A blog named BETTY

Friday, April 4, 2008

Fool Me Once...and I'll fall for it over and over and over

I gotta tell ya, I was really dragging on April Fools Day. However, with my pursuit of "Mother of the Year" in full swing, I had no choice but to come up with a prank to play on my kids. So off to FamilyFun.com I went (cuz that's what award-winning moms do, knowing as they do that thinking for yourself is a waste of time). I liked this fake dad one a lot (who wouldn't? He always listens, never criticizes and almost never farts. I think I'm in love.). Hubby was out-of-town, so it seemed like the perfect time to confuse my kids for life. So I stuffed hubby's clothes and rigged a newspaper sheet with cardboard and tape. Like thus:

Okay, so our chairs don't have high armrests like the ones at Family Fun. Which made it hard to get everything tall enough to really imitate Hubby's height. Not that I didn't try--I have the five miles of wasted packing tape to prove it.

So one by one the kids come trickling in from school. Each has the exact same reaction, stopping dead in their tracks, uttering a "What the?", and then hesitantly approaching it in an arc to peek behind the paper. Then they turn to see me snickering and start laughing. And guess who each one of them thought it was? Not Hubby, but Grandma Dixie. I can see that. Plus, she's so hard-of-hearing, that she doesn't hear people enter a room, which is much like this fake.

The kids had fun inviting their friends all over and fooling them. Shnookie 2 even yelled loudly at it "Grandma! Look! So-and-so is here! GRANDMA!!" Good times. We just left it there for a few days, and it would freak each of us out EVERY time we came around the corner. (Oh my, that sounds even lamer when actually written down! Yes, we're just that stupid.)

6 comments:

Ashlee said...

Did you read our April Fools blog? You should check it out, it might look familiar...

Shawna said...

erin i can not believe you set that up in your house! you crack me up! mom of the year award goes to you for sure!!!

Jen said...

I'm so impressed with your FamilyFun researching abilities...actually what I'm impressed with is that you thought ahead, because I also went to family fun but not until 4:00 p.m. on April 1st and by then it was too late to do anything but print out the fake field trip permission slip to outerspace and put it up on my message board to see if anyone noticed. THAT is what the mom-of-the-year should be for -- forsight!

Jen said...

Just an aside, we should all be impressed (or mortified) that my entire comment above was said in one long, incredibly run-on, sentence. Yay me. What award does that give me?

The Andrew Family said...

Okay, here's an April Fool's for next year. It's the only one I know and I'm too lazy to visit family fun so I will never get that mom award thingie. Besides, my children protesting at the awards ceremony would be too embarrassing.

So, take a slice of pound cake or something similar. Slather it in whipped cream creating a rounded circle. (Yes, I know circles are by definition round, just stay with me.) Open a can of apricot halves and place one on top. It looks remarkably like a fried egg. You know it can't be and yet you don't know what else it could be. Perfect for any award winning mother's table. (The kids have taken them covered in plastic wrap to their teachers.)

Julie

Becky said...

Bwahahaha!!! I thought about going to Family Fun. I even told Jen to go to Family Fun. But ultimately, I just couldn't expend the energy it would take to tap those keys on the keyboard--lack of endurance training, you know? So, I'm glad you are representing the good moms this year.