It was fun until it wasn't

I finally broke down and bought something that I've been wanting for a long time. (It's always nice to do one fun thing with the tax refund.) Managing our picture book collection has been an ongoing struggle, especially without those nice forward-facing bookshelves designed specifically for picture books. Well, I finally solved the problem by buying the actual bookcases. They arrived yesterday and I spent some time putting them together. 

I am exceedingly happy with them. I guessed at the size we needed and am happy to report that I guessed right. Our books are divided into seasons and I rotate them through. When I was reorganizing the school room, I did some purging and resorting to make sure the amounts were about the for all seasons. This means that if the summer books fit (which they do), these shelves will work all year 'round. 

Here they are. 

I put them on the third floor landing.

Someday, when I find one, I think a nice beanbag chair would work here as well.

Now here's the second part of the story. The bookcases came in that thin, crumbly Styrofoam. It proved to be more than a little irresistible to some little girls I know. It was a hot day and fairly unpleasant to be outside in. The little girls decided that making snow was the perfect activity for such a hot day. Normally, I would be hiding that Stryofoam immediately, but today it seemed like a fun activity while I put bookcases together.

And it was fun. These pictures don't even show the extent of the "snow" that covered the front hall and drifted into other rooms. But then it was time to clean it up and then it wasn't so much fun. My transition-challenged, easily frustrated children both didn't want the fun to end and were overwhelmed with the extent of the clean-up.

We were all still at it when J. and TM arrived home. It only took another half an hour with two adults, one 13 yo boy, and three (more or less helpful) little girls working. Dinner was a little later than planned. We may also be finding little Styrofoam bits roaming the house for months to come.