This was the biggest weekend of the year in our town. Most of the towns situated along the Erie Canal have a town wide celebration each summer. It’s like a block party on steroids.
Last year, because my husband had a preaching schedule that brought us down south for most of the summer, we missed the festivities and my kids were a little heartbroken. This year we stayed home for the entire summer and it’s been just what our family needed – our own mini whirlwind staycation that’s included a bunch of ordinary summer days filled with sunshine.
My mom came up for this special weekend that kicked off with a parade on Friday and culminated with an antique car show on Sunday.
Saturday afternoon, we were in one of the parks, eating our way through a funnel cake and bloomin’ onion, when one of my son’s friends came running up and told my daughter that her brother needed her for some very important business.
The park was crowded with vendors, fair rides, and fried everything on a stick. There was no telling where my son was conducting this very important business, but my daughter ran off.
From a distance, I saw three kids holding a box like it was filled with diamonds and I started shaking my head.
“I bet there’s a duck in that box.” My husband said.
My son has been longing for a pet duck for years. He’s named this imaginary duck and tamed him a dozen times over in his head.
We met the kid’s and their surprise box at the half-way mark. Happier than I’d seen them all summer, they careful opened one side of the box.
A little gray bunny looked up at us.
They were calling her Charlie until one of them check to see if she was a girl or a boy. Now she is Charlotte. I thought she looked like a girl anyway.
It was the Amish. They sold my son a rabbit for five dollars. The Amish are tricky in their operations. They sit at these fairs selling jar after jar of jelly, but at soon as the adults are out of sight, out come the baby animals.
We brought her home and my daughter prepared quite the meal for her. I walked in and saw this party platter in her box. All she forgot was the ranch dipping sauce.
Charlotte is only a few weeks old, but she’s supposed to stay small. Her mommy is small, but with our luck, her father was probably the Were-Rabbit.
I swore off pets after the lizard, but apparently that sentiment isn’t shared by everyone in the Fringe Family.
By some miracle, my daughter’s fish that we waited seven years to buy is still alive.
Now to build a rabbit hutch and a fenced in play-yard for Charlotte. It’s never just five dollars. Never. My kids have yet to learn that lesson.
Do you have any pets?
Are kids over-the-moon in love with some furry critter they must have to make their little lives complete??
Linking to Life Lately over at Wild & Precious.
WELL….we wanted to adopt another cat since the one we had died last November. But after several “big dog mishaps”, the Apt. Management went and slapped a $300 deposit on any pets. We could have adopted the cat of a friend ours that just died…but no. Couldn’t afford the deposit…even if everything else was in place!
Your Hubby a preacher (I didn’t know!) If you think he’d be interested…invite him (and you, of course) to visit my blog: http://bythemightymumford.wordpress.com/…where I try to infuse faith in Christ into everything!!!! 
May Charlotte stay small, but grow greatly into the family’s heart!!!!
We have a dog and two cats. That’s more than enough for me. In fact, I’m trying to get rid of the cats of Craigslist, but the only person who answered my ad was a little … weird? (Perverted! I think the cats are staying with us.)
OH goodness, help me if that ever happens to my kids. We had two cats up until about year ago. I just couldn’t do it anymore. One was always throwing up, they were sneaking into the kids rooms at night and then crying because they were stuck. I was done. I sent them with a friend to live in their barn. It’s never $5. My sister has rescued a cat, as has my brother, so my mom has 3 now AND their dog. Never $5. But Charlotte is SO cute!
My neighbor where we lived two houses ago had pet rabbits that she kept in big hutches in her kitchen. They were rarely in the hutches, but hopped around at will. They were great pets — she was a single lady — and they shared her house with a couple of cats. They all got along famously. And her house was always neat, so either they didn’t make much of a mess, or she was a zealous neat freak…
There’s nothing like a little bunny sitting in your lap!
I have tried a few times now to subscribe so I get email notifications but it won’t work. Will keep trying, Tricia.
This would have been my dream as a kid! But you’re right… it’s NEVER just $5.
Our kids had a fixation on hampsters. And they volunteered to bring home the classroom hampsters almost every year when they were in grammar school. Do you know how many replacement hampsters I had to buy over those years? No. Never mind. Don’t ask.
She’s too cute to be the offspring of the Were-Rabbit!! No worries!
We have a cat and two guinea piggies. I would love a dog and apparently my daughter wants a fish and an owl farm. (she’s 7) I think in a small townhouse we should stick with a cat and our pigs (who make more of a mess than any kids) I love the bunny, so sweet!