Fish Food For Thought

Josh brought two goldfish home from a birthday party last week. Not the crackers. The real deal! {Mental note: never send pets home as a parting gift! Oh yeah, I'd never do that in the first place!}

They have become quite the fascination, at least for Rachel and Caleb.

They always love to look at them, so I lower the bucket down several times a day for them to get their looksies.

It just so happens that on one of their looksies, I discovered one of the little guys was laying on his side, not moving.

I sent him to the big fishbowl in the sky {location: sewer ponds west of town via the toilet} and Emily and Josh got upset that I didn't feed him to the cats!

Afterward I changed the water, thinking that the bigger fish would appreciate not having to swim in dead fishy water. Wouldn't you?!?

In the process he flipped out of the grabber thingy onto the counter and laid there stiff as a board. I thought I was going to have to explain to Josh how both fish had died in one day.

But alas, the little guy perked right up once he got scooted back into the water! PHEW!

Later that same day, during the 30 seconds that I ran to the mailbox, Rachel managed to climb onto the counter, retrieve the fish food, run to the hall, open the lid, and scatter the smelly flakes from one end to the other. When she realized I had discovered her actions, she and Caleb began furiously shoving handfuls of the food into their mouths. ICK! ICK! SOOOO ICKY!!

I did manage to get things cleaned up.

ICK!! ICK!! ICK!!!

How Do I Love Thee...

Valentine's Day started a couple days early for our family this year. The kids get to have Valentine's Tea at school - a time to learn about manners and etiquette - on Friday (the 12th). The boys seat the girls and then bring them a cookie and drink. They dress up in their Sunday best for this, so it's the real deal! I couldn't believe how excited Josh was to dress up! He came up Friday morning in his red dress shirt, black slacks, and a red tie! He was looking so dapper! Here he is after school on Friday. Doesn't he look so grown up?!?! (For the record, I posed him this way - his natural pose is, shall we say, a little too manly!)

Emily took her dress to school to change into/out of so she wouldn't have to worry about what to do at recess in a dress. So, I don't have any pictures of her. But this was a big deal for her too - she asked me to put some curls in her hair!! It's an amazing day when she actually WANTS to get her hair done!

I had a lot of fun putting some things together for Jared. I had the kids take them to him at work throughout the day on Saturday. We did rice krispie treats shaped like Hershey's kisses first,

then they took him some fortune cookies I had made the day before.
They were so yummy, but a TON of work. Probably not something I'll be doing very often!
After that I had them take him a bag of tortilla chips and a jar of his favorite salsa from a restaurant here in town. The kids had so much fun being my messengers, and Jared said he really enjoyed it. On the way to our first drop-off, Josh wondered how Jared would know all these things were from me, because I told them to tell him this was a special delivery from a secret admirer. I just had to laugh at that one! I assured Josh that Jared would surely know they were from me!

Jared brought these beauties home for me on Saturday afternoon - aren't they gorgeous?!?! They smell soooo good too! Just what I needed!
We had a fun time as a family Saturday evening. We had orange chicken and rice, which we ate with our chopsticks, and then I surprised the kids with fortune cookies. They were so excited that they got to have some too. They had wondered earlier in the day why all the good stuff was all for Dad!! They were so excited to read all the fortunes I put in them. Then we sat down and watched part of Disney's "Around the World in 80 Days."

Cupid made a visit to the kids on Valentine's morning. They each got a new shirt, a personalized rice krispie treat (shaped like Hershey's kisses), and a bag of treats.
I would call this Valentine's Day a complete success! It was fun to see the kids going out of their way to be extra nice and to surprise their loved ones with Valentines. I just wish we could keep the lovey-dovey feelings going all year long!

Little Mermaid Addict

Rachel has completely given up naps (sniffle), so while Caleb is taking his nap, I have Rachel watch a movie. It gives her a chance for some down time, and me some time to take care of things I need to do.

Her favorite movie is Little Mermaid. She chooses it around 95% of the time. I'm getting a little tired of it, but it keeps her happy, so we watch it over and over and over...

This is what happens every time she watches it:

We get to the part where Ursula is inviting Ariel into her lair. She says, "Come in child! Don't lurk in doorways - it's rude! One might question your upbringing." Rachel ALWAYS responds with "Ariel's upbringing??" as if she knows exactly what Ursula is talking about and completely disagrees!

Then, there's the part where Scuttle (the seagull) is trying to figure out what's new with Ariel (she's just received her legs from Ursula). Rachel ALWAYS says, rather emphatically, "Scuttle's not in my book!!" She has a Disney Princess seek-and-find book, and it is quite upsetting to her that Scuttle isn't in the section with Ariel, Sebastian, and the other characters from Little Mermaid. How dare they not include him! The nerve of some people!