We went to our local carnival in June and had a great time once again. The kids went on every ride possible and Berk convinced me to go on a ride that I thought was going to be the death of me. It was a total rattle trap and one of the scariest rides I've ever been on. I thought we were going to fly out of it and I hated every second of it while pretending to love it so I didn't freak her out since she was being really brave. Not sure if it was due to my old age or just since having kids, but I did NOT enjoy one second of it!!!
We ate some food, got faces painted (not sure why Oliver chose the creepy one that he did) and rode the ponies. The highlight of the day was when the kids played a game involving winning a fish Little did we know that EVERYONE was a winner. Oh boy! Hooray for us! 3 more fish after our horrible luck with Berkeley's fish she got for Christmas years ago from Uncle Chris & Aunt Laura! I was so excited about it, I made sure Cohen & Easton went home with some fish of their own so that they could experience the true joys of fish ownership as well :) Berkeley named hers "Goldie", Oliver named his "Oliver Eye-Brawl Potts" after his fave Skylander and Fin went with "Sandy". My prediction was that they'd last for about 2 weeks. Apparently I grossly overestimated my "fishing abilities" because 2 days later, Berkeley's fish died. Yes, you read that right, 2 DAYS! Oliver was the one who not so subtly or compassionately broke the news to her when she was at my parent's house. The second we walked in the door to pick her up he said "Berk, your fish died." She looked at me and asked if it was true and I said yes. She started silently crying and huge alligator tears started falling on her legs as she hung her head. I had no idea she'd be so upset after only 2 days of having Goldie and I told Oliver next time to be a little more compassionate and gentle about issues regarding death. He didn't really seem to get it. The very next morning his fish, Oliver Eye-Brawl Potts" was floating lifeless in the bowl when we woke up. Berkeley said kind of gleefully, "Oliver, your fish is dead." He said, "It is?" He asked what to do with it and I said "Usually you just flush them down the toilet." He liked that idea and asked if he could be the one to do it so I let him. Quite a different reaction between the two of them! So, 2 down, 1 to go. Poor little Sandy was all alone. Not for long! The next morning she too, had passed away. Fin wasn't too distraught...just a little pouty lip and then we said our goodbyes to Sandy as she swirled down into oblivion. I was secretly rejoicing that I no longer had 3 fish to care for and caught myself singing "Another one bites the dust" for the rest of the day.
The other day we went over to Cohen & Easton's house and my 2 girls noticed they still had their fish. They said "Mom, are those the fish from MV Days?" I said "Uh, yeah, I think so". Laura said "Those stupid things are still alive and they get so excited every morning when I come downstairs to feed them." When they brought their fish home, Chris had gone out and bought some
filters for their bowl to filter all of the chlorine/chemicals out of
the water to make them last longer. The girls looked accusingly at me and asked why ours died after 2 days. I made some lame excuse about chlorine in our water and not having "fancy" filters and then something distracted them so I was off the hook. Next year, when we bring home more fish, I will pass on those life saving filters once again. You see, fish are the last things I want to fret about...I get excited every morning when my 3 children wake up alive and well. If I can keep them alive, then that's good enough for me. As for the filters, well, a sucker is born every day :)
