The Noon Year's Eve Party
Yesterday I had to work, but you won't hear me complaining. Much. Okay, maybe a little, I mean, I like to keep things on the level with you all, but my time at the library yesterday was more than a little bit fun.
A while ago, our children's librarian, the illustrious Miss M let me know that we were going to have a Noon Year's Eve party for the little kids. I looked at her with the most vacant expression as I could muster, for most of the time there is something about my face that makes people think that I know things. Yuck. Anyway, she went on to explain that a Noon Year's Eve party would encompass the following: a balloon drop at the stroke of noon on New Year's Eve.
See, most little kids don't get to stay up late and ring in the New Year, so our children's librarians came up with the fun idea of having a party in the middle of the day so that the small frys of our community could get in on the celebrating too. I thought it was a pretty cool idea and was totally on board with coming in for a few hours on New Year's Eve to help put on the fete.
Boy, as usual, I didn't know what I was getting into. One, I have been going harder than corgi chasing a laser pointer as of late, so my perk is a little lackluster these days. As I write this, I have just returned home from my fourth party in three days. Let me tell you, I am glad the holidays are over. Phew! Anyway, when I beheld the party set up list that came with a very festive bin via library courier delivery, let's just say my "Oh, um, yep this is going to be something!" meter jettisoned into mild panic territory.
The balloon drop came with bags of balloons that needed to be blown up to fit in said balloon drop. @jacobtothe and I blew up one bag of balloons on the Saturday before, but with some subtle suggestion, I managed to wrangle my children into thinking that they wanted to go intern with me at the party. Such good little interns they are, and my lungs really appreciated their presence in the air into plastic product for the balloon drop department.
After some ladder placement engineering and mystery twine utilization, I had the balloon drop suspended from the drop ceiling in our library. I had my reservations about how well the apparatus was going to perform, but as I had the whole project sprang on me with just a bit before the party to set everything up with Miss M, well, I was cool with whatever occurred.
Another item on the list o' party that had to be executed was the refreshments. The courier also brought us a bunch of cupcakes. Before you could say sock hop Intern I and I had those cupcakes in plastic cups topped with straws and sour cherry candies. They were supposed to look like little milk shakes. My favorite part was watching the littles try to suck up the cakes through the straws. Heh.
My favorite part of the party, and most torturous to yours truly, was the bubble wrap dance floor. I mean, the idea is genius, a dance floor made of bubble wrap! It was physically hard for me to duct tape each layer of the dance floor to the carpet without going full toddler and romping around on the potential pop its. I still cringe thinking about the missed opportunity. Of course, watching a toddler grab a balloon and roll all the way across the dance floor made the whole enterprise and act of adulting totally worth it!
We weren't sure how many kiddos and their handlers would show up, but we would have never guessed over a hundred, which was in reality our total. The interns, Miss M, and I ran around restocking cupcakes, replenishing craft stations, and handing out swag. My son ran the explosion station, a place that contained confetti, baking soda, vinegar, and plastic champagne flutes. He is a gem, let me tell you. My avoidance meter was set to bolt when I read that part of the party set up paper. It all has to do with Oobleck. I still can't talk about that particular program without wanting to cry. The vaccuuming alone...
Anyway, at a few minutes before noon we rounded our party goers into the main part of the library and began the count down. My job was to run the count down and play Auld Lang Syne on the speaker when the clock struck noon. As we neared the top of the hour all that could be heard was a chanting of 10, 9, 8....That and the kids couldn't control themselves and were activating their party favors that we had handed out. Whoever invented lip whistles needs to be slapped with excessive overdue fines and unending letters of annoyance. Forever. Finally the countdown ended and Miss M pulled the tab on the balloon drop.
The anticlimactic moment began as the cardboard tabs that came on the device gave way under the force and the entire bag came down. No matter, the kids were still elated and Miss M, without skipping a beat, ripped away the tab holding the drop together and spilled balloons all over the overjoyed kiddos. For the next few moments all that could be heard was party favors, lip whistles, giggling, screaming, and balloon popping. Selfies were snapped, cupcakes were noshed on, and I had a smile on my face for the rest of the day.
One nice and unexpected thing about the festivities is the amount of gratitude that it elicited from the parents towards library staff. All of us were thanked profusely multiple times by parents in attendance for offering the event for the little kids. It was a good work day indeed:)
And on that note, I do so hope that you all had a lovely New Year's Eve and even more fantastic New Year's Day. I hope the whole calendar year is full of continual awesomeness for you all!
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