet presenters are back again to share the story of The Little Mermaid. No registration is required, but this is a (free) ticketed event. Tickets will be available at the door 15 minutes before the start time of the program, and you must have a ticket to enter. 

I love when I fall upon neat articles that encourage me to let my kids explore science and math more.
Kids can be citizen scientists too
In this article in the magazine Popular Science, they encourage kids (and adults) to be "citizen scientists". They say that just because you don't have a science background, you don't have to say no to playing and exploring. For example there is an app where people are studying birds and sending information to the Audubon Society, and the 1 millionth person to send information? ... A twelve year old!
This is where the library comes in! We have tons of science toys that you can learn new science things without even realizing that you're learning something! And this is NOT just for the kids. There is plenty of things for the teens and parents to play with too. We want you to let your citizen scientist mind to flourish as well!
On the second and fourth Tuesday from 2-3pm and the second and fourth Wednesday from 6-7pm we have an open house where you can play with all the goodies in our new makerspace!
On Thursdays from 5:45-6:45pm we explore our imagination in a more condensed format: 1st Legos, 2nd Engineering, 3rd Art, 4th Technology and 5th is a mystery (even to us sometimes)!

Life Size Games Open House
For all ages and families.
Join us for a full day of life-size fun! We will be playing all of our life size games in two hour increments. Stop in anytime to join a game in progress or come at the hour marks to start a new one!

                10am-Noon: Monopoly
                Noon-2pm: Yahtzee and Jenga
                2pm-4pm: Candyland

Yesterday (Thursday) when I normally write my blog post I was recovering from an exhausting morning playing Candyland ... and by exhausting, I mean EXHAUSTING. There was so much running around ... and not just by me, but by all the small children too. They had such a blast! There were about 75 people throughout that hour, roaming the rainbow bridge and gumdrop pass. Didn't get to make it? COME VISIT ON SATURDAY! Plus you'll get to play Monopoly! What could be better?
Miss Valerie and Miss Miranda have gone super crazy and created some amazingly huge games that really need to be played ... BY YOU! (This means you too teens.)

Happy belated Valentine's Day everyone! Plus Happy belated Birthday to my Mom! Thanks to my Mom's birthday, Valentine's Day has always been super special.
Which has been trouble in the past for my kids, because they were always required to make Valentine's Day cards for their classmates and not get purchased ones. It used to also be trouble for my husband, because expectations were high. Luckily, now all it takes is an "I love you" and I'm pretty much set.
How do you celebrate Valentine's Day? Do you even celebrate it?

Onto the next question. So what do you love right now? Any special books, music or food? I definitely am all for the Easter egg peanut butter cups. They are soooo good. Probably a little too good, in fact.
I'm also in love with this musician Mariee Sioux.
Mariee Sioux is an American folk singer-songwriter. Her father Gary Sobonya is a mandolin player of Polish and Hungarian descent, and her mother Felicia is of Spanish, Paiute, and Indigenous Mexican descent. (from Google Music)
My music playlists on Google Music sometimes look totally random to me sometimes. I sometimes wonder what they would look to other people. I might be considered a little crazy. Folk music, electronic music, rap music, hard rock music, classical music ... really just about everything except country music.

It is an incredible book about the struggles of middle school and it even made me cry at one point. What a baby. :)

You get an extra post this week because I am ashamed to say I forgot to do it last Thursday. I was all excited about doing a book order and forgot to keep up with my New Year's resolution. (Shame on you Cathy)

So for Christmas I sometimes accidentally buy presents for myself (I know, naughty Mommy) and I had gotten to thinking about how when I used to work at my previous library I used to have a hedgehog puppet that I would sometimes harass the kids with. Then I got to thinking, I need a puppet here! At first I was a little worried, because the set up from this library is different from my previous library, but I thought, why not? It can't hurt? If it doesn't go over well, I have a puppet to attack my own kids with!
Luckily for me, I found him. My hedgehog. The hedgehog who could be shy at times in front of other shy ones and the hedgehog who could eat fingers, noses and ears off the more out energetic kids. (I also found out that he likes to crochet.) So now he'll make an appearance whenever life calls for him. Keep an I out, because if you know me, you know it could be at any time!

Now I've decided that my Girls Who Code club is officially here and officially awesome. Right now we have five girls (I am mad that our Buffalo girl wasn't here) and they were all absolutely fantastic. They gave me such enthusiasm and energy that I totally didn't want it to end. They were all so excited that we are going to work on creating a website.
The girls decided very quickly that the topic was going to be soccer and that part of it was going to be letting everyone know how many amazing female soccer players there are. *** I WANT YOU ALL TO KNOW *** Yes, our girls have started, but they are a very friendly group of girls and I know that they wouldn't mind having more people to join them. I'm just letting you know now that you must like popcorn and sour patch kids because I promised the girls that I would have some.
Also I want you all to know that you DO NOT need to know anything about coding, computers or creating websites. What you do need is to: 1. be a girl between 9-13 years and 2. be friendly and willing to make new friends!
Hope to see you there on February 7th at 6pm! (We meet the 1st and 3rd Wednesday every month.)
Happy Thursday everyone!

I feel bad sometimes because I find these crazy things that I want us to do at the library and I manage to make Miss Jill's hair stand up on end. I really do have the best of intentions, but sometimes ... well I get started and then I just the temptation gets too great.
This is how I'm feeling right now with podcasting and video storytelling. I went to a library conference where librarians are sharing all of the things they are doing at their own libraries ... and there were two that I KNEW I wanted us to do.
This video below is the first of what I want to do.

I would love to have kids or teens come up with either book that they would like to recreate, or their own original piece of work. Then I would love it if they created the artwork and narrated their stories using the equipment that would also be used for podcasting.
Lots of learning would be required, from learning to use image editing software, powerpoint, voice over software, and an assortment of other things, however, I think this could be a great experiment for all of us ... including Miss Jill. :)