We have crossed the March finish line and are now moving into April, so it’s time to announce this month’s theme.
And April’s theme is BOOGERS!
Yep, this month we’ll be posting stories about boogers, drawings about boogers, photos of boogers and recipes of boogers. It’s going to be great.
So let’s start off our month of boogers with an interesting fact about boogers: Boogers are made up of dried snot. And apparently, we swallow about a quart of snot a day.
Who knew?
So there you have it, everyone! This month’s theme is Boogers! We look forward to getting your pictures and recipes in our inbox!
We’ve reached the end of April Fool’s week here on the Bobbledy Blog. We sincerely hope that none of you got fooled, or that, if you did, it was fun.
Our resident prankster Alden had a great deal of fun pulling a classic European April Fool’s joke on everyone who lives in the barn. Well almost everyone. But we’ll get to that in a minute.
In her theme-kickoff post, Robbi explained that in Europe, people celebrate April Fool’s Day by trying to stick a cut-out fish onto other people’s backs without them knowing.
Alden latched onto this idea, starting her rampage by pranking our neighbor “Uncle D” McColl.
The poor guy never saw it coming.
Other victims included her little brother.
And her other little brother.
And her big sister.
And even her mother.
I mean, where’s the respect?
I was spared the insult of the fish, but only because I was in California eating a cheeseburger.
Robbi spent her April Fool’s day doing a painting of a forest where spaghetti and meatballs grows on trees.
As much as I love this painting, it has so far failed to get much traction on Ebay, where it can still be had for a mere two pennies. I’m guessing it won’t go that low, but for now, anyway, this is as good a deal as you’re likely to see for a Robbi Behr original. Gobble it up for a song and have the last laugh one day when it goes to auction at Christie’s.
Perhaps the most wonderful submission of the week came from Harvey, who shared this photo of his donut tree with us.
And this story: I have a donut tree. It fruits in one day. It grows in summer; It does not grow in the winter. It is expensive. It can grow without a seed. You can buy it from Burpee. It costs $99.
To which I say, what a magnificent tree! I just gathered up all the loose change I could find (amazingly, it equalled EXACTLY $99) and went to the Burpee website. I looked and looked and could not find the donut tree. Is that because it’s still sort of winter-ish outside? And if the donut tree doesn’t grow from a seed, what am I buying, exactly? Please help! I want that donut tree, and I WANT IT NOW!
As much as I love Harvey’s tree, it seems clear that the true expert on the art of the April Fool’s prank is none other than Alden, for her many and effective clandestine applications of the European fish.
Please join me in wishing Alden a hearty congratulations!
And that’s all for this week.
What I failed to tell you at the beginning is that I did not come home after leaving California, instead, I flew directly to the moon, where Robbi has joined me for a Bobbledy Books reading by the edge of the Sea of Tranquility. We’re all set to begin, but so far, no one has showed up to listen.
Which is to say, APRIL FOOLS!
After all, April Fool’s week isn’t officially over until I finish this post.
Oh man, everyone. This week’s drawing was a DOOZY.
I was super excited about this one, because I had decided to draw a picture of spaghetti trees, based on that April Fool’s hoax about the Swiss Spaghetti Harvest (if you haven’t read about it already, check out this week’s theme post HERE). So, I sketched out a picture last week. Last week! I was so excited about it.
I figured I was way ahead of the game. I got it inked in on Saturday night. Things were going really well.
But then everything started going wrong. Last night when I started painting it in, it started to be really hard to see the spaghetti.
And the spaghetti was really the whole point! And so I tinkered here, I scribbled there, I added more lines, and more paint, and more and more and more and more until it was a whole DAY later and I was supposed to have this post up first thing this morning and I am only getting to it now, at 3:21, when I am supposed to be going to pick the kids up from school (thanks, Dad!).
I think it turned out well, though I know now I should have added way more spaghetti from the start, and I should have left more spots for bright areas (everything got way too dark). But it’s good to know that even though you might despair in the middle of the night when everything is going wrong, sometimes if you just keep going, things will improve, even if they don’t turn out exactly as you’d like them to. That’s probably a good lesson to learn no matter what you’re talking about. Even more important things than stupid spaghetti trees.
Anyway, today is April Fool’s Day and there was no joking or tricks or hilarity in this post at all. Sorry about that. APRIL FOOL’S!! I’m not actually sorry at all. (That wasn’t a very gratifying April Fool’s Joke, was it?)
So, I don’t have a coloring page for you today, because my drawing changed so much while I was drawing it that I don’t have a black and white version to post for you. BUT – if you read this week’s theme post, you know that in Europe they celebrate April Fool’s Day by secretly sticking a cut-out fish onto people’s backs without them knowing.
