April Fools

Our April Fools day began early in the morning. First, I must give a little background information on why Sam's April Fools joke was successful. If the shower curtain in the kids' bathroom isn't inside the tub the water comes through one of the lights in the kitchen ceiling and onto the floor. This just happened last week and, needless to say, Rusty was not very happy with two little boys. Okay, so now back to the morning of April 1st. Rusty was upstairs taking a shower and I told Sam to run upstairs and tell dad that there was water coming through the ceiling. He did very convincingly, but didn't wait for Rusty to run downstairs with a towel on and soap in his hair (as I instructed). He was too excited and had to yell "April Fools, Dad!!!" Rusty was definitely fooled!

Ben's April Fools joke began on Monday, March 31. He came home without his (new) glasses. He has never forgotten them before, so I didn't get angry--just concerned. He told me that he accidentally left them in his cubby because he takes them off before he goes to recess. So, I calmly asked him two times that evening and once right before he got on the bus the next morning to PLEASE remember to get his glasses. The next day he came home with a note on his daily planner from his teacher. It read: "Vicki, I regret to inform you that Ben lost his glasses and we have looked everywhere for them. If you have any questions please contact me." Needless to say, I didn't handle it as well as I wish I had. In fact, I made him cry. I guess it taught him never to try an April Fool's joke on mom again. Anyway, after he showed me the glasses, and I got him calmed down, I told him how "creative" he was and convinced him to play the same joke on Rusty. When Rusty read the note, he handled it much better than I did. He just calmly said, "Ben, what should we do about this?" So, it actually was a great learning process for me. I knew what the outcome would be, but Rusty didn't, and he dealt with the situation like the moto that I'm trying to live up to by Sister Hinckley, "Save the relationship."

This took major premeditation for Ben to actually leave his glasses at school, get his teacher in on the joke and, the biggest sacrifice, wear his spare glasses (that Rusty and I love) the entire night before because he knew that we would make him. I can't wait to see what he pulls out of sleeve next April Fools Day. Let's hope I handle it a little better.