Carnival Trap

Last week, my parents took my chaos-causing bunch of monkeys to a small town local carnival. You know the kind? Cake wheel, bingo, dunking booth...GOLD FISH. Yeah. My children have been begging for their own fish for years. The problem is that I grew up with fish in the picture. We had multiple tanks with a variety of little swimmers. My dad actually raised guppies for a while. I know how much work is involved with cleaning the tank, checking the water quality, keeping them fed...and the unthinkable. {whisper} The flushing.

So, I've denied my children the grand experience. Unfortunately, those little buggers are sharp. One of them asked me, "Mom, if we actually won a goldfish at the carnival...would you flush it down the toilet?" 

"Of course not," I said. 

They saw their shot, and they took it.

 This is Goldie, Percy, and Artemis. 

{The boys are big fans of Percy Jackson and Artemis Fowl.}

Sadly, Goldie is no longer with us. I was worried about him {I was informed by Tootsie that he was a boy} when I noticed that he wouldn't eat. He only made it a couple days. Tootsie was a little sad, but she seemed to take it pretty well...especially when I opened my mouth and the words get another fish came out, seemingly involuntarily.

So, here we are...going down this fish road...or stream...and my children have been browsing through fish gadgets and gizmos and aquariums on Amazon, building their wish lists and putting fish books on hold at the library. And all I know is...I'm in over my head.