April Fools Day with little kids

I'ts been a super long time since I've updated this blog but we had such a fun April Fools Day I decided I had to write it down somewhere and it might as well be here!

I was never a big fan of pranks as a kid. Truthfully I can't remember any done to me other than my big brother just teasing me the way a big brother would. But I remember reactions from other people. Reactions that made me not like mean pranks. However, since Spencer was old enough to take a joke, maybe about kindergarten, I began playing April Fools jokes on the kids in a fun, not-mean way. Now this holiday has become one of the favorites at our house.

Over the last few years I've tried all sorts of kid-friendly April Fools Day pranks. I've stuffed tissues into their shoes so they wouldn't fit. I've replaced the underwear in the drawers with baby diapers. I've switched all their drawers around so the pants are in the top drawer and the pajamas in the bottom, etc. I tried moving them from their bed to another's bed but they weren't deep enough sleepers so I just switched them so their heads were at the foot of the bed. One time I traded their comforters so Spencer woke up in a pink Fancy Nancy blanket and Tessa woke up with superheroes. I've traded their shoes and underwear with each other while they were asleep. I've sent them pudding with gummy worms in it for lunch. I've cored an apple, scooped out a bit more room in the middle to place a gummy worm and then stuck back the top and bottom of the core so they wouldn't see the worm until they ate through it. I've used dental floss to cut the banana while in the peel. I've opened bags of chips and cookies and switched the items in the bags then re-sealed the bags with a little hot glue. I've colored the milk. I've glued googley eyes onto all the food in the fridge (milk, yogurt, eggs, etc.) so when the kids opened the fridge everything was looking at them (this has been my favorite over the years and I'm waiting until an acceptable amount of time passes to reuse this one).

This year Easter was before April Fools day, hence the six containers of eggs and leftover carrot cake ;)

I've used unflavored gelatin with milk (like making panna cotta) and let it sit in their cups in the fridge overnight then their milk is pretty much solid and won't come out when they try to drink it in the morning. I've used the gelatin with gatorade to make basically jell-o that I've poured back into gatorade bottles to set up in the fridge overnight and sent in school lunch. I've switched the bags of cereal within the boxes (so when a kid pours Lucky Charms he really gets Special K, etc.) and once replaced the cereals with rice and oatmeal. I super glued a quarter on the sidewalk. I put a drop of food coloring in plastic cups and let it dry overnight then poured sprite into the cups and watched the kids' reactions to the sprite magically changing colors. I drew mustaches and whiskers on the kids with washable markers while they were sleeping. I bought Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Bean from Jelly Belly online. I've played the Winnie the Pooh tricks with a stuffed "pooh" on the toilet, or drawing a picture of Winnie the Pooh on toilet paper with a Sharpie marker then carefully leaving the "pooh" in the toilet. I've short-sheeted their beds and even put pillows in their beds to make it look like someone was already asleep. One time I bought cute little dog dishes and after washing them filled them with cocoa puffs and gave them to the kids for breakfast. (These dog dishes have become a favorite toy of the kids with their stuffed animal toys.) Last year our baby was just a few months old so I took a bunch of the girls' baby dolls and put them in all the baby places like the baby swing, baby gym, changing table, play pen, bouncer, etc. And of course I've sang Happy Birthday, wished a Merry Christmas, and mentioned every other holiday in between. When Spencer was in first or second grade I told him it was a Saturday and when Spencer started walking downstairs to turn on the TV I said "April Fools it's really a school day" and he cried. After that I decided not to play jokes that would result in major letdowns including packing suitcases and telling the kids we're headed to Disneyland.

And while Spencer is getting old enough to be able to handle maybe a bit more serious of pranks, he still enjoys these type and I have 3 younger kids. So it will still be a while before I elastic band saran wrap around the shower head or sink faucet, place saran wrap over the toilet bowl or put snap-its under the toilet seat. Or turn off the water then back on again so all the sinks spurt when they are turned on. Or turn off the water to the toilets so when they flush it doesn't fill back up again. Or flip off the power to the house. For now I'll stick with silly kid-friendly tricks that don't make a kid upset or require a lot of cleanup on my part. Here's how this year went...

The three older kids woke up face to face with a pretty wrapped present with a bow and a tag saying "Happy Birthday!" but under the wrapping was a plain cardboard box and the only thing inside was a note card that said "April Fools!". When Tessa found her box she didn't even want to open it. "I know it's just an empty box," she told me. Spencer said he knew it was an empty box but still opened it with a hopeful gleam in his eye... Clara was confused but excited to be getting a present. Luckily my 4 year old was able to laugh when I read her the card inside.

