Speaking Volumes

“If you go out in the woods today,
You'd better not go alone.
It's lovely out in the woods today,
But safer to stay at home.

For every bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic...”

Well, it wasn't quite a teddy bear picnic, but we did have snacks...

This week we had a teddy bear sleepover at the library. Kids brought their teddy bears and other stuffed friends for crafts, stories, and snacks. Then they tucked their bears into a tent to sleep at the library for the night.

These bears got into all sorts of trouble as the night went on, playing games, dancing, listening to music, even using the copy machine. They read scary stories until three in the morning.

Of course we got this all on film and handed the pictures out to kids as they came to pick up their mischievous bears in the morning.

This was one of my favorite programs for a few reasons.

1. Su and I had a blast thinking up ways to set up the bears for their photo-ops.

2. The kids were HILARIOUS. Two kids borrowed library toys because they, “talked it over and decided their bears weren't old enough for a sleepover yet.” I heard another set of brothers, who could not believe their eyes when they saw the pictures, tell their mom that they were “gonna stay up tonight and watch my bear in case it moves.”

3. It was just so darn cute!

Here are some of those oh-so-adorable pictures:

A teddy bear wikapedia-ing 'teddy bear.'

Teamwork - too short to reach the doorknob.

Bill the chimp, probably reading about Travis the chimp.

Reading some scary stories...

The whole program ties in so easily with sooo many picture books, the ones I read were:

Some other great ones would have been:

Stop by and take home one of these bear stories today!