Beware the SCHOOL CARNIVAL a cautionary tale

A friend's comment on facebook made me start thinking of this.

When Courtney (my youngest in case you are somewhat new to my blog) was in fifth grade at Eastgate Elementary, they had a school Carnival that year in May.

Of course she went.

And of course she won prizes.

And of course one of those prizes had to be two goldfish.

We aren't talking big pretty goldfish mind you (think: Cleo in Disney's Pinocchio) no of COURSE not. They were the cheap little feeder fish that are, or at least were a dime a dozen.

Now Courtney, being a sweet loving child wanted those goldfish to have a nice home. And me, being the loving indulgent mother thought, "why not?"
Straight to Walmart to get a nice round goldfish bowl.

Catch number one; While looking at nice round fish bowls, our attention goes to the nice little 3 gallon Fish Tank. Complete with bubbler and filter.

Have I mentioned Courtney's big brown puppy dog eyes?

Sorenson mother and child go home with nice, slightly more expensive, three gallon Fish Tank, with bubbler and filter.

We get home. I read the instructions. Apparently the water needs to be prepared. A process that promises to take no more than 24 hours. This also requires another run to Walmart to get more ingredients for a successful three gallon fish tank with bubbler and filter.

Cut to next day. . .

The tank is set up, the water is good to go, oh, oh, it appears that one of the fish is swimming a little funny in the makeshift glass jar.

You know? Funny? As in SWIMMING UPSIDE DOWN!

That's right folks, one of those fish was D. E. A. D.

Was Courtney sad about this?

Unfortunately NO.

She wasn't sad because in all of the procuring of goldfish related accessories, she couldn't help but notice that her goldfish were not fancy goldfish. By this point she had seen all of those pretty little, fancy schmancy, long finned, pretty ruffly tailed, differing shades of gold and white, Premium Goldfish.

Long story short; We came home with a fancy schmancy, goldfish.

(I have no proof but I think Courtney was at this point hoping that ordinary, boring, Eastgate Carnival Won, gold fish, would also kick the fishy bucket.)

She got her wish a few days later. Did I suspect foul play? I prefer to not answer that.

Now in case you haven't been doing the math, that left us with ONE, extra fancy schmancy goldfish.

Now, for the sake of time, my little story will pretty much end here, except for me to say that due to a series of events that would soundly put any of the "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" books, to complete shame, we ended up with a 15 gallon fish tank, complete with filter, bubbler, little plants and of course a little castle. And just to show how out of hand this had gotten, there were no longer any goldfish (fancy or otherwise) in that 15 gallon, high maintenance beauty.

Nope. Not a ONE.

There were guppies, swordfish, rainbow fish and many others that I don't remember the names of. It was fun. It was educational. But in the end it turned out to be a LOT more work than I had ever envisioned.

So after five years of having fish I sold the entire setup and never once have I looked back. (Well except for now I guess.)

I'm sure by now you have figured out the moral to my little story.

Don't let your child attend anymore School Carnivals!