From cookie-decorating to relay races, 61 students from grades six through 12 spent one October night enjoying the Archer library and each other. The fifth annual library sleepover started the evening of Oct. 14 and ended the following morning.

Miaya South ’19 went to the sleepover for the very first time this year. She enjoyed the relay race and felt that it was a great bonding experience.

“I met a lot of people that I would normally not talk to outside the sleepover,” South said.

She spoke about how she got to know some of the middle-schoolers on her bus, as well as their friends, better. Overall, she said it was a good first experience.

Willow Stein ’22 went to the sleepover for the first time this year as well. She said she enjoyed the cookie-decorating activity and spending time with her friends.

“It was fun to be with friends and get closer with people,” Stein said.

Stefanie Daehler, head librarian, led the event along with fellow staff members Kate Burns, Alyssa Gogesch, Miriam Otero, Sonia Arora, Erin Harris and Jacque Giebel.

Daehler said that the event is a lot of work but is ultimately worth it because it’s always so much fun.

“I love getting to see students being really artistic and social,” Daehler said.

Students decorated cookies and mini pumpkins and socialized with their teams — consisting of students from different grades — during the relay race. Other events included movie-watching and juggling with silk scarves.

This year’s event  specifically focused on encouraging bonding amongst the grades.

Each girl had a name tag and a symbol which matched with another person’s symbol. The girls had to talk to each other in order to figure out who had the same symbol as them.

“I love seeing the relationships that form between different students, especially from different grades,” Daehler said.