April Fool's Day

We love April Fool's Day around our house!

The kids love planning their stunts in advance, and love going on-line with me to find new ones. Today is such a fun day around our house, filled with giggles, muffled laughs, and surprises.

We had Teagan make everyone gelled drinks that looked like lemon-ade, but were made of Jell-o and were too thick to suck up the straw...then Daddy tricked her by adding mint flavoring to the Jell-o so that even Tig had a joke pulled on her. I got the kids this morning by adding food coloring on the bottom of their cereal bowls while they weren't looking so that when they added the milk it turned blue.

Then for lunch, Scott and I made fauxberry pie - which is a shepherd's pie in a pie shell with pink mashed potatoes on top to look like whipped cream. The kids thought it was a great treat when I called them in and told them that we were going to have a crazy dinner of pie instead of regular foods. They all scarfed it up, even after finding out it wasn't as sweet of a meal as they first thought!

Garrett put crumpled up paper in his dad's shoes to make his dad think his feet had grown when he put his shoes on. He did a little guidance on that one because he first put them in shoes that his daddy wasn't going to be wearing today... but he got it right in the end!

Owen got us all throughout the day when he would ask for help doing something like make his bed, and then when we came we were surprised because he had finished the chore all by himself. He thought it was wonderful, and so did I!

And the gags went on and on! We have been laughing and pranking each other since we all woke up!

I love trying to play at least on big gag each year. And because of my pulling gags on my family in the past, no one seems to believe me on April 1st whenever I make announcements or pass on any news. So it was no surprise today when I talked to my family about my trip to the doctor today. I went because of some pain I've been having in my ribs that has been keeping me from working at my best. After an exam and an x-ray, it was found out that I have a broken rib and that is what is causing all the pain. I don't know when it happened exactly, but I think it was (oddly enough) on my birthday last week. I had been coughing so hard that I think I dislocated a rib, so I went to the chiropractor to get it popped back in. While there, the chiro tried to get it back in, but it was too painful. The doctor thinks that it could have gotten broken while we were trying to fix the dislocation... so it could have been coughing, or it could have been an accident at the chiropractor's. Either way, it is still broken, and (to my great sadness) there is nothing that can be done for it. The doctor said the key was "pain management while it heals." Which he said, was going to take a couple of months........ Fun stuff. And to make it better, all the coughs I have been stifling because of the excruciating pain they bring, now I have to force out every couple of hours to prevent the pneumonia from coming back and collapsing a lung....even more fun!

So it was no surprise that while on my way to the pharmacy to get some pain meds, Scott called and didn't know if he should believe my diagnosis. Then my mom called, and didn't know if she should believe me either. So, if you don't believe my diagnosis either, I understand completely! After all, it's April Fool's Day, and I sure do love that holiday!

This year the kids gave the title of "King of April Fool's Gagging" went to Scott for a trick he played on Teagan, and I was named the April Fool because my story is unfortunately true...no prank at all. Looks like we're going to be eating a lot more ramen noodles and Cup O' Soups for a while until this pain subsides a bit :-) But on the upside, I made it 32 years (exactly) without breaking a bone! That's an accomplishment of it's own, since I didn't get crowned queen today!