The Fish Fiasco

Some friends of ours in Chicago gave us a fish named Squiggles. He has lived comfortably in his bowl in Ben's room for the past year and a half. Last month I walked into Ben's room to find Squiggles floating at the top of the bowl. I knew that Ben and Olivia were going to be sad. Ben especially has been a little sensitive to death.
So what should I do? I decided to be sneaky!! I hoped that the kids wouldn't notice until that night when I had a babysitter coming. I had her come about an hour early so that I could go buy a new fish to replace the dead one. I told her my sneaky plan and to try and keep the kids away from the fish bowl. I picked a fish that looked similar to Squiggles drove to my friends house to pick her up, left the fish at her house, went to Bunco, dropped off my friend, picked up the new fish and went home. The kids were all snuggled in their bed when I got home and the sweet babysitter left.
I got to work. First, I flushed Squiggles down the potty. Cleaned the bowl, replaced the water and put the new Squiggles in his new home. I left the fish bowl in the kitchen for the night.
The next morning we all came downstairs. I was getting breakfast ready for the kids when Ben noticed that the fish bowl was in the kitchen.
He asked 'Why is Squiggles bowl in the kitchen?"
I said, "I was cleaning his water last night and I just left it down here."
At the same moment, we all looked at the bowl and Ben says "Is Squiggles dead?"
Yes he was!!! Dead as a doornail. The kids all started crying. As for me, I was just mad! All that work to end up with the same result...crying sad children!!

Some funny/sad things that the kids said that morning:

Ben - I don't think that I can practise my spelling words this morning because a member of our family has passed away.
Olivia - What do we do with Squiggles? I said "We can bury him or flush him down the potty." Olivia says - NOOOO, we can't flush Squiggles down the stinky potty, we love him!!!! Why would we flush him down the potty!!!!"
Ben - "Sometimes when I'm sad a new toy will make me feel better."

We waited until Rick got back in town (the kids thought that Daddy would want to be there for it) to bury the fish we had for less than 12 hours. Of course, the kids didn't know that real Squiggles had been flushed down the potty the night before and that we were burying an impostor. The kids picked a shady place under a tree in our back yard.