Another April Fools' Day

Having a 9-year old boy who loves trickery definitely sets us up for a crazy first day of April. I think it's quickly becoming one of Strider's favorite days of the year, and Pete's least favorite.

Last night at about 9:30 pm, Strider came racing downstairs to ask if he could please "call Uncle Deuce so he can give me some good ideas for tricks to play tomorrow!" I had been hoping he had not been paying attention to the calendar, but we were not so lucky. I told him he could not call him, as it was way past Dan's bedtime.

He apparently then resorted to his own devices, because when we came up to bed later, we found our bedroom door closed, and this sign on it:
Inside, we found this:

(All of our sheets, bedding, and items that had been on the bed were now on the floor)

Somehow the idea of causing a lot of destruction = a joke in the mind of a boy.

To get him back, I suggested to Pete that we try to do something while he was sleeping. Our brains were very slow-working at that time of night, so the best I could come up with was to hang a dark sheet over his doorway, so when he opened the door in the morning, he would be confused. (Lame, I know.... but wait, it gets worse.)

So, this morning, before Strider woke up, Pete hung up the sheet... but for some reason did not close the door. So, in Strider words, when he woke up, he looked over, saw the sheet and thought, "Wow. A sheet in the doorway. That's a greaaaat trick."

He told me later he was sort of hoping it was a light-generated illusion, like something he saw on the Pirates of the Carribbean ride at Disney.... but he wasn't so lucky.

Then Nonna called and told him she heard on the news that the entire Duke basketball team had gotten the flu, so they were cancelling the Final Four games this weekend. Strider just responded, "That's a good April Fools' joke, Nonna."

At breakfast we tried to get him with a frozen iceberg in the bottom of his bowl... he was only mildly amused...

Rayna wasn't fooled for a second.

Back to Strider's original plan, (make a mess in some unexpected way), he then pulled this one on me:

But then my favorite one of the day (if I had to pick) was this. He came running inside with this box saying, "Look, Mom, I found a THUMB in the backyard!"

He had even made red liquid to look like blood. It was lovely. Colsen was a little bewildered.

Strider still has a few more tricks up his sleeve, so we'll see how the rest of the day goes. (I asked him to pleeeeaaaase not create any more disasters around the house, since I have my hands full with laundry, packing, baking, etc., getting ready for a road-trip tomorrow.)

Meanwhile, the other 3 kids all played their own prank on us: they were all up at 5:45 this morning. That wins the "Longest Lasting Effects" prank award, and has taken just a tad bit of the fun out of the day for Pete and me! I wonder why sleep-deprivation has become an April Fools' theme around here?