So, here’s a fish for you to color in and cut out (you can download it HERE):
and, hopefully, tape to someone’s back and yell “POISSON D’AVRIL!!!” or “PESCE D’APRILE!!”. Take a photo and enter it into the comments below (or instagram it using #bobbledyaprilfools) – but make sure the person you took the picture of is okay with it first!! OR – if you’re in the drawing mood, draw your own fish to stick on people’s backs! Or, draw your April Fool’s prank and post it in the comments.
If you’re interested, you can bid on my Spaghetti Forest drawing over on eBay HERE.
Hello everyone! We had lots of fun during bicycle week and hope you did too. And now we’re on to something really really REALLY exciting! Apparently, there was recently a discovery made proving that dragons really did exist! Yeah, I know!
And so, this week’s theme of the week is Dragon Discovery!
I was pretty excited about this, because I used to love reading books about fantastical things like fairies and leprechauns and unicorns, and, my favorites of all, DRAGONS! But, of course, I was always told that they weren’t real (this Wikipedia article about dragons is going to have to be updated – the very first line is “a dragon is a legendary creature”!). But it turns out that dragons actually DID exist. Here is a fossil of a dragon they discovered:
They originally thought this was an archaeopteryx, which is a kind of feathered dinosaur. But it turns out it is actually what we would call a dragon. Technically, dragons were reptiles (like lizards) that were related to dinosaurs but only appeared several million years after the dinosaurs died out. AND they existed at the same time as early humans (almost TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND YEARS AGO – so we don’t have to worry about any of them showing up today). And this is why we have these old legends about dragons.
This dragon was named Primostultus. It had soft skin with plated scales on it.
What scientists originally thought were featheres were actually the dragon’s wings, which worked like bat wings and were made of loose flaps of skin. AND (this is the coolest!) the Primostultus could actually breathe fire! There’s no fossil proof of that, of course, but apparently they found evidence of a chambered stomach (like cows have). One of the chambers had bacteria in it that created hydrogen (a gas that catches fire really easily) and another chamber held rocks to aid in digestion (some animals still do this – the rocks are called “gastroliths” or “gizzard stones”). Dragons would eat certain types of rock that could create sparks, which would start the fire as the dragon belched hydrogen from its stomach. So, it kind of worked just like a lighter:
Pretty cool, eh?
Okay – get ready, because HERE’S the most exciting thing about everything I just told you: I made it up! Yep!!
This week’s theme is actually APRIL FOOL’S DAY!!! Tuesday is going to be April Fool’s Day, so I thought I’d give it a whirl and see if you were fooled. Were you? I tried to back it all up with science, but maybe you weren’t fooled at all. The name “Primostultus” actually means “First Fool” in Latin, and that picture of the dragon’s skin is actually an armadillo. And the fossil really was of an archaeopteryx. (Just so you know, chambered stomachs and gizzard stones are totally real, though.)
So: Happy April Fool’s Day!
April Fool’s Day happens on April 1st. Here in the US, we celebrate it by trying to trick people. In some European countries—France, Italy, Belgium—and French-speaking Canada, people celebrate by trying to secretly tape a cut-out paper fish onto other people’s backs without them knowing (like I just did to Matthew, ha ha ha!).
When they finally notice, you’re supposed to yell “POISSON D’AVRIL!!!” (which means “Fish of April” in French) or “PESCE D’APRILE!!!” (which means “Fish of April” in Italian). I haven’t had to decide which to yell yet because Matthew still hasn’t noticed, ha ha ha!
One of the most famous April Fool’s pranks was when a very popular British news program reported on the Swiss Spaghetti Harvest.
Of course spaghetti doesn’t grow on trees!! (You make it out of flour and eggs, and I don’t know, some other stuff – check out this awesome video HERE about a pasta factory if you’ve got the time. It’s pretty cool.) But the news station was flooded with phone calls after the report – people wanted to know where they could buy those amazing spaghetti trees! Ha ha ha!
Another good one was when Burger King announced the Left-Handed Whopper. They said they rotated the ingredients to best serve leftys. Some people actually went into Burger Kings that day and tried to order it!
Anyway. There are lots of funny April Fool’s jokes. You can see a list of some of the best HERE.
So for this week, your job is to cut out some paper fish and try to tape them onto your friends’ or parents’ backs without them knowing! Take a photo (or get someone else to take a photo) and add it in the comments or upload it to instagram using #bobbledyaprilfools. Just make sure that whoever is getting “fished” doesn’t mind having their photo online! Alright! Go to it, pranksters! Can’t wait to see who (and how!) you’ve fooled someone!
