Cali's New Discovery

Cali has amazing hand eye coordination, at three weeks she would swing her arm at the toys we would show her, soon after that when we would give her a pacifier she would "hold" on to it by trapping it with her little fists. Now she has discovered that she can suck on her little hands when ever she pleases. Here is a video of her doing just that :)

Nyah is SIX!

Nyah turned six this Wednesday. Sade stayed up with me the night before to wrap all the gifts. Nyah was so excited that she sat outside my bedroom door just to talk and feel included while we wrapped (it was really sweet). Sade loved being the present delivery girl and would parade each newly wrapped gift out the door, past Nyah, down the hall, and set it on the coffee table where Nyah would then dance around commenting on the size, the bow, or what not (she is so easy to please, I love it!)
Once Nyah went to sleep Jeremy & I decorated her room. This has been one of our favorite traditions since Nyah's first birthday. The decorations are different each year and are a fun surprise for the girls in the morning! This year we simply hung curly metallic-purple ribbons from the ceiling with tacks all around Nyah's bed. It wasn't as elaborate as some years but to be honest I only remembered to decorate at the last moment due to the chaos of our quick trip to Portland. Other times I have made canopies of streamers over the beds, or cut out colorful butterflies that we suspended from the ceiling over the sleeping birthday girls, and some years we have decorated with balloons. Anyway, it's a great tradition!

On Nyah's birthday morning Jeremy was home sick from work so Nyah got to open a few of her gifts before school. In Kindergarten Nyah was sung too and got to share the cupcakes I made for her with her class. After school we went to lunch, played Chucke Cheese, and visited with family it was a very fun (and exausting) day!

Happy Birthday Nyah, we love you!!!

They say a picture is worth one thousand words,
so here are four thousand :)

Life is good

I love April Fools Day! My trick on the kids was to put a fork in their cereal instead of a spoon. When Nyah and Sade lifted their "spoon" from their bowl to take a bite they were so surprised, they thought my joke was hilarious :)
(I love how easy they are to please!)

These true pranks are on a whole other level. One of these made me laugh so hard I cried and had to pause to regain my composer (twice), bet you can't guess which one :)

Wisconsin State Capitol Collapses

1933: The Madison Capital-Times solemnly announced that the Wisconsin state capitol building lay in ruins following a series of mysterious explosions. The explosions were attributed to "large quantities of gas, generated through many weeks of verbose debate in the Senate and Assembly chambers." Accompanying the article was a picture showing the capitol building collapsing. Many readers were fooled—and outraged. One reader wrote in declaring the hoax "was not only tactless and void of humor, but also a hideous jest." Nevertheless, in 1985 The Science Digest named this as one of the best hoaxes ever.

The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest

1957: The respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in. Many called the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this the BBC diplomatically replied, "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."

Metric Time

1975: Australia's This Day Tonight news program revealed that the country would soon be converting to "metric time." Under the new system there would be 100 seconds to the minute, 100 minutes to the hour, and 20-hour days. Furthermore, seconds would become millidays, minutes become centidays, and hours become decidays. The report included an interview with Deputy Premier Des Corcoran who praised the new time system. The Adelaide townhall was even shown sporting a new 10-hour metric clock face. The thumbnail shows TDT Adelaide reporter Nigel Starck posing with a smaller metric clock. TDT received numerous calls from viewers who fell for the hoax. One frustrated viewer wanted to know how he could convert his newly purchased digital clock to metric time

San Serriffe

1977: The British newspaper The Guardian published a special seven-page supplement devoted to San Serriffe, a small republic said to consist of several semi-colon-shaped islands located in the Indian Ocean. A series of articles affectionately described the geography and culture of this obscure nation. Its two main islands were named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse. Its capital was Bodoni, and its leader was General Pica. The Guardian's phones rang all day as readers sought more information about the idyllic holiday spot. Only a few noticed that everything about the island was named after printer's terminology. The success of this hoax is widely credited with launching the enthusiasm for April Foolery that gripped the British tabloids in subsequent decades.

The 26-Day Marathon

1981: The Daily Mail ran a story about an unfortunate Japanese long-distance runner, Kimo Nakajimi, who had entered the London Marathon but, on account of a translation error, thought that he had to run for 26 days, not 26 miles. Reportedly Nakajimi was now somewhere out on the roads of England, still running, determined to finish the race. Various people had spotted him, though they were unable to flag him down. The translation error was attributed to Timothy Bryant, an import director, who said, "I translated the rules and sent them off to him. But I have only been learning Japanese for two years, and I must have made a mistake. He seems to be taking this marathon to be something like the very long races they have over there."

The Taco Liberty Bell

1996: The Taco Bell Corporation announced it had bought the Liberty Bell and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Hundreds of outraged citizens called the National Historic Park in Philadelphia where the bell was housed to express their anger. Their nerves were only calmed when Taco Bell revealed, a few hours later, that it was all a practical joke. The best line of the day came when White House press secretary Mike McCurry was asked about the sale. Thinking on his feet, he responded that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold. It would now be known, he said, as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.

The Left-Handed Whopper

1998: Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA Today announcing the introduction of a new item to their menu: a "Left-Handed Whopper" specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the advertisement, the new whopper included the same ingredients as the original Whopper (lettuce, tomato, hamburger patty, etc.), but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers. The following day Burger King issued a follow-up release revealing that although the Left-Handed Whopper was a hoax, thousands of customers had gone into restaurants to request the new sandwich. Simultaneously, according to the press release, "many others requested their own 'right handed' version."