April Fools

This is no ruse, I am actually updating my blog! My parents spent the night at our house last night and reintroduced my kids to April Fools' Day as soon as they woke up. I've been listening to tales of bedwetting, scorpion discovery and fantastical magic powers ALL day as a result. Thanks a lot Dad!

It did spawn a little journey down memory lane however. I remember as a kid, every year, without fail, my dad would tell us a peacock was in the front yard. By upper elementary I didn't even bother to look anymore, so he had to come up with other stories about bobcats or hot air balloons to try and trick me. Then I started pulling stunts like cooking cottonballs into the cornbread muffins and trying to sneak Kool-aid powder into the shower head.

By college my roommates and I were pulling pranks on apartments of boys we knew. After I was elbowed in the face during a particularly rough game of basketball in the pool, we told them I had broken my nose and had two black eyes. The guys brought over ice cream the next day to apologize. When they saw me in full health it became an all out war. They snuck into our apartment and removed all the lightbulbs. We knew right where our emergency flashlight was so it didn't even phase us. But soon thereafter, we broke into their apartment and deposited hundreds of goldfish in every vessel we could find. The sink, toilet, and bathtub were all full of them. I don't recall that going over too well...

Anyhow, these days I'm relegated to such tame tricks as serving meatball cupcakes with mashed potato frosting and colored salt sprinkles for dinner. And of course our traditional strawberry lime "fools" for dessert. But my kids think it's fun and that's all that matters right? What do you do for April Fools' Day? Or what pranks have you pulled in the past? I'd love to read about them (and garner ideas for next year)!

E.R.

Three hours, four staples, two popsicles, one CT Scan and mini race car later, we have officially survived our first trip to the Emergency Room.


In preparation for the new baby, we had switched all the kids' beds. Addison got a new bunk bed, Charlotte moved out of the railed toddler bed and into Addison's old bed, Jocelyn moved out of the crib in to the railed bed, and the crib was left open for baby. Unfortunately, our ceilings are not that high and the top bunk of Addison's new bed was mere inches from the ceiling fan. We warned him not to go up to the top bunk when the fan was on and being the cautious boy that he is, he decided he would just sleep on the bottom bunk and not have to worry about it.

That only lasted one night. The next day, the bunk bed became the best new toy in the house and the kids were climbing all over it. Right as I was calling the kids to lunch, the screaming began. Somehow Addison was still on the top bunk when the fan was turned on and it gave him a few nasty cuts.

Luckily the damage was minor, no fractured skull or internal bleeding as the doctor feared, and so he got a few staples and a few popsicles and we were on our way. Hope that's the last time for a long time!

PS- The ceiling fan was removed this morning, and replaced with a more child friendly light.

It's a....

GIRL!

Diagnosis

I've been having terrible allergies lately. Today Addison told me he had figured out why.

A: Your allergic to us. The kids.

Me: That could be. I guess I'll have to send you to live with Grandma.

A: What? No! You just go to work, in the office. Daddy can pretend to be the mommy and you'll never have to be around us.

Problem solved.

Shark Attack

Addison's 5th Birthday! If you dare...

Those are the invitations we sent out for his party, which took place yesterday. I added the gills and eye on the shark after three consecutive people told me it looked like a dolphin.

Unfortunately we are still kinda new around here and I guess not very noteworthy because a couple of moms from Primary thought Addison was a girl. Does blue and orange shark party scream girl or what? Luckily we intercepted the barbie present in time, and that mom was able to return it and get something more appropriate.

We had the event at the park, amidst crazy wind, and another party for a girl named Addison (Do you ever wish you could go back in time and change your kid's name? I am starting to feel like that.) that arrived before us and hogged the only ramada and table. But it went okay anyway.

We played "What time is it, Mr. Shark?," a dry land version of Sharks and Minnows, and feed the shark (basically a bean bag toss). I got the idea for the fish bean bags made out of old socks from Parents magazine.

Then we ate shark cake and opened presents. I got this idea from familyfun.com. The sample picture looks way better than mine. I think I cut the head too narrow and maybe made the teeth too big for the mouth. I couldn't find the pastel candy corn they used so I tried to cut up marshmallows. It was a sticky mess. I also started out piping the whole thing, but after an hour of the frosting melting down the sides of the cake, I got fed up and just spread the frosting with a knife. Maybe I will hire out the cake decorating next year. This is definitely not one of my talents. I must add, however, that the red velvet cake inside the horrible exterior was quite delicious. I can make a cake, just not decorate it.


The highlight of the day, though, was definitely the shark pinata. Back in Tucson, you used to be able to visit the streets around the rodeo grounds and find a dozen little hole in wall party stores where you could buy all kinds of Mexican candy and pinatas. They were even willing to make a custom design, as long as you paid cash. We haven't found anything like that up here, so I just ordered this one off Amazon. When I ordered it, it said it would arrive on Thursday. Then I started checking the shipping status and that date changed to May 3, which would have been way too late. But it's okay to pray for things like that right? I think Heavenly Father wanted us to have a good time, so he pushed it along a little faster and it arrived on Friday. Whew! We filled it with discounted Easter candy, shark fruit snacks, and little shark toys from the dollar store. It was seriously a big hit. (No pun intended.) We are going to do pinatas every year!

The remains of the shark. I didn't get a beforehand picture.

Date Night

Keith and I have found our new favorite way to spend time together. Scorpion hunting! After we found scorpions #3-5 in a single day, we invested in a black light flashlight. Internet research informed us we would probably find between 20-40 scorpions on our first search (we live in a scorpion hot spot apparently). If we continued to search once a month that number would hopefully dwindle.

So it was with great excitement that we set out on our first adventure. We found absolutely nothing! We searched the house twice and the yard once and didn't find a single one! But we freaked Addison out enough that now we have to check his room every night before he will consent to go to bed.

Today Addison spotted scorpion number eight in the hall and Keith smashed two more in the garage on his way in from class. So we decided to go scorpion hunting again. It was much more fruitful this time. We saw a grand total of ten scorpions! More than we have seen in the two and a half months we have lived here combined. And just for the record, Keith killed seven. I think he even enjoyed it. Maybe since he was sneaking up on them rather than the other way around. Unfortunately two got away in the chase. Both of us have seen enough of them to give us the heebeegeebees for a month, so I'm sure I'll have nightmares of those two finding us in the house to get revenge for their friends.

Anyhow, it's kinda fun. You know, in that weird scaring yourself kind of way. I'm too chicken to visit a haunted house but I'll hunt for scorpions. We get to hang out together, talk and do a little stargazing along the way; a good time all around.

Here are some of the fruits of our labor. Sweet dreams!

Must Have Qualities

Did your young women leaders ever have you make a list of desirable qualities in your future husband? It seems like we drew one up every year. Mine included typical things like temple worthy, returned missionary, working towards a college degree as well as personal things like won't show love in materialistic ways and thinks I'm pretty without make-up on. What it didn't include was anything about a fear of heights. It just didn't cross my seventeen year old mind as something important.

Well, let this be a lesson to you single friends. You might want to double check that your potential mate is not afraid of heights or you too may be climbing 28 foot ladders while somewhere between four and eight months pregnant to patch stucco holes or paint fascia boards. Or in an even more embarrassing event, calling the neighbor to come take your Christmas lights down because your husband is having a panic attack. Just a warning.

And not to bash on my husband too much, but it might also be a good idea to see about his tolerance for creepy crawling creatures. Out of the seven scorpions we have found in our house thus far, my "man" has maybe smashed one or two. The rest of the time he calls for me, points it out and then leaves the room while I take care of business. Good thing I grew up with creepy crawly things all around me huh?