Not So Good

This summer has been so full of wonderful activities, and they've all met our expectations. That is, until Wednesday. We went to the downtown library for a reptile show. It was listed in the calendar as such, and we were expecting a really neat demonstration of animals. Was I wrong to be expecting that? I don't think so.... Anyway, we were thinking it was going to be pretty neat so we even invited our friend Terri Lyn and her kids. It turns out that half the valley also was expecting something cool. We got to the library a little before 2:00, and within minutes the room was totally packed with very excited kids. Talk about sensory overload. It was loud and hot and just bubbling over with energy. Well, 2:00 came and went, and the librarian came in to tell us that "Reptile Ray" hadn't arrived yet, and if he didn't get there in five minutes then we'd do a puppet show instead. Oh how I wish it had been the puppet show. "Reptile Ray" (can you hear the sneer in my voice?) wanders in at 2:15, and proceeds to try to get his power point presentation working. Are you kidding me? Here is a room packed with 50 kids and their parents and he's messing around with the computer. Finally a librarian takes over the computer and he starts joking around with the kids in a manner displaying his obvious lack of experience talking with kids, especially in a group. I'll just say it was mayhem. People started trickling out of the room, and we should have gone too. Finally Mr. Reptile shows us his slide show, still shouting over the cacophony of voices, and then announces that he didn't bring any animals with him. Boooo. We left.

Luckily, it was a lovely hot day and the fountains were running full blast outside and we let the kids get totally soaked. Then we headed to 7-11 for free slurpee day! (The date was, after all, 7/11.)

After writing this rather nasty little note, I have to say that normally I'm thrilled with the library programs. I'm so glad we live in a neat city with lots to offer, and it's been so fun to take advantage of so many activities and opportunities. I love the library. And thanks to my mom, who always took us to cool library stuff as kids so I can pass the tradition along. Here is a darling picture of my friend's son in the fountain: