One of My Favorite Days of the Year!

I love April Fool's Day! I've always liked playing harmless jokes on people like calling my parents from college after only being there 10 days and telling them I was quitting and they needed to come get me right then! .......... Oh wait, that was for real, and my Dad came down the next weekend to drive me home where they promptly put me in counseling. But that's another story.

Other than that, I've given them some scares that weren't real, like the time I told them I was pregnant (when I was still single), or the time I told them the tattoo I was sporting was real (it wasn't). Of course, being a prankster means that eventually you have jokes played on you as well. Like on our wedding night when some of my "friends" (and I use that term loosely), got into our room and pranked away. Guess I kind of deserved those soaked towels, missing sheets and light bulbs, the box spring placed on top of the mattress, and the alarm clock going off at 3am. The saying, "What comes around goes around" became very real to me that night!

Now that I have children, I can bring April Fool's Day to a whole new fun-loving level. I wanted to share some of the pranks I've pulled on them in the past and give you a pre-view of what I'll be doing tomorrow. My kids too have sometimes gotten into the act. Last year they put a rubber-band on the sprayer-thingie at the sink and I got soaked. ha ha ha I got them even better, though, which you'll see towards the end of this post.

Here are some of the meal pranks I've used in the past that were a huge hit! All of these can be found on the Family Fun website if you want the recipes, etc. This was one of the first meals I made and it consisted of: Cocoa Krispie meat loaf, Starburst green beans, and vanilla ice cream w/caramel sauce mashed potatoes. The fun part about this meal was that my niece ,Jessica, and nephew, Adam, were over for dinner so I got to fool 5 unsuspecting kids!!! Boy was I in my element that night!

Here are the sweet, unsuspecting cherubs gathering around the table, kind of moaning about the fact that they have to eat meatloaf and green beans. tee hee hee. This meal is very convincing looking so you can see that no one is really "figuring it out" yet. Of course they were kind of young and easily fooled ( I LOVED THAT AGE!)--evil grin.

Adam, the oldest, and wisest, finally figured out that they were getting April Fooled and gave me that "Oh, Aunt Kristin you're so funny" grin. SUCCESS!!!

Two years ago, I served spaghetti made out of icing, malted milk ball meatballs, and strawberry "tomato" sauce. For "dessert" they got meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potato icing. yum!

Once again, I called the kiddos to the table (of course they're a little more suspicious since they're aware of my affection for April Fool's Day). Josi points out that something looks a little strange about her spaghetti.

Michael (who is a total sweat-ball from playing outside), decides to "test" his food to see if anything is perhaps moving or alive in there? He is my sweet-tooth kid so these April Fool's meals are his favorite meals of the year!!!

Allen, who went through a hippie phase 2 years ago, is giving me that same "Mom, you're so weird" grin. But I know that he knows that he got Fooled once again! ha ha ha-evil laugh!

So, last year I decided to trip them up and do their April Fool's Meal for breakfast. I made marshmallow eggs with dried apricot yolks. I made regular toast on the side, so they truly had NO IDEA the eggs were a yolk...I mean a joke. Corny Laugh.

Again, Michael is opting for the "Let me just touch this to see if I can figure out what she's feeding us this year" strategy.

Allen decides, since he's the oldest, that he won't be fooled and opts for Michael's strategy as well.

Josi is the only smart one who decides to just dig in and enjoy the treat! "Wow, Mom! My eggs are really stretchy!"

Remember I told you about the soaking I received last year? Well, later in the day, I decided to give my kids Oreos with toothpaste in the middle to pay them back. Here were their reactions:

"Hmm...kind of minty...are these those new kind of Oreos Mom?" (He really did ask me that and proceeded to eat the rest of it). Gag!

"Cool and minty, not too bad." But still looking for something crawling in it. (That boy just doesn't trust me for some reason!)

"Ewwww! Gross!!! What are you trying to do, kill us???" That's my smart girl!

So, what's on the menu for tomorrow? For lunch, my children will be served grilled cheese sandwiches made out of pound cake and icing tinted a nice cheesy yellow color. I may just serve strawberry "tomato" soup as a side dish as well. :) I'll post pictures as the dastardly plot unfolds.

What will you be doing to celebrate April Fool's Day??? I'd love to add more pranks to my repertoire!!!