9 days with no Chocolate and I'm doing great! Only 355 days to go!

WE FINISHED THE HARRY POTTER ROOM! See pictures for evidence. We are very excited. I think Craig and I are more thrilled with it than the boys - of course.

Had Connor's 6th birthday party on Saturday and it was a big hit. We made all kinds of cool games for the kids to play. Craig painted a poster of an owl and we played "pin the message on the owl" and then we did a picture of a garden gnome and had a bean bag toss into it's mouth. They colored pictures from the stories and had a Herbology class in which they potted a plant. It was great!

Alas, that night, we lost Lily the rat, to a sudden and apparently severe illness. We noticed that she seemed ill around 3 pm, and by 11 pm, she was gone. Connor was devastated, and cried and cried. He even spent all of church at my side the next day, instead of going to Primary classes.

Frankly, that is why we got rats. They're a good starter pet. They dont' live forever, and it's not as devastating as having a dog die or something. And I rather that the kids' first experience with death is a pet rat than a dog or a family member.