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By Mom Unplugged, September 10, 2007 10:28 am

For me, it is one of those dreaded times of year again: birthday party time. A Good Mom probably cherishes these milestone moments and decorates for hours, bakes a cake from scratch, plans fun games and then sits back and enjoys watching her wee one having the time of his or her little life with perfectly well-behaved and polite little friends at The Birthday Party.

I, however, have come to rather dread The Birthday Party. For me it symbolizes a time of excess, greed and waste. Just call me Birthday Scrooge. I have grown tired of watching my kids rip wrapping paper off yet another toy we don’t need, only to toss it aside to rip the paper off the next one, as all the other kids “ooh” and “aah” with envy.This year I decided to suggest something different to my daughter. Having recently spent a lot of time at the local Humane Society shelter adopting a dog and three cats to add to our already large menagerie, I suggested that this year we have a Humane Society birthday where we would ask guests to bring an item for the shelter animals instead of the usual gift. My daughter loves animals and understands that many animals are homeless, but I wasn’t sure that a 7 year-old could be altruistic enough to forgo the excitement of birthday presents.

I picked my moment carefully (after we had finished sorting out a bunch of old, unplayed-with toys to donate) and made the suggestion:

“Every year at your birthday party you always get a lot of toys like these that you never play with and that just clutter up the house. How about this year we ask everyone to bring pet food, or something for all those homeless animals at the shelter instead?”

“Oh yes, yes, yes!!!” she said. Even her little brother asked if he could do that for his birthday too (we’ll see if he still wants to when his time comes next June).

We asked our cat sitter, who works at the Humane Society, to tell us what they really needed most right now. We put this list on an insert inside the party invitations. My daughter was very excited to help make the insert requesting donations instead of gifts. We even added some photos of our recent shelter adoptees.

We had the party on Saturday, and as you can see from the photo, the eight guests were extremely generous in their donations of food and toys for the animals! The parents all commented on what a great idea our party was. I am sure they were happier spending their money on food for the homeless animals than on a cheap toy for the child who has too much.

Today after school is the really exciting moment. I will pick my children up from school and we will take everything down to the shelter to give to them. My daughter can’t wait!

I must say that as I write this, I feel every bit the Proud Mama. My daughter, at only age 7, was able to derive pleasure from giving rather than receiving. For once, this was a truly enjoyable birthday party for us all!

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By Mom Unplugged, August 19, 2007 12:35 pm

I apologize for my silence these past few days, however I have been haunting the halls of the local Humane Society in a quest for a kitten. We ended up with some kittens (yes, that is plural, I really AM crazy). If you are interested in that, then please head over to my other blog, Cats Unplugged.

We also ended up with another stray dog. We named him TJ and he is an awesome Australian Cattle Dog (also known as a “Heeler” since these dogs herd cattle by nipping at their heels). No, I wasn’t looking for another dog, and I don’t have too many cows that need herding, but here at the Humane Society you unfortunately have to walk past some dogs to get to the cat room.

With willpower, you can turn your head the other way and ignore all the dogs except for whoever is in Cage B6. I call Cage B6 “The Sucker Cage.” It faces the door so you have to look at the occupant when you open the door to enter the hallway. That is the cage my existing cattle dog Belle was in two and a half years ago when I went to adopt a cat and I ended up with her too.

TJ was also in “The Sucker Cage.” I managed to not adopt him for three days, and then I couldn’t stand it anymore and HAD to go back. Could you have refused that face?

So far he gets along wonderfully with my kids, my cats and Belle. I think he is bringing quiet Belle out of her shell a little bit. Plus, it is absolutely AMAZING to see what he can do with a ball or a frisbee. (For example: Back flips to catch in midair!) My dog-agility friend Wishy is very impressed with him.

This afternoon I am taking both dogs over to her huge backyard agility field for lots of ball and frisbee time. Couch potato Belle will just want to sniff around, but TJ is going to have a blast. It’ll be fun!

This is Belle (aka. Bella), my couch potato, “under-the-bed,” B6 Australian Cattle Dog:

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By Mom Unplugged, July 15, 2007 8:58 am

I am sure you have all been dying to know how our Sea Monkeys are doing. Well, they are just fine thank you! At left is a bad picture of their tank. The little beige things swimming around are the Sea Monkeys who are now about 1/4″ long from head to tail. They are just a little over one month-old! HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE GUYS!!!

