Penguins - Florence Branch, Boone County Public Library, Florence, KY

We were recently lucky enough to take Ivy to this show at the library. The Newport Aquarium brought a penguin to the Florence branch of the Boone County Library!

It was amazing! Ivy is a huge Penguin fan. She even wants to be a marine biologist when she grows up! It has been her thing for years. There was a marine biologist at the show! She got to talk to her for a few minutes one on one. She was so excited. She has since told me what the lady said about a million times. That short conversation has become a huge moment for her.

The show began with them bringing out the penguin and talking to the kids and adults about the aquarium. They talked about what they do for the penguins. They explained what the penguins do in the wild. The penguin they brought was an African penguin. At the end of the speech they allowed the kids to come up. The penguin was in a small fiber glass box. They were asked not to touch him but the could get very close. Ivy did not want to turn away long enough to even let me get this photo, lol. After I got one photo of her with the penguin I handed her the camera and let her get pictures of the penguin. She took around 50! I was shocked but she asked if I could put them on a disk for her. I was so grateful for the opportunity to give her the experience of being up close and personal with a penguin and being able to talk to a marine biologist! I would like to say thank you to not only the Newport aquarium for their people and penguin coming in but also to the library for hosting this event! I would also love to say thank you to the wonderful woman who took the time to speak with her. She will remember this day forever!

Petting Zoo at Lents Branch of Boone County Library - Hebron, KY

This morning we took the girls to a free petting zoo. It was at the Lents Branch of the Boone County Library. It is in Hebron, Kentucky. They had goats, bunnies, ducks, a pony, a donkey, an alpaca, and a chicken with two chicks. The kids were allowed to pet everything! The ducks and chicken were none to friendly. They ran from the kids. Bella, my toddler, was unsure of touching anything. She finally decided that Ivy would not lead her astray and pet this bunny. After that she touched everything. She really loved the donkey!

They had animal feed. The kids were able to feed the goats, the alpaca, the ducks and chickens. The girl in blue in the center of this photo is my daughter, Ivy, feeding one of the goats. After about twenty minutes, Bella finally felt comfortable enough to feed the goats. She laughed as they licked dried corn off her hand! It was so cute!

I would like to let all my readers in on a little secret! You can go to library programs even if you do not live there! Things like this that are free and open to the public are easy options for even non-residents. There are other options though as well. If you will be visiting an area and would like to see what the library there has to offer you can simply call them or look them up on-line. If you ask nicely they will normally allow you to go to even the library programs that require you to sign-up as long as there is room! All you have to say is "I will be visiting your area for a few days and I was hoping to find some affordable, educational fun for my kids. Do you have any programs we could attend?" We have visited libraries not only in multiple areas but in multiple states! Another secret I would like to share with you about the library is that you can use your local library card to get a card at neighboring libraries. You can often get a card in any library in your county and in the surrounding counties. Some areas do charge a small fee to issue a library card but it is normally not more then a couple dollars. Do be careful to keep your books from different branches organized or without a doubt something will get lost or be returned late. Remember that you do not need a card to visit a library regardless of where it is located. We have even stopped at public ones when we are on the road and the kids were getting tired of being in the car. I can not stress how great a trip to a public library can be!

Cost: Free!

Hours of Entertainment: Almost two

Location: Boone County Public Library-Lents Branch, 3215 Cougar Path, Hebron, KY