Not an April Fool's

I don’t really have a good April Fool’s story to tell today, but living in a houseful of boys, there is never a shortage of practical jokes and orneriness.  The funny thing is even when you don’t intend a prank, they somehow just show up.  

A while back, our twins, Adam and Isaac, wanted to have a camp out.  Prior to having them, we went camping pretty regularly but, they are 10 and due to extreme allergies and asthma have never been able to.  This was smack dab in the middle of allergy season and I knew there was no way we could be tenting it with them.  So, not wanting to disappoint, I decided we would somehow turn our Friday Family Night into a camping trip without being in a tent, outside.  I told everyone we would be “camping in” and gave everyone their duties.  I bought all the goods, hotdogs, snacks, stuff to make s’mores (which we did on the back porch with a kitchen torch).  We moved all the living room furniture to one side of the living room and made a tent by hanging up sheets on the other side.  We even turned off all things electric and used battery operated lanterns.  For Drew, my 18 year old, I asked him to find, without Adam and Isaac knowing, some camping noises like crickets or whatever he could find and download it on his ipod so we could play it at the appropriate time.  I wanted it to be as realistic as possible and knew the boys would get a real kick out of it. 

We had a great time, good camping food, lots of dimly lit games, shadow puppets, and tons of laughter.  Eventually, it was time to go to sleep and after everyone was in their sleeping bag, I gave Drew the signal to turn on the ipod.  Isn’t that when you start hearing these noises when you are really camping?  Unfortunately, the ipod wouldn’t come on with the remote, so Drew said he had to go to the bathroom and left the tent, lantern in hand.  On his way back, he turned on the, what was supposed to be crickets, and came back to the tent.  I had no idea he couldn’t find cricket noises and had downloaded water sounds, like a running stream.  When the sounds started, the boys asked Drew if he had gone upstairs to the bathroom, and Drew answered that he had, they asked if he had flushed the toilet, and again, he answered, “Yes”.  I didn’t realize what they were getting at and let it continue.  They, pretty quickly, let their imagination get the best of them just like you would with weird noises on a real camping trip.  Before it was over they were convinced that the plumbing lines in the wall had burst and the water from the toilet was running inside our walls.  I was laughing so hard, I couldn’t even correct them.  Plus, I knew if they would just slow down a minute they would know that if something like that was really happening their dad would not just be laying there in the tent saying “there’s no electricity, we will have to just wait until it is light and then check it out.”  All of a sudden, Adam jumped up and darted out of the tent, I guess he was going to save us all.  It didn’t take long once he was outside the sheets, which were distorting the sound, for him to realize it was the ipod speaker.  We all got a real laugh out of that one.

                    

In the "tent" taking pictures of ourselves!












It was so dark, but the camera flash sure ruins the lantern setting!!




Asthma has been a tremendous battle for us and has limited the twins in so many areas.  Several hospital stays, lots of medicine, and a constant insurance battle.  The best part of it is after years of prayer, they are growing up and with the new meds we now have a handle on it.  I believe this will be the year of the “for real” camp out!!

Don’t you just love how Jesus gives us creative ideas to handle the inconveniences life throws in our way.  

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” James 1:2-3

Hope you are having a great April Fool’s Day!

Counting it all Joy!

Angel