April Fools

This family seems to be all over April Fools this year. Today, Anna took her teacher a bag of Cheetos...that was really a bag of carrots. Fun times.

Better yet, last night, my community group planned to prank Rob. There's a bit of a back story to this prank. In Community Group (CG), we've been pranking a member of our group every time she misses group. Andrea expects it now. The first time, Larry (our leader) was starting prayer requests and did this sort of leg pat (2xs) and hand clap (2xs) while sort of chanting "Prayer request, prayer request. Who has a prayer request?". We joked about how cult-ish it sounded and decided to do it to Andrea at our next meeting. The next time she missed, we all told each other that we loved each other as we left. "I love you Larry." "I love you, Tone." Great stuff. So we knew that Andrea would be expecting something this time. We planned to give each other full frontal hugs during our prayer request time. When the question was asked, Reed says "I don't have anything but I just feel like I gotta do something." and he got up and went and hugged Tim. Then we all just started getting up and hugging each other while Andrea just sat there. We all laughed about this and talked about how she expected something. That conversation somehow morphed into a practical joke on Rob...and hopefully Larry too since he missed group last night. After much discussion, we decided that Reed would write an email to send to Rob about the hugging but that it would be from Andrea. This is the email that we sent Rob today:

Hi Rob,

This might sound a little strange and maybe I am worrying about nothing, but something has seemed a little off in my group. Lately, after prayer requests, Larry has been having us all give each other hugs. I know that this is my first group and that maybe Larry is just trying to build stronger community within the group but I thought I would bring it up to you to see if that was normal for Waters Edge.
Thanks,
Andrea

I'm not sure yet, but we hoped that Rob would call Larry. Andrea did get a response from Rob. Note that he spelled her name wrong.

Adrea,

There is no mandatory hugging rule for Waters Edge Community Groups. I have a few huggers in my group that do before they leave but it is not required. I think you are right in saying that Larry is trying to build stronger community. Are you going to try another group out at the next House Party? I would love to see you give another group a chance.

Rob Shepherd
Director of Community Groups and Students

Andrea then told Rob that we were just joking. And she told him Reed was responsible for the email. Hopefully, it won't come back on Reed. I can't wait to hear Rob's side of the story!

UPDATE
Anna told someone about the prank she was playing on Mrs. Morelli. That person apparently didn't understand the importance of April Fools Day. She told Mrs. Morelli what was in the Cheetos bag. Anna was so disappointed!!!! :( I still haven't heard from Rob. Hopefully he'll read my blog later and leave a comment. *hint, hint*