A thank you party

I'm always up for a party--as long as it is at somebody else's house. Having a party at my house inevitably means that I have to nag my children for 24 hours straight to pick up their junk, do their jobs, etc. My children combat my efforts by working at the same rate that fossils solidify and by vanishing every time I'm not physically making eye contact with them. I tell a child to take out the garbage and poof, he or she is gone for an hour.

So yeah, I don't do a lot of entertaining.

Thankfully the same isn't true for my author friends because we just held our second Teacher/Librarian appreciation party at Amy Dominy's home. Our awesome publishers donated not only copies of our books to give to educators, but also provided other books and swag as well.

Here's a picture of us hiding behind our books. Authors do that a lot.

Here's a picture of us being more social. You can see Lisa McMann, Bill Konigsberg, Me, Jon Lewis, Aprilynne Pike, (second row) Shelly Coriell, Janni Lee Simner, Angela Morrison, Amy Dominy, Nancy Bo Flood, (First row) Suzanne Young, Erin Lange, James Owen

Here's a picture of all the awesome books publisher's donated. (Photos by Zac Dunn)

 Oh, and by the way, this is Amy's laundry room. Seriously. I soo have laundry room jealousy now. For some reason that I have never fully understood, builders all put dining rooms into houses--which people never use--but think homeowners all want to do their laundry in cubical-like closets.

If any architects are currently reading my blog, do us all a favor and switch that around.

The captain is our unofficial blow-up mascot. A man in a cape and underwear is always fun at a party.

Thanks publishers for being so generous, and thanks teachers and librarians for all that you do!