F-F-F-Foolin'

Satchel's first words on Thursday morning were, "Wake me up early tomorrow." Why? I asked. "Because it's April Fool's!" he exclaimed. I explained that I wasn't going to wake him up early to play tricks on me. "Not, you--Daddy!" he said. Now that was a different story.



He was so excited about playing a prank on Warren that he could hardly sleep Thursday night. When I came home from Boot Camp Friday morning, Satchel was waiting for me by the door. We had discussed a few pranks the night before, but most of them were rejected by me. (i.e. putting whip cream or jelly on Warren's hand and then tickling his nose while he was asleep. putting ice in the bed, etc.) In the end, we agreed to get some real looking fake bugs and put them in various locations around the house.

Taking a cue from a mama friend in Canada, I had a prank of my own in store for Jiro. I froze a bowl of water and planned to put a thin layer of cereal and milk on top to fool him at breakfast. I told Satchel about the prank and he was super excited.

Satchel also wanted to wake Warren up in some alarming way, but was foiled when Warren was already awake. There was lots of whispering going on and giggling and excitement, so Warren was definitely on high alert. While he got dressed, I fed the kids breakfast and successfully pulled off the cereal prank. The look on Jiro's face as he tried to poke his spoon through his cereal was hilarious.

When Warren did finally see the giant ant we put in the blender, he giggled to himself and went about making his smoothie. I went in and told the kids that he didn't see it and that he was blending it up in his smoothie. Their eyes got big and I instructed them to play it cool. Then Warren went in and started drinking his smoothie in front of them. After a few sips, he started pretending he was choking. He was doing such a fine acting job, I started to become concerned that he was actually choking.

"Can I punch you in the stomach?" Satchel asked excitedly.

He finally started laughing and we all enjoyed getting fooled off of one prank.

We still had one giant centipede hidden in the toilet paper holder when we left. I told the kids we'd just have to be patient to learn the results of that prank. When we got home, it was gone and Warren was playing dumb. It's been three days and I still haven't come across it. There's no telling when Warren will get the last laugh on that one.