Inspiration Daily: 04. 01. 11
Photography by me.
I was trying to think of some clever April Fool's Day joke to play on you all this morning...but I've never been able to come up with anything brilliant for this day, and today was no different. But all my futile plotting did lead me to remember something from my childhood that brought a smile to my face...
When we were kids, my little sister and I used to wake up early every April 1st, and hurriedly set all the clocks back by one hour. We did this year after year (for yeears), always giggling softly to ourselves...glancing furtively out of the corner of our eyes to see if/when our Mom would discover our "cleverness." Bless my Mom for always letting it play out until we were nearly bursting with anticipatory excitement, when she'd then act out (very convincingly) her total shock and amazement that we'd pulled the wool over her eyes again (wink). This also reminds me of a non-related event (when I was around age 6) when I decided that the surfaces in our home (as well as our beloved houseplants), needed a bit of shine, and proceeded to use a stick of butter to polish them all to a luxurious luster. My Mom really was surprised that time! Clearly I was an incredibly bright child (sputtering laughter). Did you guys used to play pranks for April Fool's Day growing up? Do you still? Do tell. xo Ez
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| by Ez Friday, April 1, 2011 
Reader Comments (11)
I've never been a big fan of April Fools, either. But your butter story reminded me of an incident. When I was little I decided that some of my mom's photos looked a little dusty. So I carried them to the bathroom and proceeded to wash them with water and a washcloth. When the red hues of the photo paper started bleeding through, I was so heartbroken. My mom, however, took it in stride. (Thank goodness!)
I've never been a big April Fools prank kind of person... perhaps because I'm not one for surprises of that sort. I actually stopped by this post because of the photo - wondering what plant that is? I've always been intrigued, seem them here in Italy too and the leaves look like hearts to me...
Oh I love your story Miz Jo. It sounds like we were both thinking along the time lines. Your Mom sounds so great for brushing that one off.
And thank you Linda! A lovely woman on flickr shared that these are called Shepherd's Purse. They just grow as a weed here, but I love the heart-shaped leaves too, and couldn't resist laying down to get a close-up shot as the sun was setting the other day.
Have a wonderful weekend! xo Ez
Gorgeous photo!
I've never been one for pranks, either, but I do have a good story! A couple of years ago I was living with two room mates, Jessica and Charlie (Charlie's a guy), two of my very best friends. On April Fool's, they sat me down and told me that they had been dating for quite some time behind my back, and couldn't stand to keep it from me anymore. Not only did I fall for that, but since I took it so well they decided to move the prank further and say that Jessica was pregnant. They let me believe it for over an hour before they finally erupted into laughter and yelled 'April Fools!' at the top of their lungs. I'll never live it down. :)
Thank you Ruth!
OMG @ Annabean - Your story is the best! I can imagine falling for something like that too. I was always the one to look upward first when kids would say, "did you know the word gullible is written on the ceiling." Ack! Thanks for sharing! xo Ez
i've never been very good but the adults in my family played jokes on each other every year...my poor father...my mother and aunts got him every time...
I LOVE APRIL FOOOOLLSSSS! absolutely absolutely
but usually i'm just the accomplice mostly responsible for laughing while my friends do the plotting. hahaha!
in my secondary sch, every april fools' we practically have no lessons cause the students will be busy pranking teachers n teachers pranking students! like almost every period we'll have sth planned.
the best was an air raid my class did, a girl was to signal the class whn she drops her bottle and on the 2nd time she drops it, the whole class (it was a all girls sch) would scream and hide under the table! the teacher really jumped and got a shock and we all laughed so hard.
in one period we switched the class clock to the next period and the whole class of 40 girls went to the toilet of 5 cubicles and hide, the toilet was just next to our classroom so the teacher found us very soon cause we couldn't stop giggling in the toilet.
the lights and fan switches of every classroom was in this small closet and we had a very small size girl hide inside and during class she would start flickering the lights on and off then the whole class would started acting scared and we were like, 'teacher got ghost!?!' hahaha it was so much fun =D
The only time I ever played a prank was in middle school. My brother was in high school and had to wake up an hour earlier than me. I took all his toiletries and hid them right inside my bedroom door assuming it would only take a second to realize where they were (or if not, at least to know I took them and wake me up to ask). But I got in a lot of trouble for that... My brother got very angry over the whole thing and instead of asking our parents where his stuff was, he tried to look around for it, getting angrier by the minute. He was already late for school by the time our dad knocked on my door. Whoops.
I haven't played an April Fool's Joke since. But I do enjoy them.
Ooh! I forgot the best story....
My great grandfather's birthday was on April Fool's Day and he loved it. When I was about 3, the whole family decided to gather for his birthday (I think it was his 90th) at my grandmother's house. I had watched a few of my relatives making a styrofoam cake with shaving cream icing, but I guess it hadn't clicked in my head what exactly they were doing and I didn't truly understand the whole April Fool's concept at just three years old. So when it came time for cake and presents, my great-grandfather grabbed a knife and chortled while he cut the "cake". He then offered up a slice to the group. I enthusiastically cried out that I wanted one (come on, it's cake!) and so he handed it over, never expecting me to take the huge bite out of it that I did. My face scrunched up and I spit it all out and I'm certain everyone was laughing at that one. They still tell the story at family gatherings sometimes. I suppose I wasn't the brightest child...
Laura, your birthday cake story is hilarious!
The kids I was babysitting this weekend always put food coloring in their milk on April 1st, so I was slightly dumbfounded (and almost disgusted) when they were pouring it over their cereal and it was green! They were delighted at my surprise.
My dad also convinced my mom once that he had broken his nose for the fourth or fifth time, playing basketball. When she came home from work and saw that it wasn't broken, he was in just a bit of trouble until she started laughing. I can't say I've ever pulled off a good prank, though. I always laugh too hard and give myself away.