Sunday, April 04, 2010

Buckets Of Easter Fun








Silly Face Contest~ Easter 2010






Smiles~ Easter 2010





Jacques first Easter at home, age 17


Kyle, age 11


Johnny, age 9


Maizy is sure she's my child too so jumped up and sat on the couch where she saw the kids getting their photos taken. Yes, Maizy, we love you too!


Luke, age 6


Lovenie, age 5

Family Hike

Home schooling has become increasingly popular. Along with that, home school social groups have become all the rage as well. No longer do home school families need to feel alone or that their children are missing out on socialization. We are part of 3separate home school groups and the opportunities to get together for play dates, classes, or field trips seems nearly endless! One of the things I love about how home schooled kids socialize is that they are mixed with kids of ALL ages.

Saturday we joined other home school families on a hike. It was so fun to see friends, make new friends, and have some outdoor fun together!




Friday, April 02, 2010

Prank You Very Much!



Jim's toiletries hanging from the ceiling!




Jacques' toiletries hanging from the ceiling!


April Fools day Morning was very eventful in our house this year... especially for Jim and Jacques!

Jacques~ As you can see from above~ I hung his toiletries from the ceiling of his bathroom. I wrapped his toilet bowl with cling wrap, and rubbed oil on all the knobs, and toilet seat. Good thing I warned him that he might want to get up a little early on this day! He then went in to get his breakfast. When he opened the cupboard to get his cereal bowl ping pong type balls fell out at him. He then went to the fridge to get his milk where it happened again! Later on at school he took a binder out of his backpack and found that "someone" had wrapped it up a bunch of times in cling wrap and left a note in it that said "You have been pranked by aliens". I'm pretty sure he believed the note!

Jim's Morning~




Jim's morning of pranks began when he reached in the dark for his glasses (which he cannot see much at all without). He fumbled around with them for a while confused that something wasn't quite right. Could it be because "someone" had switched out his glasses for sunglasses? Once he found his real glasses he headed to the bathroom to put in his contacts, which he keeps on the counter. But, it wasn't there. He then saw that "someone" had taped a note to the mirror that was a prank "calling card" and said "You have been pranked by" and then gave the option of checking the cat, the dog, the fish, or the butler. Because there was a picture of a fish on it, and Kyle had just recently got a goldfish, I checked that it was done by the fish. Jim took this as a clue to where his things were hidden so ran downstairs to search around the goldfish. When he couldn't find it there he headed back upstairs to search the bathroom again to no avail. So he stood there for a moment thinking where else the fish may have hidden his things. Then he just happened to glance up and see his things dangling from the ceiling! Once he was able to get ready and headed out the door he found that his car was not in the drive way so he had to go on a hunt and found it on the cul-de-sac near our home. He also found that "someone" had TP'd his car! Once he cleaned it up and got in he found another prank "calling card" on the steering wheel. He turned the car on and found that "someone" had set his satellite radio to the Nashville station and left it on max volume (he is NOT a fan of country music). Off he left to hide out safely at work for most of the rest of the day!

Kyle~


Kyle had a somewhat unintentional prank going on for a few days leading up to April Fools day. He is in a play and April Fools Day just happened to fall on one of his drama days, and also the first time that they needed to show up to practise in costume. When I reminded him about it and he figured out the date he was SURE I was just messing with him. He spent a few days worried about if he should go in costume or not. He was still nervous when a friend picked him up for drama, especially when she was not in costume. I heard him ask her if it was REALLY costume day and she told him yes but she had just not put hers on yet. About a half hour later he called me and told me NOBODY there was in costume, sure that I had pranked him! The others were just not in costume yet because they were practising a dance routine, but later everyone ended up in costume (to his relief). Before leaving he was giving his Mama a bit of smack talk about how I couldn't prank him while he was away at drama. Oh son... how little faith you have in me! While he was getting ready I set an alarm on the cellphone I sent with him so that in middle of drama the alarm went off with a voice recording of me repeating "April Fools Kyle" over and over until he could get past his costume apron and into his pocket and turn it off. He was not as amused with that one!

