April Fool's Day Fun for kids

I know April Fool's Day has been and gone, and I am just getting around to downloading my photos...

We had a fun day, and at dinner time, my husband commented on the fact that April Fool's Day seems to be my favorite holiday! It made me chuckle, because I have never really thought much about how into it I get each year. April Fool's Day is the perfect day for spur of the moment tricks and general silliness and it doesn't require too much foresight and planning.  And because "on the fly" is how I roll, this is a match made in heaven for me.

Also, I think I enjoy it because right now, I am the one in charge of all the tricks...but soon it will be the other way around and I will be subjected to goodness knows what, with three cunning and creative little boys in the house.

They started off with JUMBO bowls of Cocoa Crispies...

...only to discover that when they dug their spoons in, there was a huge chunk of ice in the bowl and in fact, they were only getting their usual serving size of cereal. But they were so happy to be allowed to eat cereal on a weekday, that they weren't too bothered about the reduced portion.

For lunch, I just mixed up all the packaging

(fruit cocktail trick inspired by Come Together Kids)

At snack time, I told them I was making fried eggs, and they actually got really excited about it.  I think the yogurt and half a canned peach (inspired by the very clever Meet the Dubiens) was a bit of a let down!  

But I let them have two gummy worms, and they were happy :)

For dinner I made the usual meatloaf and potato frosting cake...which didn't fool the older boys, but the youngest one was super excited to get "cake" for dinner.  

They all loved the jello "juice" trick (from ivillage)- especially since they were actually allowed to eat the jello before the meal!

The Chicken Pot Pie dessert idea was from Family Fun and I must say, I didn't think it was going to come out as well as it did..but it really did look like Chicken Pot Pie and the kids loved it!

And to top it all off...a little bit of "raisin in the toothpaste" trickery. 
After they went into the bathroom to brush their teeth, I hovered outside and overheared the older boys in a heated discussion about it...
"I think there's a booger in the toothpaste....wait, its a....a....a RAISIN!!!"
And then they proceeded to put the toothpaste on their toothbrushes and brushed away happily as if it was the most usual thing in the world for a raisin to pop out of their toothpaste!
BOYS!!!

It was pretty hilarious!

April Fool's Day Fun from the past

With April Fool's Day coming up tomorrow, I am starting to wonder what little tricks to put up my sleeve...

Here are some ideas we have done in past years...all inspired by Family Fun...

I always start by sneaking into their rooms while they are still asleep and drawing on eyeliner moustaches...this is becoming trickier as they get older, though.

For Breakfast:

We have frozen water in cereal bowls (about half full) overnight and then placed a thin layer of cereal on top.  The kids were so excited to get sugar cereal for breakfast (sugared cereal is  a HUGE treat around here ;) )...only to discover that in fact, they were only getting a very thin "layer" of cereal.

Another year, we tried the "turn the milk blue" trick, which involves putting a few drops of blue food coloring in the bottom of the cereal bowl and covering it with cereal.  When the kids pour the milk, it magically turns blue!  They loved this one.

For Lunch:

I always put a gummy worm in their apples.
Last year, I saved a MacDonald's wrapper from lunch a few days before.  MacDonald's is also a huge treat in our family because we are more health food inclined, but my oldest had somehow convinced me to buy them a burger and since I had this trick in the back of my mind, I consented.  They were so excited when I told them they were having MacDonald's again for lunch....bet that PB&J sandwich that was hiding inside the wrapper was a huge let-down.  All this trickery can be quite disappointing sometimes ;)

For Dinner:

We have made meat loaf cupcakes (dyeing the potato pink with beet juice) and served grilled cheese sandwiches for dessert (yellow cake with yellow frosting).

We have also made meat loaf cupcakes with mashed potato and chocolate sprinkles to make it look sweet instead of savory.  For dessert, we did the "spagetti and meatballs" - with spagetti frosting, strawberry sauce pasta sauce and maltball meatballs.  I think this has been the biggest hit so far.

...what have been your best kiddy April Fool's Day tricks?

{update:  linking here }