But first my April Fools day stories: I was driving downtown Minneapolis this morning on my way to work when a man walked up to my car. I was a bit nervous as he was dressed homeless or very very cold. I had not properly scraped the eight inches of snow from my windows, so my driver side window was open so I could see where I was going. He told me my back tire was very very flat and I should pull over immediately. Yuck. I was already running late. Then the funny funny man yells, “April Fools!”

He got me good.

After work I went to get my son and I told him he was on his way tot he dentist. Unfortunately he was not as bummed as I had hoped he would be, but he was not excited about it either. I drove over to the Mall of America and parked in the ramp. We walked inside and he was still believing my lie. The Mall has an amusement park in the middle of it. It iscertainly impressive so far as parks in the middle of malls go. When the mall opened in the early 90s the park was called Camp Snoopy and featured all of the Peanuts. Charles Schultz was a local, and his legacy of those characters could be seen all over the park and still are all over his home town of St. Paul. However, a couple years ago camp Snoopy lost the rights to the park and it became a no name amusement park, until a couple weeks ago. Every kid in a hundred mile radius including my son has been begging to visit the new Nickelodeon Universe.

As Max and I were walking in to the mall, he asked me if after the dentist we could maybe go look at the rides. Why he still thought we were going to a dentist’s office I don’t know, but I am glad he did. I told him I’d think about it but I kept on walking straight for the park. As we entered his eyes were huge yet sad, cause he knew he was not going to be able to enjoy any of the things I was teasing him with. I bent over and whispered in his ear, “April Fools. We’re not going to the dentist, we are going to go on rides!” It’s my one decent prank for the day.

This is Diego’s bus. It was stuck up in the air there just before we got on. I was kinda glad about this except I thought it would have been fun to call people while stuck on a ride. Maybe next time.

I went on one ride, the ferris wheel. The rest of the rides were too small for me. This is what the floor looks like when you are at the top of the ride.

Max and Dora.

Swiper the Fox.

Of course, Sponge Bob. Every time you enter a ride, you hear his laugh.

Next year I am going to have to step it up a bit. Max will certainly remember this year’s prank and be looking forward to the same type of thing again. The best part of the day was when we were walking out to the car and Max yelled way too loud and completely out of the blue, “BUT YOU’RE NOT MY REAL MOMMY!!!” We got some terrific looks from strangers, and then he looked at me and laughed so hard. I still haven’t decided whether to be disturbed by this random holler.