pets R us

so adam and graham went on this incredible daddy-graham adventure (adam, being the awesome dad that he is, periodically takes marit on dates and graham on adventures) to a nearby creek with a net and a bucket and brought home a bunch of tadpoles to raise.
they lived in here for about a week

and then on a marit-daddy date, an aquarium was obtained (i have to admit that i was less than thrilled about slimy creek creatures in our house). adam insisted that it would be so much better for visibility to watch the tadpoles grow legs and he even built this impossible-to-tip-over stand for it. he transferred the tadpoles and left for work early one morning.

the kids came down when they woke up and were so excited to see these guys swimming around.
and then i noticed that the one with legs seemed stuck on the pump and that was the beginning of one death after another as they all went belly-up within a couple hours...talk about toddler trauma! marit kept saying "i want it to rise from the dead like Jesus!" between sobs.

yesterday, we got three 13 cent goldfish (talk about affordable pets!)...so we are introducing marit's orange one named "tabby-goldie" and graham's red-headed one named "rub-a-dub" or "rubber ducky"(i'm not sure which he is saying) and miles' orange-tailed one is still nameless.

we talk about getting a kitten from time to time as well. we aren't going to right now, but we decided pax might be getting insecure about it so he has been acting like a cat...trying to be a lap-animal. ridiculous.