I am supposed to be packing for our big trip tomorrow but I hate packing and have found the ultimate form of procrastination: attempting to photograph a 1/4″ long, rapidly swimming Sea Monkey using only a mediocre digital camera.

After about 25 attempts, I finally got it just right and snapped a Sea Monkey portrait to be proud of!

Here it is:

Isn’t he cute? His name is Squiggles 7, or maybe Squiggles 23, I am not sure since they all have a very strong family resemblance.

To read about the process of hatching Sea Monkeys, see my June 18th, Perfect Pet post, or click on the label “sea monkeys” in the right sidebar.

Now, back to my packing. Big sigh. I will be away for about three weeks and will have computer access, although my posts might be a bit less frequent.

I advise everyone to stay off Southwest Airlines on Monday, as you risk meeting my screeching 18 month-old in person. I plan on passing out ear plugs.

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By Mom Unplugged, June 18, 2007 8:09 am

On International Sea Monkey Day (May 16th - mark your calender for next year) I revealed my secret fascination with the sea monkey concept. So, during one of my as-infrequent-as-possible trips to Walmart, how could I pass up the $6.00 Sea Monkey kit that I happened to see!

Despite my warnings that the “Sea Monkeys” (aka. brine shrimp) would definitely not be as cute and cuddly as the picture on the package, my kids were thrilled with this experiment.

It was really quite simple. First we had to fill the tank with tap water. Then we put in the powdery contents of packet Number 1, a water purifier, and let it sit 24 hours.

The next evening was the fun time. After insuring that the water was the recommended temperature, my daughter poured in Packet #2, the eggs! My son stirred, and voila!

The results? Well, not much that we could see. Perhaps our water was a little colder than recommended (means a longer hatching period).

By the next morning however, three almost microscopic little squiggles were visible (sort of). The children christened them Squiggles, Squirmy, and Wiggles. By that evening we had such a colony that naming them was impossible (how about Squiggles 1, Squiggles 2, Squiggles 3… Squiggles 142, etc.). Such excitement! You’d think we were hatching chickens or elephants or something.

On day 5 we gave them a bit of food from Packet #3. They seem pretty happy. I guess I don’t see why brine shrimp can’t be happy.

We have had them a week now and I must say they are growing rapidly. You can now make them out easily, and if you look closely, you can even see their little waving legs (arms? fins? cilia?). Still too small for a photo though, so I will post this dramatic closeup from Wikipedia:

Try this project with your kids. I would say that we have definitely had our $6.00 worth of fun already!

Plus, maybe they are not so cute, maybe they are not so cuddly but - they don’t yack up furballs on your new sisal rug, need a walk in the middle of the night or shed fur all over your favorite little black dress.

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By Mom Unplugged, May 16, 2007 10:01 pm

How could I nearly have missed this important holiday! I just discovered that today, May 16th, is International Sea Monkey Day! (I kid you not.) Children the world over will dress their Sea Monkeys up in their Sunday-best, sing Sea Monkey songs, eat Sea Monkey-shaped cakes. What would a Sea-Monkey shaped cake look like any way?

Like many children of my era, I fell victim to the advertisements in the comic pages of the Sunday paper and desperately wanted some Sea Monkeys (Artemia Salina, brine shrimp). My mother knew they were not what they appeared to be in the ads featuring cute little smiling humanoids and, certainly fearing having to deal with my disappointment, would not let me have any. [Note: Ad picture was found on Sea Monkey Geek at his post Were you Disappointed?]

I am glad to see that Sea Monkeys still exist, and actually seem to be quite a popular subject on the internet:

• Click here for a Sea Monkey musical video entitled “Ocean Of Fire.”
• To order (or for more info about these “dream pets”) visit the Official Sea-Monkey Website.
• Visit Sea Monkey Mania or Sea Monkey Geek.
• If you are REALLY into your Sea Monkeys, then visit the Sea Monkey Worship Page.
• Search “sea monkeys” on Amazon and you will find three whole pages of Sea Monkeys items! How about Sea Monkeys on Mars, or even a Sea Monkey action figure to celebrate this special day?

Happy International Sea Monkey Day!!

PS: Sea Monkeys seem to be quite a cultural phenomenon for a certain generation. If you are too old or too young, you may not have even heard of them. I was just on the cusp of the end of Sea Monkey popularity. If you have Sea Monkey memories to share, please leave a comment!