Sneaky, she is not

April 7, 2009 by Barbara.

There is snow falling today and I was thinking that it seems a delayed April Fool’s joke. I know, I know, it always snows in Ottawa in April but I’m as good at self-deception as the next person. It all made me think of how sneaky we were *not* last Wednesday. I was tempted to perpetuate my April Fool’s mischief on my own but I’d already told Reid about putting food colouring in the milk and I knew she’d want to be part of the caper.

Reid and I were the fastest getting ready as we’ve been in a long time but Ken was fast, too, and I had to send him upstairs to hunt for my Blackberry (which was on my hip) to give us time. Reid added a few drops of red food colouring to the milk, without getting any on herself or me, to my surprise. Ken came back down once I called to say I’d “found” my Blackberry. I was digging in the fridge for lunch stuff and Reid was panicking that I’d get the milk back out and Ken wouldn’t be surprised. Somehow, he figured out that we’d been up to no good even before he saw the milk ;+) When he was finally allowed to take the milk from the fridge, Ken asked, “What’s on the milk bag?” Reid and I called out, “April Fool’s!” And then I said it was food colouring. Ken looked quizical and I pointed out that the milk was pink. He nodded, having to take my word for it. I forget about his colour-perception problems.

Reid balked at having to use pink milk on her cereal and Ken seemed ready to support her but I told them, “Suck it up, Buttercup,” or something like that but less lippy. The flavour wasn’t affected by the colour change. I couldn’t bring myself to drink a glass straight after work, though, and made some lemon pudding - that was much more palatable even while orange.

I cut out a fish for Reid to stick on Ken’s back.  It’s a French-Canadian (maybe French-France, too) tradition for April Fool’s Day, which they refer to as “Poisson d’avril”. I gave Reid the fish and told her to give Ken a big hug (and pantomined sticking the fish on his back mid-hug). She gave him a one-armed hug, not-so-subtly hiding the fish behind her back, and then walked around the dining room table to stick the fish on his back. Not sneaky, at all, I tell you. I put the fish on Reid’s back (also not sneakily) and sent her to school. I never heard whether anyone else perpetuated pranks but I’m glad that I wasn’t there in any case.

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