Belated Birthday and April Fool’s Day

First of all, I’m a TERRIBLE mother! At least to my blog anyway. My blog’s 3rd birthday was March 28th and normally I celebrate with a giveaway from the Something Store. Well, the blog’s birthday came and went this year and I didn’t even notice until last night.

So read this first, then I’ll tell you what I’m going to do to celebrate.

My cousin (Thomas Holt, TH, THolt, Uncle TH) had a baseball game up here last night. I haven’t seen him or my aunt since Christmas so I jumped at the chance to see them. Little did I know when I planned to go that it would help me with my slick little prank I played on my students today.

Yesterday morning the admin. asst. at school informed me that her son (who is in my class) LOVES April Fool’s Day. Just in case he was planning something, it was imperative that I also have a prank planned.

I love pranks, within reason, but I’m not usually the one to come up with an idea…I just go along with other people’s ideas. So I googled for some classroom pranks, but everything involved too much planning and buying. I was short on time and was not going to spend money on this prank. I remembered how awful I am at lying. I can’t do it with a straight face. Any prank I pulled on my students would have to be something that could be accomplished in my absence, otherwise it would be a bust.

So on Thursday at the end of the day I asked my students to pray for safe travels because I had to go visit my aunt, but I couldn’t give any details. A student asked if she lived in Birmingham and I answered yes. I didn’t lie to them. I was going to see my aunt and she does live in Birmingham. So my students assumed I was headed to Birmingham.

Then, I typed a letter to them, explaining my Aunt Shirley (who doesn’t exist in my family) has a rare skin disease. She is not expected to live much longer and she needs a family member to move in with her until she passes. I had to move to Birmingham soon after school on Thursday so I could care for her. I will be unable to return to school the rest of the year. The sub for the remainder of the year is Mrs. S. Please wait in your seats until she comes to get you.

I made copies of the letter and each student had a copy on their desk when they arrived this morning.

I was still at home. I had to stay in hiding. They know my car so I couldn’t even be in the parking lot.  My students walked in my room at 7:45 and at 8:05 Mrs. S went in my room to get them. She pretended to be very upset…even cried and made her face look red and splotchy. She had them bring all of their textbooks into her room and she began teaching their history lesson.

When my students were still in my room, they were thinking that it was just a joke. But when Mrs. S went through the trouble of having them move their things and start a history lesson, they began to wonder and got very concerned. Some were on the brink of tears. Thankfully at this point (8:15) I walked in and yelled “April Fool’s” and they all freaked out, screaming, jumping, saying “I knew it!” and hugging me 🙂 I told them the only part of that letter that was true was the “I love all of you” part.

When we got back to my room I asked who believed it was true. All but 2 of them fell for it…I’d say that’s a success!!!

Now for the blog’s birthday…I thought about finding a creative idea, but I’m just not one to mess with tradition. So, leave a comment if you want a chance to win something from the Something Store. Follow me and you’ll get two entries. You have until Sunday April 3 at midnight to enter.