We added a few fish to our Pond!

After listening to the first few chapters of this book,

I decided to make a bowl for each of my boys that contained 30 $1 bills.

For 30 days, any time they fought, left the toilet unflushed or didn't finish their jobs before leaving for school I took $1 out of their bowls. If they had a perfect day, with no bills taken, then they could earn $1 back that day.  Let's just say this worked and didn't work.

They fought, didn't flush the toilet sometimes and didn't always finish their chores,

but they were always willing to perfect it the next day to earn the dollar back.

My kids are driven by money, so I was hoping this would improve their relationship (and their toilet flushing).  I feel it did, but by no means are they bliss to be around today.  But, it was great leverage when they were acting up and I was fed up.

Anyways, we did this for the month of October and on November 1st they had ALL of their bills in their bowls.  The hubby thinks I was too lenient and should've never let them earn the dollars back, but I like to call it merciful and loving ;).  Maybe next time I will be more of a stickler.

Well, my kids have been begging for an animal for years now,

and now that they have their own money ($60 together) we succumbed to getting them fish.

We made the trip to Petco (which they want to visit daily, but we never allow because they then beg for a pet for days).  They picked out some pretty crazy fish, but they required a filtered tank, and those were overbudget.  A nice man finally talked them into the low maintenance betta fish that was more affordable.  The selling point was if they got a cheap fish they could get a "toy" to go in the tank.

They picked SpongBob- who knows why?!- we hate that show at our house (well Mom and Dad do anyway). Maybe it's the rebels coming out in them.  We got all of the accessories and items we needed to get started with our fishies and set out for the checkout.  The boys paid $60 in $1 bills- it took the man quite some time to count them all.  We headed home with the new members of our family.  Henry was worried his fish was going to spill and begged me to drive carefully.  Once we were home we readied the tanks and dropped the fish in.  The boys loved seeing their fish in their new homes and kept cheering for them to go into the pineapple house (whatever that is called on SpongeBob).  They were mesmerized for quite some time.

After much debate Henry settled on the name "Leo" for his fish (after Leo the Lion, the RSL mascot).

James picked "Fishy"- no explanation needed.

We are hoping our fish will be easy to care for and satisfy the kiddos hunger for a pet.

Feed once a day and clean out the cage once a week- seems doable.  As long as they do it.

After a scare this morning- imagine one fish lying in the rocks and one boy really worried- we hope we can keep them alive!

Henry told me we now have 7 members in our family, so welcome to our Pond, Leo and Fishy!