After a fantastic family trip to Disneyland, all of us family members came home with souvenirs. Most of us family members brought home some sort of t-shirt, mug, or toy. However, it was our mom who brought back a souvenir none of us would have ever seen coming. But then again, mom always has some method to her mothering madness.

Mom loved our family time at Disneyland, and her favorite place in the Magic Kingdom was the movie prop store. I remember her fooling around with items in the shop, giggling and having fun. Yet since we kids were enthralled with the store ourselves, we didn’t really pay much attention to what our mom was purchasing.

Not to mention that soon we kids were soon off to another quick adventure. Little did we know that mom had purchased a fake foam rock like they used in the movies.

Mom quietly transported this form rock back to Denver and kept her secret from us kids. After we arrived back home, she planted it outside in the yard. Making it blend in with all the other items on in the yard. Later, when we were cleaning the yard, she sprung her little trick.

Mom began cleaning; acting grouchy and crabby, all the while emphasizing her taskmaster duties which was her style. This was done to make us upset. With this crabby attitude, the trap was sprung.

Mom pretended she was mad at my older brother. In order to show her anger, she first picked up a real rock and hurled it at him. She purposely missed by making sure that she was wide right. The rock hit the cinderblock wall behind my brother, making a low thud sound as it lumped against the wall.

Next, she picked up the foam rock, marched closer to my brother and said,” Damn child!” (A term she frequently let slip in a fit of frustration with one of us kids). This time she made sure to take careful aim as she stepped into her throw. I could see this happening in slow motion, thinking to myself that this was going to hurt my brother.

As the foam rock hit its mark, my brother, anticipating the pain that he was about to experience, let out a loud high-pitched scream.

It took my brother a second or two to make sense of what had just happened. Meanwhile, my mom was laughing it up! As each of the siblings figured out what was going on, one-by-one they joined in a chorus of laughter.

My brother didn’t appreciate being the butt of one of my mom’s pranks. He stomped off and went to his room. I was laughing so hard, I nearly peed my pants! Just another day at the Padilla house.

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pete padilla petepadilla.com