the "reptiles" workshops at science day at Mikhaila's school went really well
Sharon, a mom who's a science teacher at another school assisted me
we did four 25min closed sessions and we also had a rotating assortment of helpers from Mikhaila's group of friends
we admitted 12 to 15 kids with their parents and Sharon was great with the crowd control at the door
I found myself being better than anticipated with getting kids to settle down
four workshops in a row were bordering on being a bit much
thankfully I brought enough animals, that only my five most "sociable" snakes were handled each time
the others were rotated and some not handled by anyone but me

Layla, our black mexican king was just going into shed, so I took her out each time, just to have the kids look and notice the eyes
one kid there actually knew that it meant she was going into shed
the others all guessed impending blindness

there was one fun occurence
when I pulled the three garter girls out of the bag during the third workshop, they happened to all come out in a big bundle, with their heads poking out though my fingers, facing the same direction
I have no idea what they first saw when they first came out, but whatever it was, it kept their attention, so that when I moved my hand side to side, their heads turned side to side in unison for a few moments

somebody suggested that I should do birthday parties
I'm seriously considering it
not only would it give me a great excuse to get more reptiles
I'm thinking that they and their equipment would then become a business expense and as such tax deductible
I don't know though . . .