April Fool's Day

Today was April Fool's Day, but it was anything but . . . except when I dummied up an email from Chase's teacher assigning a spring break term paper on Flowers for Algernon based on the 49 essay questions he's already done for that book. His outrage was pretty priceless. But more importantly, it was Tim's birthday. A kinda big one. Chase the night before said he wanted to get up and surprise him with breakfast. I first argued (Tim rarely wakes up right at 6:00, despite the alarm clock), then I let it go because I figured it wouldn't happen. I was wrong. Chase set his watch for 5:45 and dragged himself downstairs and scrambled his dad some eggs while I made coffee and bacon. We took it up there a little after six, and Tim was indeed SURPRISED. He's a heavy sleeper and it takes a while to wake up. The three of us stood there awkwardly while I prayed Tim could wake up enough to actually eat. And then it dawned on me. . . I needed to get the heck out of there. I said, "Chase, why don't you hang out with Dad . . . I better get breakfast started for Cole and Caroline before they wake up." And the two of them sat up there for nearly an HOUR, chatting . . . CHASE WAS CHATTING . . . while Tim ate his breakfast. Tim later told me it was one of his best birthdays, and that his early morning with Chase was his best present.

Tim headed off to work (where his team had decked out his office with balloons, brought in a cake, and dummied up the test site with pictures of Tim from India), and the kids and I headed out to errands and piano. Then we came home and played outside and colored eggs, and made Tim's favorite maple cake. While we waited for Tim to come home with Indian take-out, we picked up another round of the serial Monopoly game we've been playing this week in the evenings. Then we sat around and ate while Tim told us about the awesome call he got from the Richmond nephews while he drove to work - he did a spot-on imitation of Alex that had all of us crying with laughter. It was an AWESOME day. Happy birthday, Tim (and Uncle Jim and Aunt Betty Jo)!