Then each toilet had an "Out of Order" sign taped to it. I had to pee and went in the bathroom without thinking. Tessa knocked on the door and said, "Mom, that toilet is out of order!" and I laughed. When I came out I told her it was just a joke. She said, "Good because I have to go really bad!" Spencer laughed when he went in a bathroom but went without hesitation.

Once they made it to the main floor I told them "Happy Easter! The Easter bunny came!" and pointed to the dozen plastic Easter eggs I had tossed around the front room. Inside the Easter eggs were body part gummy candies. You know a brain, bloody finger, bloody foot, and bloody ear. I saw these last Halloween and instantly thought of April Fool's day so I bought them, not sure at the time just how I'd use them. Maybe I'm the only one who thinks this way because the stores only carry pastel spotted candies in the shapes of eggs right now. My kids loved this and made all sorts of silly jokes as they ate their brains, ears, feet, and fingers. Spencer saved a bloody finger stump to take to school to trick his friends that he got his finger caught in a door or zipper and it broke off. He also drew silly eyes on white paper and taped it inside his lens-less glasses frames he has. He was excited to take them to school and put them on when the teacher started teaching. And he put a piece of tape under his nostril and drew red with a marker to make it look like he had blood leaking out his nose.

When the kids were in the kitchen ready for breakfast I gave them each a grilled cheese sandwich for breakfast. Except it wasn't really a grilled cheese sandwich. I made french toast and orange, maple flavored frosting (I made this the night before with butter, powdered sugar, maple flavoring, a couple drops of red food coloring, and a few more drops of yellow) and made sandwiches out of it. They looked quite realistic and none of the kids wanted to touch them. Clara almost cried. Spencer said, "Don't worry Clara it's an April Fools joke. I bet the orange is really eggs." I told him it wasn't and he closed his eyes when he took the first bite. Then his eyes popped open and he said, "Guys, you have to try this it's really good!" I told them I'd also make them eggs and when I got the eggs out of the fridge I pretended to trip and I dropped the whole carton of eggs. Of course they were the dyeable plastic ones that look quite realistic but bounced when they hit the floor.

I was excited to tell the kids to hurry and grab their backpacks for school and watch the shock as they tried to lift their bags that were full of heavy chili cans. But they were catching on and unzipped their backpacks for inspection before even lifting them up. My disappointment was obvious so Spencer zipped his back up and lifted it saying, "Wow my backpack is heavy. I wonder why it's so heavy?" I laughed and told him he could go ahead and take the cans out. He told me it was a good prank. Then as they walked down to the bus stop I put on my Ghostbusters Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man costume and waved to them as the bus passed my house.

When the kids opened their lunchboxes at school they saw a worm in their lunch. Oriental Trading sells gummy earthworms that are root beer flavored and quite realistic looking. I sent the kids with fruit snacks but I had opened the packages and placed a gummy eyeball (my Halloween bag of gummy body parts) in the fruit snacks then re-sealed the bags with a hot glue gun. And I placed a gummy bloody finger stump (Halloween gummy body parts again) in their containers of carrot sticks. Clara just told me I was silly but wasn't surprised at all. And she didn't like the gummy worm flavor, but the other two kids did.

When they came home I had an inflatable Christmas decoration blown up in the front yard and gave them candy canes. But they were too distracted by their baby brother. Clara got the biggest laugh because I picked her up from preschool with him sitting in her carseat and wearing her dress up shoes. When I texted my husband these pictures he responded "You're so mean!" and at piano lessons my dad told me he couldn't even look at him because it hurt so bad. I asked Spencer, 10 years old, what he would think if I had done this to him as a baby and showed him the pictures. He responded "I'd be so mad!" Oops. Hopefully my baby grows up not to resent me...

Then for dinner I told the kids I was making cupcakes. I made meatloaf in muffin tins and then piped whipped potatoes on them and topped them off with a cherry tomato. The kids thought they were hilarious. Tessa doesn't like mashed potatoes so she gave hers to the baby who LOVES them. I also gave them "vegetables" that were really Jolly Rancher bunny food (gummy treats in the shapes of pea pods, carrots, corn on the cob, and tomatoes). And we had real salad with it. They said this was the best day ever because they had cupcakes for dinner. Even if they were the meat and potato kind.

My last prank of the day was when they laid down for bed. I took the pillows out of their pillow cases and replaced them with the air filled plastic things that everything comes shipped with these days. I feel bad I didn't take more pictures but they absolutely LOVED April Fools Day and told me I'm good at pranks, which made me happy as well. I've already got a couple ideas for next year but if anyone else has any good kid-friendly April Fools ideas, I could always use more!

