Bedtime and Blankets: Storytime Book Club Party (Ages four-ish and up)

July 2, 2011

Bedtime and Blankets was the appropriate theme for our Lala's very first book club party. Lala loves to wear nightgowns (getting dressed in the morning means putting on a different nightgown than the one she slept in the previous night) and she loves to read bedtime stories.

We read favorite bedtime stories and poems, decorated night-lights for our craft and enjoyed a bedtime snack of milk and cookies.

Celebrated Books
Time for Bed by Mem Fox
I have read this book literally thousands of times. Every night for nearly 13 years, I believe. With every baby I read this as the final book before kissing my babies on the hair (a kiss on the hair is a sign that you truly love someone in our family) and turning out the light. Now that my baby is five years old, I don't read it anymore. But, we typically quote from it nearly every night at bedtime.  (It's time for bed little calf, little calf. What happened today that made you laugh?)


Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
Another favorite! Although one of the little girls thought I got a little too loud at the "weeping, wailing" part!








Russell the Sheep by Rob Scotton.
Russell can't sleep. He tries counting lots of different things. Nothing works, not even counting the every star (twice!). But when he counts sheep, and remembers to include himself, he goes right to sleep. Hilarious pictures make this book a delightful read!

Once Upon A Time, The End (Asleep In 60 Seconds) 

by Geoffrey Kloske

Another family favorite, but I think the humor was a bit above this crowd. Interrupting Chickenby David Ezra Stein would have been a better choice. 

We also enjoyed bedtime poems from several poems books, including (my favorite!) Here's A Little Poem, For Laughing Out Loud, and Dinosaur Dinner.
  


Then we had time for the mothers to read individual stories to their daughters. Bedtime stories included:
       


















And these books would have been a perfect addition (but I couldn't find my copies!)
   








Before we started our craft we read this delightful poem from

Then we used stickers and markers to decorate night lights.

After all was finished, we enjoyed our bedtime snack of milk and cookies Aerie made quick and delicious cookies from a cake mix. Yum! (Luckily she put chocolate in some of them, so I didn't eat them all.)

Then we announced our next book club party selection:
Poppy by Avi



I think Sallie likes this book because she can identify with the main character, a mouse named Poppy. Poppy doesn't consider herself a particularly brave mouse, but she does what she needs to do to help her family and protect them from Mr. Ocax, the owl of the forest.

We will celebrate this book sometime in September.