Clowing Around

James is my April Fool's baby. Every year I think really hard about a fun prank that will make him smile. I haven't been successful yet. This year, after everyone went to bed, Jim and I changed the Wii characters that the children had created for themselves. We made them really ugly and silly. The next day when my children turned on the Wii they were so confused. We all had a good laugh. But, James was not happy. Just yesterday he told me what a terrible idea that was. He said, "My Wii person will never be the same now, Mom. You ruined him."

Last year, we took eyeliner and colored Anna and Margaret's faces in the night. I was careful not to make a mustache on James because I didn't want him to be the joke, after all it was his birthday. It turns out, he was so sad that I didn't include him. Ooops.

The year before I sent his picture to school with some "tweeks". I didn't even get a smile out of him that year.

In spite of my failure to make him laugh, we had a great time celebrating his sixth birthday. My parents came to visit Korea on March 31st. The next day we celebrated all day with James. We went shopping, bowling, and out to eat on the U.S. army base thanks to my dad's military I.D. It was like a trip to America. So nice. It made up for the fact that James' favorite kid spot, Tiovivo turned up to be opsyo (a Korean word for "non- existent"). We drove all the way there to find out it had been turned into an English Training School for kids. April Fools! Not.

Thank goodness for Papa and his military I.D.

Happy Birthday, James. I love you.