I’da never thunk it.
I purchased a fishing rod for Sierra the summer after we moved into our new house (2 years ago)
That later sparked Hailey’s interest and she too got a fishing pole. I think we went once as a family just to practice casting the “Barbie” fishing pole strings, they even had plastic practice fish attached to them. We got some bait and hooks and tried them out too.
Late last year Sierra’s class went to the local Nature Park with the fishing pond and I sent her to school with the rod. She came home excited about fishing. Hailey’s pole was broken by this point.
I took the kids to the park on Monday with their fishing rod. I just wanted top put the babies in the stroller and spend the day at the park-outsideof t the house and get excersize while the girls rode bikes around. That is NOT what happened. The girls stopped and immediately parked their bikes – and tukas by the sideof the pond and started casting their line. They moved from one side of the pond to the other. Leaving me to chase the babies and save them from trying to walk into the water. So I did what I’d hope any of my friends would do for me, and invited them to come hang out at the park with them. I called Kathy since she homeschools and told her I would be at the park feeding the ducks and watching the girls fish. It was about 9:30 AM
Kathy W. showed up with her 3 boys she homeschools – when they hit Middle school/Jr High they immediately go to Public school (which is what I would do – too) So her t older girls couldn’t come. She arrived at 10:00. The kids all played on the rocks, fed the ducks, ran around, rode trikes, bikes, tried to skip rocks etc. Aurora was fussy for bed at her usual 11:00. I ran her home to see if she could sleep while Nathan worked – Oh how I love his job! He was OK with letting her stay to sleep so I dropped her off and picked up my $1 store baseball field bases, a couple kid bats and balls and a beach ball.
Back at the park Kathy cared for Hailey and Sierra and we showed up with fun stuff for the boys to play with.
Zach has been bringing me baseball bats lately and wants to play baseball so I’ll toss him a crumbled up piece of paper and let him swing in the house.
All the kids had so much fun joining in a game of Kickball and Baseball. Kathy’s little Joseph played on the sidelines while Kathy tossed him the ball. Sierra(a social butterfly and all) was the worst – and she’s in public school. I’m sure I looked like a crappy Mom because I had a pouting kid (7 year old) when she didn’t get what she wanted – her turn all the time. Well I cannot be blamed. I’ve tried putting her in sports and making her take turns. She has been spoiled at home with things she wants but we are pulling back on a lot of that. She did get in a play a bit, and turned back to her fishing rod and played and played a long time. at this point Zach was getting pretty sleepy and just wanted to sit at home on the recliner and watch TV till he falls asleep. But he decided sitting in the stroller and waiting would be good enough because it would mean that we would be going soon.
We didn’t go. YET. Hailey and Sierra were still having so much fun. Kathy and I talked and talked. and at 12:00 Kathy packed up and left. I spent the last 1/2 hr letting the girls fish and trying to tech them that they needed to just let the pols stay in the water – This was WITHOUT bait or anything worth a fishes time. Zach started dozing off in the stroller, Sierra got to help a fisherman reel in his fish, and we borrowed a piece of bait for the girls to continue to try fishing with. Oh I never did mention we used Cheerios’s for bait 
It was quite peaceful.
Tuesday was shopping day. I took them all to the mall, to the playplace, to Gymboree for clothes for Aurora – she’s OUT of pants. Over to K-Mart for a present for Daddy – not there – the girls bought bait though and enjoyed hanging out in the fishing section looking at all the possibilities and walked out with pink and hot pink worms that smelled like processed cheese and 2 hooks that hat hot pink fishies on them, over to the pet store parking lot where a couple was trying to sell their litter of 8 pit bulls, vacuumed the vans rugs, Irish Dance practice – (when I went shopping at Walmart for the older girls for Christmas), and home for tacos.
Wednesday – It was – Off to Walmart for a new fishing rod for Hailey (with her own money) We picked up McDonald’s for a picnic, dropped the milk off at home and headed back to the Fishing park with our blanket, lunch, tackle box, and 4 kids. This time Aurora was up with us until 1:30 and I took them all home so I could drop her off for her nap. Then it was just Zach and the older 2. Zach and I played baseball for a bit, ate apples, watched the girls, helped them tie hooks onto rods, and Zach would tromp across the bank and once in a while through the water in his tennis-shoes. He got sleepy at 2 and wanted to go home ant watch TV in his recliner with his sippy cup – Nathan was OK with that too. SO I was baby-free and Hailey and Sierra had all my attention so we baited, asked other fishermen questions about how to catch the trout in our pond, what kind of bait to use, what flies, what time of day etc. We got a load of information. The kids went to the other side of the pond and watched a guy catch 2 in a row! I slowly followed and told them they had to watch him try to take the hook out of the fishes mouth because they would have to do that if they caught a fish – I try to gross them out bu telling them they will have to chop off the fish head and gut it and de-bone it. They still choose to fish. Sierra wants to eat or sell her fish. It has been quite nice and restful. I can see why it’s a hobby for so many -men especially. Getting away from the workplace and just sitting with hope. All with HOPE. There were probably 20 out there yesterday afternoon, it was 50* and felt very warm.
So that’s out start in the fishing world. I just need to get Tammy to cook them up for us since she’s into that sort of thing and have her come fish with us sometime
