foolin' around

those of you have been around my blog know that i have a love/hate relationship with april fool's. i am not a fan of pranks, but my kids think this is the funniest holiday ever so i try to punk them just a little.

i have a few april fool's rules:

1) it can't cost a lot of money

2) it can't take too much time or effort

3) it can't result in anyone wanting to seek serious retribution on me

4) it can't result in any of my children crying

last year, following said rules i did pretty well. the year before we pranked our friends, so rule #3 was in question. the year before that: rule #4 was broken in the fake dentist appointment debacle.

this year, april fool's day being on sunday made it a bit of a challenge. but i finally came up with something that i thought would be at least a little bit fun. as we got ready for church, i put on one of my mom's old mumu's. though the thing is about the size of a twin sheet, i belted it and put on cute shoes in the hopes that it could pass as something realistically hideous. the kind of thing that would horrify one's children. and i thought i succeeded...

tate was the first to see me and gave a slightly surprised and disapproving sound while brushing his teeth, but very subdued. well that was no fun. on to the girls. i felt certain em would be mortified and i would be able to milk that for all it was worth. but when i opened the door to their room, lulu gasped with delight when she saw me. "oh mommy, it's so pretty! i love it! you look beautiful!" i guess lulu likes her a mumu.

this may have been what determined the unlikely response from emmie. she smiled a bit of a forced smile and said, "i think we need to get you a different belt." and she proceeded to find one for me in my closet. then she said, "i think maybe it needs a necklace". the sweet thing was trying to be very supportive. which is how i knew my acting must have been oscar-worthy.

leave it to jack to give me the response i was going for. when he saw me, he jumped back and shuddered like he was in a haunted house. i gave him the line that it was special to me because it was gunga's and he fell for it too. after i went back to tate with the line about my mom and asked "do you really think it's that bad?". he answered with a stoic, "it's lovely."

then i realized that, apart from jack's initial reaction, i wasn't getting the desired impact from my april fool's joke. why were my kids being so nice? was this whole thing backfiring on me? was i really gonna need to wear this thing to church? i honestly think someone 5'10 and twiggy could pull this polyester beauty off, but not me. stacy and clinton would have been appalled. so i shouted "april fool's!" when they were all gathered and there were 3 very relieved children. thankfully, rule #4 wasn't broken again because lulu didn't cry when i changed into my real clothes...

you're never gonna see the "fake mumu idea to church" idea on pinterest, but it was enough to get by for this year......

and maybe i will wear it again. we'll just make next year's birthday party theme "lulu's mumu party"!