Library Adventures!

Yesterday, Peep and I decided to go to the library. His family goes a lot, but he had never seen one. I think his last adventure has made him very brave!

So, off we went!

We wandered in and Peep couldn't believe how many books there were, and couldn't wait to see them all! He danced around in my bag until I scooped him out and put him on the card catalog.

Look at all those drawers! What's inside?

Peep wandered back and forth and asked to see what was in the drawers. Unfortunately, they were all empty! I told him that all the books are organized a certain way in the library. When I was small, each book had its own card in the drawers that told you which shelf the book was on. Peep thought that sounded like a lot of little treasure maps! Then he thought it was very sad that all the maps were gone.

So, I showed him the computer, where the new catalog is.

This is much smaller! Yay technology!

Peep had a lot of fun with the computer! We looked to see if the library had books about dinosaurs and ice cream and cookies, but there were so many books, we couldn't make up our minds. Peep decided to explore instead to see if there were any surprises to find.

We found books here...

Yay! An adventure story!

And books there...

Oooh, another adventure story!

And more books everywhere!

So many books!

Peep hopped about and still couldn't decide!

We wandered and wandered, and found other exciting things at the library, too!

Houston, no problems here!

Look, Kate! Look! Aren't these pretty?

This house is almost Peep-sized!

A very nice librarian asked us if she could help us find a book, but Peep explained that he was exploring to see if he could find just the right book to borrow. She could see how excited he was to see such an interesting place and asked if he'd like to meet Woodstock. Who could Woodstock be?

We all walked over to a spot near the check-out counter and then we spotted him!

Hi, Woodstock! Let's be friends!

Peep really wanted to find out more about the library, but it was almost time to go. Peep looked around and saw a librarian doing something. He went over to find out. Peep really is very curious!

Hello! What are you doing?

This is Heidi. She's a Library Page. That means that she helps out at the library sometimes. She was very nice and explained that her job is to put books back on the shelf that other people have returned. It's very important that she puts them back in just the right spot so that someone else can find them again. 

Peep was very thoughtful. It's important to put the treasure where it belongs!

Finally, we had to go home. We didn't find any books we wanted yet, but we could always come back. It was getting late and we both were getting hungry. Supper time!

On our way out, Peep saw one last book he wanted to investigate. It was so big! With a lot of effort, he climbed up onto it to see what it was. It was a dictionary! This is one of my favorite kinds of books and I use them nearly everyday. It was already open, so we looked at the page. What was "dimethyltryptamine"? 

That's a hard word to say! 

Then we looked up "dinosaur".

Look, Kate! It's Uncle Rex!

When we got home, Peep and I ate our supper. We had broccoli and carrots and onions and cheese! It was so delicious, we forgot to take pictures to show you. But then we thought we could have some dessert and take pictures of that. Peep suggested we make some hot chocolate because it's cold out and we hadn't had chocolate in almost two days. I have a lot of chocolate in the cupboard. Peep asked me to show you:

The chocolate shelf.

But we couldn't decide on which chocolate to use! Peep thought we should look it up in a cookbook. What a smart little dinosaur!

This one, Kate! There are lots of recipes in there!

We looked through three books and Peep finally found a recipe.

Peppermint! Let's have peppermint hot chocolate!

I think Peep likes peppermint an awful lot, don't you?

We looked at the list of ingredients and I checked the cupboards. Oh, no! I didn't have any peppermint oil! But then we remembered that we had some peppermint hot fudge left over from our last adventure. Would that work? We weren't sure. But my friend Judy made the hot fudge, so she'd know. I sent her a text message, and she sent me one back - yes! It would work! 

Thank you, Judy! 

Judy said the recipe isn't written down anywhere, but we were allowed to tell you how to make it! Peep really wants to visit Judy one day. What a nice lady!

You need Herrell's Hot Fudge and milk, and a grown-up to help.

This will be so yummy!

Then you measure out one cup of milk and put that in a saucepan. Peep made sure I measured everything correctly.

One cup. Exactly.

Then we measured the fudge. We needed one tablespoon. Peep said I should use a really big tablespoon.

That hot fudge smells so good!

Then you stir that into the milk while it's heating up on medium heat. Peep made sure I didn't stop stirring so that the milk wouldn't burn.

Good job, Kate!

You stir and stir and stir and stir until the hot fudge mixes in with the milk and the whole thing is nice and hot.

Perfect hot chocolate. Yum!

The last step is the most important: then, you drink it! 

I don't have a cup that's Peep sized, so I decided to drink mine out of a bowl, too.

Ahhhhh! Delicious!

It was so warm and delicious that right after we finished, Peep fell fast asleep. I made him a little nest out of a soft blanket, and then I crawled into my big bed and went to sleep, too. What a great day!

What kind of adventure will we have next?

Peep and Kate