All The Children~





I'm not ALL bad on April Fools day. I also try and make it fun and quirky! We have our meals backwards. We start with dessert and then have our dinner for breakfast, lunch for lunch, and breakfast for dinner!



I also usually hand out fun print outs before school. This year they got a word find puzzle that had April Fools Themed words. Only not ALL of the words were there. So once they finally find the words that are there the puzzle spells out "you have been pranked". I also gave them a "What will you be when you grow up" quiz. It seemed normal but when you looked up the answer it gave careers like Goldfish Wrangler and Popcorn scientist.

Lunch~



I threw the kids an April Fools Day Tea Party~ with a twist. They were expecting some sort of prank but were delighted when I poured their "tea" and hot cocoa came out of the tea pot!

More Fun With Kyle~



One of Kyle's chores is to unload the dishwasher. So while he was away at drama we had fun filling it with strange things~ paper plates, a shoe, some socks, Kyle's book and wallet, toilet paper, dvd covers, canned foods, toys, and more. He was totally surprised when he opened it!

Dinner~



Then finished up the prank day celebrations for the kids with breakfast for dinner.

More pranks for Jim!~
Jim just happened to get stuck working late (OR was he hiding out???). When he finally left work I asked him to stop by the store and pick up milk, and may as well pick up some wine while he's at it. I happened to know that the grocery store near us recently got busted for selling to a minor and lost their liquor license for a while. So now they card EVERYBODY! Armed with that information the following prank was able to happen~

Jim picked up the milk and wine and headed to the register. The person ahead of him offered to let him go ahead since he had so few things. When he got to the cashier he pulled out his wallet for the first time in the day (he keeps it in his briefcase and had no reason until now to use it) and found that it was taped shut with packaging tape! The cashier questioned him about it and he just shook his head and said "My wife really likes April Fools Day". The person now behind him and the cashier laughed. When he finally broke into his wallet he pulled out his ID and began shaking his head again because someone had placed a photo of an Ape over his photo! Once again... the cashier and other customer laughed! (I was going to put a picture of a hairy butt but decided to go a little easier on him).



Prank Flop~ One of the pranks that I read online I tried to do. The night before I poured a bunch of clear gelatin in a couple of the toilets (that I thought Jacques and Jim would use in the morning) and left it to set overnight. It didn't do much except that you could see the powder in the toilet. Jacques was worried it would do something to him so flushed it away before using. Otherwise it was a total flop.

I got mine~ Yes, I can no longer totally escape April Fools Day without being pranked too. With Kyle around I'm going to really be in for it from now on. In the afternoon I headed up to use the sink in my bathroom. When I turned on the water I screamed! Kyle had taped the sink just right so that it sprayed right out at me soaking the front of my skirt! He also hid some of my things, and covered lots of things in our room with tinfoil (pillows, door handles, alarm clock, and more)!!!

I think that perhaps even God wanted to make sure that we knew He was in on our crazy day because right before I took a sip of water out of my glass I found a dead moth floating on top!!

FUN DAY HAD BY ALL! CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHAT NEXT YEAR BRINGS!!!!!

You Can Sleep, But You Can't Hide!

'Twas the night before April Fools and all through the house, children were hiding because they were scared of what might happen to them!

Hey kids~ just 'cause you woke up last year with drawings on your face, doesn't mean we'd do it to you this year too! (insert batting of the eye lashes and innocent look here)

On April Fools Eve we went to say bedtime prayers with our children and found them all hiding in hopes of sheilding themselves from being pranked in their sleep!




Luke put up a large lid and fell asleep behind it.





Kyle slept under their air hockey table with a large tub of toys in front of him.




And Johnny... well... Johnny we found inside an emptied out toy box!