Seven Peaks Raging Waters

A  hot summer and three young kids to entertain.  This week included family skate night at the Lone Peak Skate Park, tennis lessons for Spencer, family night at the dollar theaters to see Mirror, Mirror, multiple play dates for both kids, Tessa's gymnastics class, swimming lessons for both kids, a stop at the Draper library to check out books and to make a fun harmonica craft, and then a stop at Seven Peaks Raging Waters.  Of course Raging Waters in my memory from when I was a kid is much cooler, but it's still fun for the kids.

I do believe Raging Waters has more little kid fun than other waterparks like Cowabunga Bay.  I just wish it was cleaner, more updated, and had more restrooms.  There is one ladies restroom with about 6 stalls and 2 just changing rooms.  Seriously there are hundreds of women and children (who go with their mothers to the restroom) at the park.  So every hour when Tessa has to go to the bathroom I have to take all 3 kids with me to wait in line to use one of the few restrooms.  At least I have them already come in their swimsuits and change into dry clothes in the van on our way home to avoid those extra times waiting for a place to change.

Back to the fun parts.  There is a very shallow (less than 1 foot) area with a play structure and slide as well as a few places where the water squirts out.  We spend a lot of time here.  Just beware that the slide is very slick and the kids go down fast.

Next to this area is the place we spend the most of our time.  It's a dinosaur themed kiddie pool consisting of 4 pools.  The pool on the west side has a couple of dinosaur statues the kids can climb on.  The pool on the east side has a large floating crab thing that's chained down but the kids can all climb on at once.  The pool on the north side has an obstacle course the kids can go across and a lifeguard there watching them closely.  All of these pools are approximately 2 feet deep and warm.  The last pool is actually up stairs between the east and west pools on top of the volcano.  The pool here is even more shallow, maybe a foot and a half, and the warmest water in the park.  There's even a cave/tunnel the kids can go through.  And going down into either the east or west pools are flat slides.  The one going to the east pool is very wide so I go down with Clara on my lap and Spencer and Tessa next to me.  Tessa loves going down these slides.  Spencer is nervous at first but once he goes down he has a blast and keeps going.  Clara gets very excited, goes down on my lap once with me making sure she doesn't get her head under the water, and then doesn't want to go again.  She loves playing in the water but doesn't care much for the slides.

Then we head over to the lazy river and splash pad.  My kids are too scared of all the real waterslides.  When it comes to the lazy river I would prefer a tube for the kids.  But Seven Peaks/Raging Waters charges extra for the tubes.  And since the lazy river and wave pool are the only places my kids go where they would use them it isn't worth my money.  So Spencer is fine in the lazy river but Tessa can't reach the bottom.  Which means either floating with her life jacket or me holding her.  And I have to carry Clara the whole way.  So we usually only go around a couple of times.

The splash pad is in the center of the lazy river.  My kids love splash pads.  They can get wet and have fun in the water without worrying about not being in control.  Their feet are always touching.  Of course Tessa isn't a big fan of water getting in her face, but loves it falling on top of her head or under her feet.  Spencer loves every thing about splash pads.  As nervous as he seems around water he fell in love with splash pads back in Boston a few years back when we were visiting my sister.  It surprised me how well he did in them and I have worked hard to find and go to them ever since.  Clara loves sitting on or putting her foot on the water squirting places as long as she's taller than the water coming out.  Overall this is a fun splash pad.  Especially since there isn't any rotation--all the water is on all the time.

And of course there is the wave pool.  This was my favorite part of Raging Waters as a kid and my kids also love it.  Of course when I'm responsible for three young children in a large, crowded pool with waves I can't take pictures while they are in the wave pool.  I did take one of them out of the wave pool.  If you haven't been it is a large zero entry pool.  So if you have little ones you can sit at the entrance of the pool and have them just splash around.  If you scoot up just a little the kids can sit with the water going up to their belly and when the waves are going they just move the legs up a little.  My kids like to do this.  When I was a kid I liked to take my tube to the deepest part and just ride the waves on my tube.  One time last year Brodie came with us and we got a tube and Brodie took the two older kids deeper while he was holding onto the tube and I stayed shallow with Clara.  But with all three kids I didn't let them go deeper than 3 feet and within arms reach of me the whole time.  I held Clara the whole time and made sure Tessa at least had on her life jacket.  The waves aren't on all the time so we stayed in for a few rotations of waves/pool and so on.  Their favorite was going as deep as I would let them and then jumping with the waves but letting the waves push them back.  We would keep letting the waves push us back until we were sitting down and then do it again.  My legs got quite a workout doing this over and over again while holding Clara and sometimes Tessa.  Maybe I should do water aerobics?



