Gotcha, Grandma and Grandpa!
This year for April Fools we decided to play a joke on Keaton's parents and grandma. We have learned in quarantine how important it is to show people you care about them. We have also been trying to make people feel special randomly, instead of focusing on everyone at the same time (like on holidays or whatnot). Since it is safer for everyone to not meet face to face (until the group is fully vaccinated) that means we have gotten really creative in showing our love this past year. Which is honestly something I hope we continue to do post-pandemic. (One of the positive things that has come out of this pandemic is how much it has stirred our creativity. We didn't even realize how much we had slipped out of creating before this).
I think that April Fool's Day can be really fun, or it can be kind of icky. We try really hard to play jokes that only bring joy, rather than disappointing someone, too (like toothpaste Oreos. I don't think I will ever get over those. You just don't do that to a person). So a couple weeks before we decided we would decorate their yard with a huge birthday sign, but make it read someone else's name. Keaton created an invoice to put on their door (complete with a few clues like Shepard's initials and our zip code), I downloaded a burner app so that we could send a confirmation text, and we headed down.
The kiddo was so excited. The car ride down he kept singing the happy birthday song to Pat (the name we came up with..... because instead of buying a sign with a name included we bought two "Happy Birthday" signs and just found a name within those letters.
We talked strategy on the way. We would pull up right in front of their house, roll down the windows, and K and I would put the yard sign up as quickly as possible. Then K and the kiddo would drive down the street, I would leave the invoice on the door, aggressively knock, and sprint to the getaway car.
It. worked. perfectly.
That is.... until we were in the car and realized we didn't know what to do at that point. Do we just go home? Do we find a stake out spot to see if we can watch them discover it? We decided to watch from a parking lot just down the street (the entrance to a neighborhood park). However, the parking lot was completely empty which means we got caught the second Chris walked out the door.
But we all had a good laugh (especially the kiddo) and we got to do a masked distance visit from the car. For the next several days the kiddo kept saying to himself "Gotcha Grandma, and Grandpa!" "Gotcha Buzz Buzz!" and bursting into laughter. It was so cute. A very happy April Fool's Day, indeed.