yesterday my children were bears.

they lived in ‘caves’

(2 blankets flung over an easel and a child size slide

to create 2 cozy cubies of darkness)

and ate apples.

*

today they are pranksters

conspiring together to ‘april fools’ me.

as i arrived downstairs to giggles and dancing eyes

they asked me

‘don’t you want to eat breakfast mama?’

i could sense it coming

but try as i might

i couldn’t see.

*

peanut buttered toast is usually part of breakfast.

the delighted chuckles got louder and louder

so i examined the toaster.

i shyly lifted the lid

off of the butter.

nothing even slightly unusual greeted me.

have you guessed yet?

if i look really closely at this photo now

i can see it, clearly.

can you?

i’ll give you a minute here to inspect critically

and compose a hypothesis

before i show you

this:

somehow

it never occured to me

just how few steps there are between

the wooden bread in the toy kitchen’s fridge

and the real bread in the full sized fridge before.

*

and

in case

you are curious,

the creamy white velcro centers

were especially delicious this moring.

‘plan’ taken from 9:10 in ecclesiastes.