April Fools

I learned a couple lessons about my kids and April Fool's Day last year:  1.)Don't talk about it ahead of time, encouraging them to build anticipation.   2.)Don't let them down.  It's true that there were tears of disappointment last year when Mom's pranks did not live up to some very high expectations.

We started April 1st this year with baked oatmeal served up for breakfast.  It was frozen solid.  That's when Eli and Evan realized what day it was.  After breakfast, they were given a list of chores.  That is not uncommon for a day at home.  When Eli saw that his list included wiping down the ceiling, he clued in.  Here was Evan's list:  practice music, empty cupboards and wash all dished inside, clean all shoes in entryway with toothbrush, fold all your shirts then hang them up again.  Evan was not impressed with this list.  To our delight, he declared that He was only doing music and cleaning the shoes with a toothbrush!  He just thought the other two were completely unreasonable.  They were.

The boys were also not impressed when their Wii would not turn on.  I released them to the basement for some Wii time.  Then I heard them yelling, "Mom!  This is not a good April Fool's joke!  Come fix it!"  All it was was the power source. :)

After lunch I welcomed them to the kitchen as giants.  They had a yummy "little" meal.

Later I offered them "Brownies".  When they opened the pan, they found "Brown E's."  It was disappointing, I'm sure, but not as disappointing as if they would have gone ahead and tasted the graham crackers that I had so thoughtfully prepared for them with frosting.  The frosting was actually toothpaste, and they didn't bite.  Literally.

For supper we had a backwards meal.  (Thanks to the Stauffers for this idea.)  We came dressed appropriately, had breakfast, and ate under the table.

After supper we went ice fishing and there was a headless body lying in our shack.  (You'll have to ask him if you want his secret.)

 

We came back for a bedtime snack of upside down ice cream cones.

Lydia was not easily fooled.  A huge plastic cockroach doesn't faze her in the least.

I finished off the night by salting all the males' toothbrushes.  Kendall salted mine as a little payback, but not nearly enough.  I guess he hasn't realized that if you're gonna be mean, you have to be really mean.