A Day of Books

Today was a book lovers dream. Today was a day to celebrate books...
we browsed books,
             bought books,
                    and borrowed books!

My youngest son and I started our morning by volunteering at T's school and then headed off to the book store. I have been faithfully following/reading Franki and Mary Lee's blog A Year of Reading, where they recommend new books for all age readers. This week has been full of great books for my two avid readers. I had my list scrolled out on my yellow post-it, I was ready to go.

Of course no trip to Barnes and Noble is complete without a stop at their Starbucks. J quickly zeroed in on the goodie display and requested his M & M brownie. We settled into our seats and had cookies, coffee (water for J), and conversation. These conversations are unique compared to my adult ones. "Mama, this is de-licious!", J exclaimed with chocolate drool hanging from the corner of his mouth. "It certainly is...what are we going to do after we finish eating?", I asked...eager to hear what his plans were. "Books, books, and trains!", he matter-of-factly stated. His plan matched mine perfectly. Once our tummies were tamed, it was off to the books. We quickly found T's book, The Trouble With Chickens by Doreen Cronin, and went to find My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall for J. No such luck on J's book, but there was good news...Educator Week is next week and my order will get in at this time. That's an extra 25%....whoo hoo! I placed my orders, paid for our books (Run Like a Mother for me), and off we skipped out the door.

It's an early release day for my big guy so we decided that this would be the perfect day for a trip to the library. After picking up T and delivering his new book and treat (we got him an M & M brownie too), we drove to our local library. We are very lucky here...our library has it's own enclosed room full of children's books, movies, music, and magazines. I careful distributed our bag full of books into the slot like I was delivering a special package. Then I got to skimming the shelves while T explored some of his own. I cleared off the "New Arrival" shelf while smiling at the librarians. I had just brought back enough New books to refill the shelves and save them some time. The boys were curled up in beanbags, reading their own good fit books, while I gingerly carried our tower of books to the counter.

While I waited for my turn, a little girl tugged on my shirt. She stated that I had a lot of books and asked what I was going to do with them all. I smiled my most genuine smile and stated that we really like to read at our house. These books would get read over and over again before they came back to stay at the library. She turned to her mom and stated that they needed more books this instant. I just smiled.

Once we got home, books were quickly removed from bags and nestled into little hands. My boys were devouring their new books while getting comfy on the couch. I love these moments...days full of reading. I can't wait for tonight when we finish the day with more reading and discovery. Perfect!