April Fools Fun

Thanks for the great suggestions! We started off the day by making "spaghetti cupcakes." Hazel and Eli had a lot of fun making them, they were so stinkin cute. And it's days like that that make me love being a mother.



City made hers after her nap. And ate every last bit of jam, hey, waste not want not right?

I think these are so cool looking!

And then for the really fun part. The night before I was stewing about what to do to the missionaries since I already blew it by answering the phone and setting up our dinner appointment. I considered having a neighbor answer our door and say we didn't live there, they didn't know who the Parkers were, but this wasn't their house and then when they called us, us giving them directions and insisting we were waiting for them at our address.

But I wanted to do something more. I was thinking out loud in bed the night before running my ideas by Josh. How about adding a nasty sounding, yet fake ingredient to our dinner. I thought about picking up some funky looking stuff at the Asian market, that would hopefully taste good, but could pass as something else, like "goat innards" or something. Then he laughed and said I should tell them I put breast milk in it. And then we were just laughing in our sleep-deprived way and then he said I should say something like, "Hope you don't mind, this is just really good for fighting colds and with all the colds going around, we try to do what we can."

And so after finally settling myself down with the humor of it all, I prepped the next day and did just that. I put real half and half in one and milk in the other.

First I said, "I meant to ask, are you guys allergic to anything?" so they wouldn't have an out.

And I left them in as plain of sight as possible for the missionaries to see. And I waited until they could see me. I also set up a hidden video camera at a friends suggestion :). It took a run through earlier in the day to make sure I could keep a straight face, but when I said it, I had to send Josh outside to the grill so I wouldn't crack up laughing with him. Then I said, "this may seem a little weird, but this is just really good for you and fighting colds, and we're all just getting over them, so we do what we can" and dumped it in.

I was about to hastily move onto the next subject so I wouldn't have to worry about my straight face, but then one elder goes, "What is it?" Ahh! No! Now I have to say it? So I said, "breast milk" without looking at him and then in my mumbling way I went on about this ice cream parlor in London that sells breast milk ice cream for $20 a cup and they sold out of their first batch. I just searched it and apparently they put the kibosh on it due to fears it would spread viruses.

Anyway, I was just dying, hot and sweaty, opening all the doors because I was just dying from all the pent up anxiety and laughter. We sat down to eat and I opened up the other pump and dumped it into a bottle and fed Rhett with it right there so they'd buy it even more that it was real.


Then Elder #1, the shy one, was serving Elder #2 and asked how much he wanted (it was a chicken curry dish). He goes, "oh, lots!" I was like, "What??? Didn't you just see and hear what I put in that?" He goes to town eating it. Who knew this joke wouldn't work. But then the other elder redeemed me a little and avoided eating any of the sauce for a long time. He picked at all the food around it and finally after he ate some Josh goes, "So have you guys eaten very many unusual foods?" Josh!! No! This makes it harder to concentrate on not laughing! Then Hazel goes, "Mmm, Mom, this is really good sauce" along with the slurping sounds from Rhett.

Finally he goes, "Afton, can we put them out of their misery?" When we told them we played an April Fools joke on them, Elder #2 looked confused, he didn't think anything unusual was going on. When we told them, he goes, "Oh, I was thinking, well, I do kind of feel a cold coming on, so..." You've got to be kidding me. He was actually okay with this and willing to eat lots to fight his cold. He was amazing. The other elder was more silent about his reactions, though I tried to get it out of him, I just got a few relieved looks and mumbles. Poor guy was probably torn up inside.

They were such good sports about it, too good almost, I figured they'd be freaked out! Then we served them the safe spaghetti cupcakes and sent them on their way. They were so good about it that I want to try it next year, with a new set, but I really doubt I'll still be nursing then.

Q: Would you have been grossed out? I mean I dumped it straight from the pump on the counter!