April Fools!

It's April 1st and we all know what that means...everyone has a license from the calendar gods to play tricks on each other!  I have fun childhood memories of us kids dishing up Dad's dinner plate with my mom's realistic food magnets off of the refrigerator.  We would then wait with bated breath for the big moment of surprise as my dad would butter and salt the plastic cob of corn on his plate (which was clearly flat on one side and not even warm), lift it to his mouth, and then...BAM!  Instant hilarity.  After the laughter died down, he'd then reach for his half of a banana (make it a quarter of a banana, since it was flat on one side too), and the fun would continue.  Boy did we fool Dad.  Year after year.  Or so his clever acting led us to believe anyway.

Okay, so April Fools may not be a "real" holiday, but why not take advantage of the opportunity to inject a little extra fun in your kids' day?  I do recall a couple other pranks that my dad played on us... duct taping the inside of our jacket sleeves so we couldn't get our arms through: hilarious.  Putting a rubber band around the sink sprayer so that is soaked Mom when she turned on the faucet: not so hilarious.  (I think perhaps he was getting her back for the time she blended together play-doh into just the right color, and inserted it into my baby brother's diaper just before Dad went to change him.)

So...what to do now that I have a toddler big enough to possibly enjoy playing some pranks?

Family Fun magazine has various cute April Fools trick ideas online, with everything from printable pranks to craft pranks to food pranks and more. It didn't surprise me too much either that there are websites devoted to April fools pranks, like this one.  Instructables has a great collection of ideas as well, including many for the office.  AprilFools.com has a good list of safe pranks.

Props like my mom's realistic food magnets make for pretty safe tricks for kids to play, but why not make your own props to add more fun and make a project out of it?  Here are some more links...
How to make fake poop
How to make a fake coffee spill
If your child has a toy kitchen, you could always use some of their toy food too to "fool" Daddy at dinner time.

You can of course always purchase some fake spills and other prank props for next year, like these...



For a little extra fun reading material, check out the top 100 April fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time over at the "Museum of Hoaxes!"

I'm not quite sure what we'll do this year as I'm still thinking about it... but will be sure to post some photos of whatever we do!!  Have a fun and SAFE April Fool's day!