Fishing for goldfish

Well, this was our inhumane activity on a Saturday morning. It was actually October 4, since I am posting this a month late. I was talking to my mom on this Saturday morning, and after chatting about Ben's obsession with fishing, Grandma T had a great idea to get some goldfish, put them in the wading pool and let the kids catch them. I was out shopping, so I bought about 20 of them in Walmart. The cashier asked if I was using them for feeder fish and when I told her what I was going to do with them, she said, "Well, that's a terrible way to go!" I guess getting eaten is better in her opinion. After the weekend of goldfish, I might have to agree with her.
Ben didn't even know what we were planning, but when I got home, he was out in the front yard with John looking for worms for fishin'. He kept telling me that he was looking for "space worms". I couldn't figure out what he was talking about until John explained to me that for some reason he was calling them "space worms" instead of "earth worms". I got it- earth/space- it never ceases to amaze me how his brain works.
We walked up to Grandpa and Grandma's house later that morning with the bag of goldfish hidden in Grandma's big pot I had borrowed to make soup the day before. While we were eating lunch, fish magically appeared in the wading pool, which by the way Grandma had warmed up with water she had boiled on the stove. Poor Grandpa thought he was getting some homemade soup, but it was just water to make sure the goldfish weren't too cold! Ben and Heidi were so excited. I had bought some cheap, fish tank nets at Walmart, which they used to catch the fish. Then Ben instructed us that they went in the bucket after being caught. Well, Ben caught them with the net, but a few dead goldfish later, Heidi started to grasp the concept of scooping up the fish instead of smacking them with the net. Heidi lost interest after awhile, but Ben played with those goldfish ALL WEEKEND! One of the best moments was when he was practicing his casting in the street, which he does all the time. Grandma T stopped by to pick me up for a baby shower, and as I was loading Kate in the car, I looked over to see Grandma putting a "not dead" goldfish on the hook for Ben. Gross!
I couldn't believe those fish stayed alive so long- the reason they died finally was because Ben thought that power bait and space worms would be a nice snack for them!