When I bought my Pass of all Passes I got some free food cards so we just ate lunch at the park and got dippin dots on our way out.  If I didn't have those passes I would avoid the food.  The kids got overpriced, cold, tasteless pizza and I ordered a sandwich that was the most basic, flavorless sandwich imaginable.  And because it was "made to order" I had to wait for 15 minutes AFTER ordering before getting it. But it was more convenient than leaving the park, walking back to my car to retrieve lunches, walking back to the park to try to find an unoccupied shady patch of lawn to eat lunch at, returning the cooler to my car, and re-entering the park.  This is what I usually do because I'm cheap.  Which also means it's a decent walk to my car because Seven Peaks charges $5 to park in their parking lot.  I seriously can't believe all the ways they find to charge.  Parking, locker rentals, beach chairs, umbrellas, tubes, food (they don't allow outside food and drink), etc.  I guess instead of complaining about the lack of restroom facilities I should be thankful they don't charge for them.  They probably will next year.

Wheeler Farm and sleepover at Grandma's

Grandma Julie and Papa invited us to attend a BBQ at Wheeler Farm.  There were also a couple of bounce houses there.  So we ate dinner with Grandma and Papa then the kids bounced and slid and had a blast.  Then we walked around and visited with the animals.  Grandma Julie came part of the way with us.  We do love Wheeler Farm.

After Wheeler Farm we went to my parents house for a sleepover.  My sister and her kids came as well.  My parents really only live 3 minutes away but the idea of a sleepover at Grandma's house with cousins was too fun.  The kids slept on the floor in the play room.  I slept in the kids' guest room bunk bed.  The next morning my mom made waffles with fruit, whipped cream, chocolate syrup, and all sorts of sweet toppings for them.  They had a blast!



City Creek with cousins

I like shopping online.  I hate crowds, I like to read reviews, and I like to quickly get exactly what I want in exactly the right size and have it show up on my doorstep a few days later.  But I was curious about City Creek.  I had agreed to go with my mom and sisters back in April but my Father in law was in the hospital and I was helping get him checked out when they were going.  They offerred to take Tessa with them so she went back in April.  Spencer had been at school and after school went to a friend's birthday party at Airborne.  In May we went as a family and Tessa gave us a tour.  She remembered where the Disney Store, Gap, Gymboree, the fountains, and Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory were.  Boy am I in trouble when my 4 year old has the shopping center mapped out and memorized after one visit.

In June my sister and I decided to go to City Creek with all the kids to play.  We started out at the fountains and let the kids go wild getting all wet.  The splash pad fountain area isn't very big.  I was thinking more like a Gateway thing so I was a little disappointed but there were only a couple other kids there so they had a blast.  And they got drenched.

 My sister brought up the idea of a person selling towels right by there.  Since there wasn't we walked to the nearest restroom and wrung out and changed clothes on the kids.  Then we did a little shopping as we walked to the other side of the shopping center.  The kids also liked the bridge where they could see the temple.  They get exponentially sillier the more they are around cousins.

At the other side we let the kids play in the dinosaur themed play area of the food court.  There are eggs to climb in, slides to go down, dinosaur bones to climb through and on top of, and plenty of dinosaurs to climb on and slide down.  They played and played and played.  Such a fun day for the kids without having to spend any money.  Of course we did spend money, but we didn't have to. (The picture of my 3 kids on the pink dinosaur was actually taken the last time we visited City Creek as a family but I like it so much I threw it in here).

Movies and tree climbing at the park

Sandy City (along with quite a few cities in the Salt Lake area) put on movies in the park over the summer.  We went to The Muppets at Flat Iron Park.  It turned out our neighbors who have a boy Spencer's age also came so we ended up sitting with them to watch the movie.  But we had showed up an hour before the movie so the kids could play at the playground.  Some kids were climbing the tree right next to the swingset and my kids were very intrigued by this.  I realized my kids have never climbed a tree.  They liked hanging on the lower branch and swinging around.  Then they climbed up on the lowest branch and were very proud of themselves.  But they didn't dare try going any higher.  So I climbed up a bit higher to a nice place to sit.  After I went that far Tessa shot right up the tree.  She also had no problem getting back down.  Then Spencer cautiously made his way up to the same spot and carefully came back down with me spotting him.

When it got dark (around 9:00) the movie started on a large inflatable movie screen.  The kids had seen the movie with Brodie back when it was in the theatre but this was my first time watching it.  It was quite entertaining.  Brodie stayed home with Clara as we didn't get home until close to eleven.  Here's a picture of Spencer with his friend before the movie started.