Living with Pranksters

Joshua and Luke love to play pranks on each other, but rarely am I involved. So, I in no way saw this coming.

Last Saturday I returned home from grocery shopping, coming in the back door from the garage with my arms full of bags. I found my two loving and innocent boys sitting on the couch watching a movie. Luke sprung up and ran over and said, “Mommy, the chair outside has fallen over, can you go out and pick it up?”

I will admit, I was a bit annoyed. I mean, my arms were full, and his Daddy was sitting on the couch, but I really did not think he was up to no good. I replied, “In a minute, we need to get all the groceries in the house.”

As they always do, Joshua and Luke started bringing in all the bags and I stayed in the kitchen putting things away. In hindsight, I should have wondered about the glimmer in Luke’s eye. I should have noticed that he kept looking at Josh and laughing. I should have known something was up. But, you see, they NEVER play jokes on me. Never. Why would I think they were up to something?

As I continued putting away the groceries, Luke kept insisting I go out and pick up this chair that had blown over. At one point, I said, “Can you not just go and pick it up yourself?” He then said, “No, because there is a surprise for you!”

Okay, now I was the one with a gleam in my eye. My sweet husband and son had put together a surprise for me while I was gone!

Now that I understood there was a reason for me to go out back, I dropped all I was doing and Luke and I went outside. Luke stood by the wall just watching me. I picked up the chair, but nothing was there.

“Um, maybe it is under that instead,” he said, pointing at the top of a plastic tub that was laying on the patio. Again, looking back, I should have known something was up, but I just had no clue.

I picked up the top of the plastic tub and saw this.

I screamed.

I screamed very, very loudly and I stumbled back away from it.

I know in this picture, it is very clear this is not a real snake, but when you see it at a first glance and you are taken off guard, it looks real! And please note, last summer, we had a real copperhead snake on our front porch!

Luke laughed uncontrollably.

Joshua emerged from the house with a huge grin on his face.

“Did it really scare you?” Josh asked with a little too much happiness in his voice.

“Um, YES! The scream was real.” I said.

Once I started breathing normal again, I asked, “Luke, why did you do that??”

He QUICKLY pointed at his Daddy, “IT WAS DADDY’S IDEA!!!”

They will not win and they should both sleep with one eye open. I too come from a family who likes to play jokes.