Book Fair

Oooh, the temptation! Last week began the set up for my daughter's school book fair. Being the involved and book loving momma that I am, I immediately signed up at the beginning of the school year to volunteer at the book fair when the time rolled around. I knew I'd be getting in deep being surrounded by all those books for sale, but I had no idea how bad it would be. Add to it the fact that it's being hosted in the library and, OH MY GOD, it's torture. *laugh* Nah, seriously, I am so thrilled that I signed up to help out, and it's been so much fun.

Last Friday I volunteered for 3.5hrs in the afternoon, and I helped the kids as they came in to make their wish lists for the parents, grandparents, etc. All of the younger classes had already been through the day before and earlier that morning, so the kids that were coming in weren't so small as to need me to do all the work. They did need help finding certain titles they were looking for and locating the product prices. It was fun and exciting (Silly, I'm sure.) to be able to volunteer.

Then today I picked up the first shift and worked a little over 5hrs during the actual sale itself. Last week I had my mum take off work to watch my 3 yr old, but today's hours I actually picked up yesterday. So, I had to take dd#2 with me. I was pretty curious how it was going to work out, and I have to say she really surprised me. I knew she'd be good, yet I totally didn't think she'd hold out so well for so long. She was so good though, and kept herself entertained by looking at the books and playing with some duplos that the librarian keeps on hand in the back room for just those occassions. I'm glad she did so well, cause we're going back tomorrow. Only, tomorrow I'm scheduled for both the morning and the afternoon shift. We'll be there from 7a-3p. I hope the novelty hasn't worn off for dd. :P

Anyway, the fair itself seems to be going great, and I've really enjoyed being able to talk books with the students, parents, volunteers, and library staff. It's fun to be able to recommend a book and see the parent or child turn around and buy it based on your recommendation. I know that's what I hope to accomplish through this blog (or the reading of the books anyways, not necessarily the buying), yet it was even more exciting to see it happen first hand.

Another totally positive note on the whole thing is that I got to shop today. Woohoo! As a volunteer I earn $5 of credit for each shift I work. Added up, when all is said and done, I'll have earned $30, maybe $35 in free books! I still have all day tomorrow and all day Tuesday to work; that's 4 shifts. Who knows, I might even pick up a shift on Monday if they're short handed. With all the awesome books they have for sale this year, I knew it was going to be really hard to narrow my choices down to keep me from going over what I alloted myself to spend. This extra bonus money was totally wonderful because it means, SCORE, more books! I bought sextoday, having only spent $16 out of pocket. I haven't yet decided what I'll get with the rest of the credit I'll earn. Was actually looking at some cute YA books for myself. hehehe I'm so bad! :P

Today's take home bargains were-

Barbie Mariposa: A Storybook by Mary Man-Kong (for dd#1)
Butterfly Meadow: Dazzle's First Day by Olivia Moss (for dd#1)
Madagascar Escape 2 Africa: Father and Son Save the Day by Gail Herman (for dd#2)
Hugs and Kisses by Christophe Loupy (for dd#2)
and
Knuffle Bunny Too by Mo Willems (for girls to share)

The sixth book was called Don't Eat the Babysitter, and it was on dd#1's teacher's wish list for her classroom. So we bought it for her, and had a cute little bookplate sticker put inside saying it was from dd#1 to her teacher's class and it marked the year. I thought that was really cool.

Oi, long day, long night at work, and I'm pretty convinced that this post is going to be utter babble. Ugh. Sorry! LOL

Short point of long story, I'm having a blast being involved at dd#1's school. The book fair is awesome, and I'm so glad I decided to step up and jump in.