"shhhh ... this is the library."

i tell my kids that as we head into the building. and i'm always surprised at the noise that greets us there. is it not the rule anymore? do people not follow the rule? are people losing their hearing and can't tell they are being loud? are people really that inconsiderate? answers aside, i do my best to keep my people hushed.

in our family kids are allowed 3 items per ... 3 books; 2 books and a movie; 1 book, 1 movie, and a game; 2 movies and a book ... there must be a book in the bunch but they are allowed 3. we have been going on wednesdays ... not for any particular reason, just seems to be the day that we're ready.

my favorite part about our library trip happens less than 3 minutes after we get there ... Easton comes back to me with 3 books that he has grabbed from the shelf or table. he has not looked at what the books are about, nor has he put any thought into what he wants to learn about or have read to him at quiet time ... he has simply 'come and conquered' ... carried out the task of finding 3 books. so funny to me ... i will then look at his books and ask him "are these the books you want me to read to you?" "uh huh." "this one is about barbie's dream castle ... you want to hear that story?" "NO!" "well then you're going to have to look for something else ... maybe look at the front of the book and see if it looks like something you like?"

it's all about judging the book by the cover ...

Ammon is all about finding chapter books with pictures on the fronts that look cool. monsters, aliens, mice on motorcycles, scooby-doo, baseball players, and your occasional army cat ... all books that he can't read and doesn't necessarily want read to him ... he just likes to thumb through the pages and look at the pictures and pretend that he has read 46 pages in 17 minutes. he's always the one that borrows movies too ... random movies that i have never heard of ... or old ones like Herby goes bananas!

Elyssa and Abi are pretty independant and pick out books that they will actually read, Elyssa sometimes brings home books that are WAY below her reading level ... just so that she has more books to add to her list in a short amount of time. Abi is way into educational books ... she just picked up a book about training horses ... and breeds of dogs ... she wants to be prepared for when she gets those things ... because you never know ... we might just move to texas and have a farm ...

what's my least favorite part, you ask?? check out.
it's a fight ... i wanna go first ... i can do it ... get out of my way ... i want to get the receipt ...

i have to lay the smack down almost everytime ... or do them separately ... and this last time Elyssa wanted to get her own card ... bah.

but we made it out alive ... no one had to die ... and now we have some books for quiet time!

hooray for the library!