This summer at the Library was all about adventures so we could “Read Beyond the Beaten Path!” A trip to Hall’s Pond Sanctuary and Amory Playground were just what we needed to go on an adventure right here in Brookline. There were so many other stuffed animals that it felt just like summer camp! We were all nervous to be away from home for a WHOLE night, but the librarians took really good care of us.

The librarians took a picture of all of us at the Library before we set off together! Brown had a lot of fun sitting with a bunch of other bears who were almost the same color as he was. They all became friends right from the start. Bobby the Sea Lion noticed that Dolphin is almost the same color as Jake the Library Snake. Jake joined us for this picture, but he is a big snake so he can’t leave the Library so, unfortunately, we had to leave him behind. He told us all about how nice the librarians are and how much he loves all the kids who come to visit him. You’ll have to say hi next time you visit the Library!

The trip to Halls Pond wasn’t very far since it’s just off of Beacon St. As soon as we got to the park, the librarians set up the tent. All of us fit inside just perfectly. It was a really cozy place to spend time. It wouldn’t be a library adventure without a storytime and, luckily, Pooh Bear was willing to read to us. Angel, Bunny, Lovey (the sheep), Giraffe, WiWin, and Umbreon really enjoyed their front-row seats and thought that the book, Hat Tricks by Satoshi Kitamura, was really funny!

Some friends tried to sneak away from the storytime to go to Amory Woods since they were very eager to start exploring. Moqutaro reminded the animals to be quiet, but the librarians caught them and told them that we had to stay together as a group! Evie was sad they didn’t get to go to the pavilion yet, but let us know that it’s hard to climb a fence with hooves! Even though the animals were being sneaky, they were lucky to have great friends like Elmo, Ketty Chan, and Unicorny to help them climb.

We didn’t stay in the tent too long since the librarians had lots of activities planned for us! We started by exploring Hall’s Pond. Moosey taught us that Hall’s Pond is a Wildlife Sanctuary which means that it’s a safe place for animals. Did you know that Brookline actually has three wildlife sanctuaries? It was really cool to visit one of them! While exploring Hall’s Pond, we had to be quiet and walk slowly so that we didn’t scare any animals. Teddy, Lovey, Max, and Pink couldn’t resist checking out the sign at the entrance to Halls Pond! Lovey and Max really like to climb, and Pink showed us how she can stick to things that are made of metal! We were all surprised to learn that one of our friends is magnetic. Teddy is afraid of heights, but was so glad that his friends encouraged him to see the lovely view and to learn more about Hall’s Pond by reading the sign.

We were so excited to see both a turtle and cormorant at the pond! A cormorant is a type of sea bird. See the cormorant on top of the log sticking out of the water and the turtle near the bottom left of the picture by all the leaves? We wanted to say hello to these new friends, but the librarians reminded us that we shouldn’t disturb these animals. Hedwig hooted about how happy they were to see other birds.  We also saw a bunny that we were able to politely whisper hello to! Our friend Bunny was the most excited by this sighting! Froggy, Bobby the Sea Lion, Dolphin, Fish Fish, and Lob Chan were all really excited to see the pond! They normally spend a lot of their time in the water but had to stay on dry land this time. It was a hot day so it would have been really nice for a swim!

A group of bear friends spotted a very nice tree to climb! Seal, Elliot Lovey, Fluffy, Teddy Bear, and Rose had a great spot to lead us in a game of I-Spy. They said “I Spy something green….” We all spent time looking around before Baby Stuffey guessed, “Leaves!” They were right, we saw lots of green leaves all around us. While some animals liked to climb and explore, others of us liked to sit and smell the flowers and listen to the birds chirp. Tony and Tigey climbed up high to explore the flowers on the stand! We also thought this was a great place to sing some camp songs. LooLoo led us in singing “Baby Shark,” and Love led us in singing “Willie the Worm.” Icee changed the words to a song and we sang “99 cups of Icee on the Wall!” We were so excited when Georgian Dragon sang us a song from Chile to end our sing-along. Lily and Icee snuggled right up together in the flowers after singing.

We’d had a lot of exploring, so we decided to save Amory Woods, a different part of the park for later and go back to our campsite to relax a little bit. It was the perfect time for a nap! A lot of us crawled into the hammock! Lovey likes to climb and hang, so they thought the tree was a better place to sleep! Moosey and 安瑞(An Rui) were so tired that they even snored. Luckily, the rest of us didn’t mind and we all slept for a long time. Some of us stuffies weren’t tired, so we started a game of Go Fish in our tent! Santa taught us all how to play since Seal and Baby Foxy had never played before! Lucia and Bear made a really good team and got lots of cards. We all thought they were going to win but surprisingly when we counted all our pairs at the end of the game, Tony and Lily had five pairs of cards! 

Wang Wang, Elliot Lovey, Maya, and Love all enjoyed sharing their books with each other! Silly Dino didn’t want to share at first, but was happy to pass his book on when reminded that it wasn’t okay to  eat books. Teddy, Fuzzy, and Tigey took turns reading aloud and admiring the really cool outfits that they were each wearing! Tigey’s hat provided the perfect amount of shade all day. Fish Fish and LooLoo wanted to make sure that the librarians got a picture of them reading with all of their friends!

We were all well-rested after our naps and quiet activities, and then the librarians told us that it was time to play some sports! Some of us were excited because we love sports, but others didn’t want to get too hot. Luckily, we all drank lots of water to stay hydrated all day!

We started off with a big game of soccer! Car and Buzz Lightyear were worried that they might get hurt since they were the smallest, but Honey Bear and LuLu promised to keep them safe! Sleeping Stitch and Alice were an incredible pair of referees and made sure that we all followed the rules and stayed safe. Purpley and Darth Vader started the game with the faceoff. Darth Vader wasn’t even able to use the force!  Honey and Elmo worked together to kick the ball towards the goal! Lala and Teddy were our goalies. Lala dove for the ball to save it but missed. Her team didn’t care because they knew she was trying her best and they were just playing for fun! Boo Boo Bear was so excited by all of the action that he cheered so hard he fell over!

A few stuffies thought they might be better at tennis than at soccer, so they took the long walk over to the Amory Tennis Courts. Lucia, Max, and Georgian Dragon were on one team and they started by serving. Anteater, Bear, and Lob-Chan received on the other team! We didn’t keep score, but we played for a really long time. Lob-Chan was excited to learn that tennis racquets and the net on the tennis court were nothing like fishing nets! Froggy came along too but was afraid he would get mistaken for the tennis ball and decided not to play after all.

A few of us decided to ask nicely to borrow the tennis ball so that we could play wiffle ball. Somehow we ended up with a wiffle ball bat but no wiffle ball, but adventures teach us to be flexible and creative. wiffle ball is still fun, even with a tennis ball. Pooh Bear was our first batter and Ketty Chan pitched! The outfielders, Baby Stuffy, Pink, and Evie, were all afraid that Pooh would hit a home run! Luckily, they were able to catch the ball just in time. We were glad to have a smaller field to play on since the baseball field at Amory Park is really big!

We finished our sports adventure with a game of kickball! We loved the really colorful ball that the librarians brought for us to play with! Pua, Bonn-Taro, Rose, and Panda were excited to be picked to be on captain Fluffy’s team! Angel and 安瑞(An Rui) gave the ball a big kick, but Brown, Sparky, and Umbreon formed a great line of defenders! 

After we played some sports, some of us needed a rest, so the librarians helped us find a really nice bench. Lala liked sitting on the top of the bench because it reminded her of some of the rocks in the savannah, which is one place lions can live. Honey Bear told us all about the adventures that they had been on with their owner.One of the best parts of being a stuffie is getting to go on lots of adventures. Panda told us that their backpack and mask helped them be prepared and stay safe on adventures! Clarice showed us the necklace with their name on it which kept them from getting lost and commented that their owner had brought them to the library in the coolest carrying bag! Sparky and Boo Boo Bear loved hearing all of the stories that their new friends had to share and they really enjoyed seeing their friends’ fun accessories. Smoky thought all the stories that were being told sounded so cool that they decided to tell us about one of their favorite characters from a story! Can you guess who it is based on their pajamas? That’s right, Smoky told us all about Baby Yoda! Darth Vader said that was his favorite story.

After resting, we decided to explore Amory Woods by playing a game of hide and seek! Look how many of us chose the tree as a hiding spot! Hedwig was able to climb the highest, but Panda, Bonn-Taro, and Fuzzy got really far up the tree too! Some of the shorter stuffies were seeking but they had to work really hard to get tall enough to look for the stuffed animal friends in the trees. Sleeping Sitch gave a boost to Clarice, Unicorny, Giraffe, and Moqutaro. They decided to check the pavilion in Amory Woods first! Purpley, LuLu, Alice, Honey, and WiWin picked the back of a big bird bath. With the shadows from the leaves, it makes a great hiding spot! Panda thought they might like to hide in the hollow at the base of a tree, while Lovey and Elmo thought about going all the way into the big bird bath! Lovey decided to do it and ultimately won the game!

After a fun (and long!) game of hide and seek, some of us were ready for a snack! Maya, Baby Foxy, Anteater, Pua, Wang Wang, Dino, and Santa sat down for a picnic! The librarians had to remind Dino that he couldn’t chew on Wang Wang for a snack! (The librarians recommended that Dino read the book We Don’t Eat Our Classmates by Ryan Higgins with their owner.  Maya really enjoyed all the leaves and grass, and Anteater had a great time snuffling about for some Ants. The librarians had really yummy snacks for the rest of us!

After our picnic, we went back to the Library for the night. We begged the librarians to let us sleep in the park in the tent, but they were afraid that it might rain on us, so we hurried back to the Library where we were all tucked into our sleeping bags for the night after the librarian read us another story. Smoky came in their cozy PJs and was all set for lights out.

The librarians took such good care of us and we were so glad that you let us all spend the night at the Library. It was really fun to go on an adventure right here in Brookline. Although we had fun with all our new friends, we were ready to be picked up and see you again. The librarians even sent us home with a S’mores Kit so that we can make s’mores together!

EXTRA LINKS:

To learn more about Hall’s Pond Sanctuary, visit the website for the Friends of Hall’s Pond.

We took so many pictures of the stuffed animals at the sleepover that we couldn’t include them all in this post! Follow this link to a folder with more photos from our stuffed animal sleepover. How many pictures of your stuffed animal can you find?