Our House Guests

*Please don't even ask about the clothing in this picture!
Older sisters and dress-up.

Fancy's kindergarten class had guinea pigs as their classroom pets. She loved these animals and talked about them all of the time. She also drew pictures of them and hung them on her cork board. At the end of the school year, her teacher sent home a note asking for volunteers to care for them over the summer. Needless to say, Fancy was incredibly excited. She wanted to "babysit" them so badly, so I emailed the teacher and agreed that we would take them for the summer.

The week before we brought them home Fancy began preparing for them. She cleared a spot in her room, picked out food and supplies at the pet store, and made a sign with their names on it to hang on the wall above the spot where the cage would go. She was all set!

We brought the guinea pigs home on a Friday afternoon. Fancy was thrilled. She played with them, brushed them softly, and watched them eat. However, soon after, a strange thing happened. Fancy's undying love began to dwindle once she realized that she had to care for them each and every day. Unfortunately, she has not been a huge fan of cleaning out their cage or refilling their water bottle. However, we have explained to her that she was the one that took on this responsibility, so she has to fulfill her commitment.

This is our last week with the guinea pigs. I am grateful for having them this summer because they taught my children a valuable lesson: pets are a lot of responsibility and hard work!

I have to say, though, that Jesse is really going to miss them. He thoroughly enjoyed their visit and never had to clean the cage!