It was Animal Day at the Clara B. Mounce Library in Bryan today.  The hot summer morning did not keep families from coming out to see and experience animals on the library’s lawn.

Southwest Dairy gave a milking demonstration.

City of Bryan Police wowed the kids with a police dog demonstration.  Dogs that can find your keys?  Anyone besides me need a dog like that?  I wonder if you can train a dog to find a three year old’s shoes.  If so, we’d be 95% less late to every activity.

Bryan Police also hosted a free child fingerprinting booth at the library today.  Thanks for keeping our kids safe, BPD.

 There was also a celebrity on site.  HEB Buddy.  The kids loaded up on Buddy Bucks.  I’m pretty sure my kids are involved in some sort of elementary school black market involving Buddy Bucks.  I have a love hate relationship with HEB currency.  Does anyone else?  Buddy Bucks are great leverage for bribing kids to behave at the grocery store, but cashing those babies in adds a significant amount of time to our already too-long grocery trip.  And the books the kids use to collect their numbered stickers?  There are several in every room of our house.  I practically wrapped and packed all our dishes during a recent move with HEB Buddy Buck booklets.  Even if we only run in to HEB for milk and salad dressing our kids expect a Buddy Buck.  Confession: during that window of time when my kids are distracted by the showcase of candy that I’m NOT going to buy them, I’ve been known to quietly beg the cashier not to mention the Buddy Bucks.  The young, single, childless cashier looks at me in my yoga pants with my desperate eyes and probably vows right there to never be me one day.  This plan where the cashier keeps the Buddy Bucks on the down-low and my kids actually forget to ask for them works 1 out of 3,000 times.  But hey – it’s worth a try.

HEB Buddy and his unlimited amount of dollars and Instant Winner yo-yo’s.  Who can compete with this baller?  Our kids loved seeing him at the library.  They are huge fans.

To cool off the library gave each child a Popsicle.  Popsicles mean instant happiness.

After the kids had pet and then re-pet every animal we ventured inside the library to cool off and check out some books.

 I love seeing loads of kids in the library eagerly looking through books.  We have such terrific families in BCS.

The drive home was filled with rapid-fire turtle talk, marveling over how long they live, and arguing about whether what we saw at the library was a turtle or a tortoise.  Thanks for all you do, BCS Libraries, to spark creativity and curiosity in our kids.  You fill our lives with books and our summers with fun.

If you missed Animal Day today, have no fear.  The Bryan-College Station Libraries have an entire summer’s worth of fun scheduled for families. For a complete list of events and activities go here.  Parents, from now on we’ll let you know in advance if the scheduled events will take place indoors or outdoors so you can plan accordingly.  Hope to see you at the library this summer!

Related Links

Summer Fun at the Library

Summer Reading Programs in BCS

Summer Reading List