We have a pet

We went to a Japanese festival in uptown Charlotte on Saturday. Since Brian's company works with a Japanese company in a joint venture, we are getting to know a lot about the Japanese culture and eating a lot of sushi. We watched drummers and made oragami and ate more sushi and noodles and met Brian's collegues. Apollo kept seeing kids with bags of goldfish and started begging for us to get one. We learned that there was a game in the courtyard, where for $2, you could try to scoop a goldfish into a bowl with a rice paper net. Once your rice paper net dissolved, your turn was up. I thought the chances of capturing a goldfish were pretty slim, and since the proceeds of the game went to Tsunami Relief, we let him play. Sure enough, his net dissolved before he could corner and capture a goldfish. Little did I know, each kid got a goldfish in a bag regardless. So, elated, Apollo walked off with a baggie of water and Goldie the goldfish.

Of course, now we had the problem of keeping the fish alive. We had to go to Walmart and get food and water purifier. We already had a tank at home. Athena was dying to go clothes shopping, so Brian dropped us off at the mall, while the boys took care of the fish. On the ride to Walmart, Brian hears Apollo screaming in the back seat, holding Goldie flopping in his hands, water all over his shirt, and the baggie nearly empty. We're still not sure what happened--did the baggie open? Did Apollo want to pet the fish? They put the fish in what water was left, and Brian bought a .38 cent goldfish to replace Goldie in case he was dead when they got back to the car. But happily, Goldie and Goldie 2 have both made it to day 2. Which is good since the only tank we could find was the 30 gallon tank we bought for the turtle we had 2 years ago.

We don't do well with pets in general, and I'm thinking that if the fish last a week, we will be lucky. If they do, we'll have to invest in a smaller tank or a table to put this one on and some more fish to fill it up.

Summer Slips By

Ok, Blogger told me I was out of picture limits, whatever that is--so I do not have near enough pictures posted to try to show our summer so far...I will try to figure out what is going on and post some more later.
But summer is turning out to be far more less lazy than I hoped it would be...We hit the ground running with soccer camp and YW camp--Athena's first year. She had a blast shooting, swimming, hiking, and sliding down a natural waterslide. Mom and Dad and Alyssa, Jeff, and Abbey came the next week and we spent the week exploring things to do in NC. Some of them were really fun--the Schiele Natural Museum, hiking off of the Blue Ridge Parkway to some waterfalls, and going to Old Salem were some of the highlights. Save your money on Mystery Hill (near Blowing Rock) and the tour of furniture at Old Salem....But it was so much fun to have so much family at the same time!
Then there was 3 vs. 3 soccer tournament that Paris played in and Brian coached. They lost all their games but it was fun to camp out for 2 days and play and watch soccer. Tritan went to Scout camp and earned 4 merit badges--the hardest earned was in shooting--he got his bullseye on the last day! The Fourth of July was a bust since it rained all evening long (we salvaged it by having family movie night--the first Harry Potter...).
Brian took Tritan and Athena to NJ the next week...Athena stayed with her BFF from Jersey and they went to the shore, picked blueberries, and stayed up everynight talking til midnight. Tritan and Brian stayed in Princeton, where Brian worked and Tritan went to computer camp where he learned how to write in changes in videogames, including maps and avatars--(I don't know what anything means, I just know he loves doing it and he's good at it...). They got to hang out with a few friends from Jersey and watch Harry Potter. The bad news: Our favorite restaurant there just had a fire, and was closed. The good news: Our favorite grocery store was still there and Brian brought me home two cases of spaghetti sauce. Me and the rest of the boys hung out here and found the dollar theater, played Legos, ate at fun places, and played laser tag. I wondered if splitting the family up was a good idea, but I think Brian and Tritan got to bond a bit, and Tritan felt very grown up. And Paris and Apollo went from fighting every single day (several times a day) to being "best friends" and the fights completely dissappeard by the end of the week. (They came back the next week, but considerably less...).
Meanwhile, Athena is at the dance studio every chance she can get and we try to go swimming a few times each week (so grateful I don't have a pool to take care of this year...). The kids mow our gargantuan lawn for money each week, and Apollo and I are trying to keep up on his reading.
Yesterday I went to Staples for computer ink and there was a line of mothers buying back to school supplies and my stomach sunk....Summer is almost over already!! I don't care how old you are, or how busy you get during the summer--it is never long enough!

These are all pictures of the Schiele Museum --I'll try to post more pics later.