April Fools'!

I was excited about April Fools' Day this year because I knew Biscuit was old enough to get it. 

We started our day with Biscuit and me playing a joke on Jeff. It was orchestrated by Jeff and me ahead of time, but before you call us lame, let me explain.

We had mentioned to Biscuit that April Fools' Day was this week, but he wasn't sure which day. So I told Jeff that if we played a prank at the very start of the day, it would kick off things nicely, and Biscuit would understand the gist of the day.

When it was time for Biscuit to get up, I went upstairs and our plan unfolded.

"You get down beside the bed, and I'll crawl under the covers," I explained. "Then when Dad comes up here to wake you up, he'll find me in the bed instead of you. Then you jump up and yell 'April Fools', Dad'."

Everything went according to plan, and Biscuit jumped up and yelled, "April Fools' Day!"

He almost got it.

"You don't have to say, 'April Fools' Day,'" I told Biscuit. "Just say, 'April Fools', get it?"

"That was fun," Biscuit said.

I was glad he thought so because I had a couple of things planned for him.

It was time to go to school, and Jeff brought over Biscuit's shoes. As he sat down in the floor and reached for the first shoe, I grabbed it before he could get it and started to put it on his foot.

"Push your foot in," I said to Biscuit with pretend exasperation.

"I'm trying, Mom," Biscuit said, "but something isn't right."

Here was Biscuit's problem. SOMEone shoved wads of newspapers in the toes of his shoe.

"There's something in my shoe!" Biscuit said, reaching in to pull out the paper.

"April Fools'!" I said to him.

"Moooom," Biscuit said.

And guess what happened when he tried to put on the other shoe?

"There's paper in this one, too!" Biscuit said.

Off to school he went, not knowing that there was a plan for his lunch, too. There were bugs everywhere!

After I put the bugs on his sandwich, I wrapped it in cellophane to keep the them in place. Then I wrote him a note to explain what was going on.

Biscuit got stuck on the words "aren't real," but he knew all the others.

I was excited as I drove to pick him up. I wanted to know if he thought it was funny or weird or whether he even remembered.

As we were walking out to the car, I said, "Hey, how was your lunch?"

"Mom, there were bugs everywhere," Biscuit said. "But you know what was the funniest part?"

"What?" I asked. I was figuring he was going to name a specific bug or mention the ladybug that was out on its own.

"Well, Mom," Biscuit said. "I saw the bugs and reached down to pick one up. And then I realized that my sandwich was covered in weird paper. And all the bugs were under it. I couldn't even get the bugs off until I got that weird paper off my sandwich. How crazy is that, Mom?"

So I went to the craft store, looked through three different sections of the store, dug out my coupon, stood in line behind a lady who wanted a price on every single stem of artificial flowers in her basket and bought the little bag of insects. Then brought them home and carefully washed and dried them. Then carefully placed them on his sandwich and wrapped them so they'd stay put.

And Biscuit was most excited about the cellophane around his sandwich.

Oh well, he figured out that I was playing a trick on him and thought it was funny. So we'll call that a success.