April Fools stuff

This morning when Peanut got up I fixed her some cereal. I usually put their milk in a little cup to pour on the cereal. I put in a couple of drops of food coloring to make the milk turn purple. This is not as funny if you do not know how grouchy she is in the morning. Grandpa J. will be able to relate. She whined, "Ehhhhh, my milk looks PUR-PLE!" So I say, "Quit griping, it's just plain milk." "But....eeehhh, it looks PUR-PLE. What's WRONG with it?" "Oh, here, let me see..." I go look and then say "April Fools!" It took her a full ten seconds to process this, she just gave me one of her mad stares, then she busted up giggling. It was priceless.

Then she helped me with my more elaborate joke. I got the idea from a magazine to make meatloaf in cake pans and "frost" it with mashed potatoes. So we got Daddy with that one. It didn't look too bad. Mine was not as professional looking, of course. Here is the one in the magazine: I also made the kids some jello with fruit in it that I put into drinking glasses with straws so it looked like punch. Beautiful, the only problem is that you can't suck it up the straw.

Then I made the traditional dirt cake for dessert. In a flowerpot-looking thing. This one I only fooled Junior, but it was worth it. I pinched some of the cookie crumbs out of the pot and ate them. He kind of half-smiled like he didn't know what to think. I said, "Try this, it's good." "No, mama, I don't eat dirt." He was so confused, so we had to tell him.

I know this is not what they mean when they say you should "play with your kids." But for one day a year, it is pretty fun.