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How to Surprise Your Kids

Is there any better surprise than a trip to Disneyland?
My husband and I had been planning our trip to Disneyland for 13 months.  There were a few slip ups, but the kids never caught on, and were totally in the dark.  To add to the surprise, we were set to depart on April 1st.  We couldn’t resist the opportunity to play a few April Fool’s Day tricks on the kids. 
The kids knew that we were getting our floors refinished over Spring Break.  We told them that we had to be out of the house, while they were being done and that we’d be staying with Grandma.  Of course that meant the dog had to be out of the house too.  Grandma doesn’t like Cooper so much, so he would need to stay somewhere else. (Thanks, Carpooler Michelle!)  We packed up our clothes and there was no question as to why we needed to pack suitcases. 
On Friday, April 1st, we woke the kids up at 5:30am.  My youngest wouldn’t open her eyes, so I just carried her into my room.  We told our oldest that we had something to show him.

I found this brochure on the Family Fun Website.  It’s a brochure for a fake camp, called Chore Camp.  You can learn all about washing dishes without leaving water spots, make beds with hospital corners, and learn weed extraction techniques.  I had printed the brochure and showed it to my son.  He started reading it and looked at us like we were crazy.  We tried convincing him that it could be fun.  Hey, they had a car wash learning center too!  They totally bought it! Pretty soon, we asked the kids if they remembered what day it was… April Fools!  As soon as we told them we had a plane to catch for Disneyland, they hustled to get dressed.  We were out the door by 5:50, and on the plane by 8:30am.  Let me tell you, Disneyland was much more fun than Chore Camp.

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The Comments

  • gina3
    April 10, 2011

    That's a childhood memory they'll never forget! What a great surprise. I'm sure their memory books will be filled with pictures and stories, especially about the April Fool's trick. Hope you all had an awesome time!

  • Casey :)
    April 10, 2011

    HOW FUN! We live near Disneyland, and have annual passes, my niece and nephew have some also and they were staying with us, and we told them a story on an errand we had to run and about a block away we told them where we were really going, luckily I had it captured on camera. It was great. How perfect to do it on April Fools though!