April Fool’s Day

I love April Fool’s Day!  Maybe it’s because I love surprises. Or, maybe it’s just that I love to hear about my children’s reactions. 

To me, April Fool’s Day is the perfect opportunity to surprise and delight my children!  I definitely do not do pranks that are mean, damaging or yucky. The older my children have gotten, the trickier this has become to truly surprise them… but so far, I have managed! 

Here are some of the little surprises that I have tucked into their first day of April.

When they were little, I would put a few drops of food coloring at the bottom of their cereal bowl, put the cereal on top and then take the bowl and milk to the table. When they poured the white milk into their bowl…  it was blue!!  I also would make half glasses of jello, that was the same color as a favorite juice or milk, then I would add about ½ inch of real juice to the top just before I handed it to them. So, they saw me pour it in the cup… but when they tried to drink it, nothing would come out! (I hope you can hear me giggling!)  

When they got a bit bigger and were now off at school, my favorite thing to do was to “sabotage” their lunches. I never got to witness these wonderful jokes, but, boy, I have heard about them!! (I can hardly contain my laughter!)

I opened boxes of raisins and replaced them with chocolate chips. Passion doesn’t like raisins, so she gave her box to a friend! Ha! I have opened the bottom of lunch-sized packages of chips and carefully sliced paper-thin carrots, which I weighed out the exact amount and re-sealed the bag! That one really made my kiddos mad… Carrots?! Where are my chips???!!! I have carefully opened Oreos, cut away a portion of the center of the cream filling and filled the space with melted Starbursts. The Starbursts then re-harden and it is really hard to bite through the Oreo. Thankfully, my kids are determined Oreo eaters and were all able to discover what I had done!  

Each year this gets more difficult, as they are looking for what I might have done. I do not pack lunches for my kids, they pack their own lunches, so, when they discover that I have tampered with most of their food they are shocked.

One year, I bought a Costco box of individual chips. I opened the bottom of the box. Then, I took out every bag of chips and switched the contents. Such committment! So, if they grabbed a bag of Ranch Doritos, they might actually have plain potato chips, or they grabbed a bag of Fritos, and they actually had Nacho Doritos. My kids could not figure out how I had known which bags they would take… until the next day, when their chips were still mixed up! A funny side story… we have lots of college kids that spend time with us, and that afternoon, two stopped by in the middle of their run to get a drink of water. I asked if they would like a bag of chips, so they each took one that they could eat at the end of their run!  (I still laugh thinking about their confused expressions!)

I have to plan the day specific food enters the house so that my kids don’t suspect it. Once, I opened fruit snacks and replaced them with prunes that I had cut into smaller pieces. When the kids packed their lunches that morning, they opened the Costco box of fruit snacks. Weeks passed and the box of fruit snacks was not eaten… I finally asked the kids, why they aren’t taking fruit snacks in their lunches (I rarely ever buy fruit snacks, because they are truly just glorified sugar bombs and my kids can put down an entire box in less than a school week!) Well, they figured that I had sabotaged the entire box with prunes and no one wanted prunes again! Ha ha ha! That time, I had only changed out 4 little bags. They still puzzle over how I managed that. (I cannot wipe the smile off my face while remembering all these!)

And my favorite year of all time, was when April Fool’s Day and Easter collided! This was my big opportunity. Not only were my kids home all day, but we had 65 college kids over for Easter lunch! (Oh, the joy!) Let’s see, I started with opening every York Egg-shaped patty and replaced it with an Oreo that I had cut a strip off of one edge (so that it was more egg shaped), put it back in the tiny bag and resealed it. Then, I patiently unwrapped about half the chocolate eggs, (because we have college students over, we put chocolate eggs everywhere so that they can discover them. The eggs are on every picture frame, balanced on the dining room light, along the floor boards, on the piano, by the legs of every chair… you get the picture! We put out 6 bags of these eggs.) and replaced them with grapes and re-wrapped the foil. My kids helped me hide all these eggs before the college students arrived and they were just as unsuspecting, plus, some eggs actually had chocolate! And finally, for dessert, I made cake truffles (that is what I call cake pops without a stick)  Most had cake inside, but there was a random collection that had a brussel sprout tucked inside the chocolate coating. Hilarious! I was amazed at how many kids I saw that day power through and eat an entire raw brussel sprout!!  

I hope you have a joy filled April Fool’s Day!

My mind is spinning… what to do this year?…