April Fool’s Day is a great way to have fun with your family! I guess I am a simple person, but I always get a kick out of pulling someone’s chain… I have had some fun in the past with my husband and kids on April Fool’s day. Last year, we fooled Daddy the “dog lover”. My husband is not a dog lover at all! In fact, when we met and started to date seriously, he laid down the law…no dogs and no smoking. Smoking was easy, but dogs….. that rule has been hard for us to keep, especially since our youngest is obsessed with dogs. She asks us repeatedly if we can get a dog and of course, sadly, the answer is always no. Well, last April Fool’s day we pretended that Mommy caved and got a dog. We borrowed a dog for the day from our friends. We had so much fun telling Dad the dog had to stay and had nowhere to go. He stuck his ground as we knew he would and said,” N-O….” but we had fun begging him and cracking up at his reaction. We also enjoyed walking and taking care of the dog for the day.

My husband’s favorite April Fool’s story to tell is when my joke backfired on me. We were expecting our first baby on May 1st. I decided to tell ” Daddy to be”, that it was time to go to the hospital on April 1st (one month early). I told him with a worried face that I was in labor and he looked at me and said, “That’s OK! You’re huge!!”. Hmmmmm….. who was the fool that year???

So let’s plan some fun this April Fool’s day.

Here are some ideas to play some jokes on your children.

1. Move your child to a different bed after he/she falls asleep. Record their reaction in the morning when they wake. You’ll have fun watching the confusion and reaction on their face.

2. Have fun in your child’s room while they sleep turning as many items upside down as you can (pictures, stuffed animals, chairs etc.) Record their reaction when they wake.

3. Fill your child’s juice or sippy cup with jello. Watch their reaction when they go to take a drink.

4. Food dye in the milk is always fun.

5. Put tissue in the tips of their shoes and watch their confusion as they try to fit in their shoe.

Here are some good ones for school aged children to play on their teachers.

1. Come to school with some sort of sling or crutch and pretend you had an injury.

2. Copy your homework at home on your scanner and destroy the copy as best you can. Crumble it, spill syrup on it, put crumbs all over it and hand it in. (Be sure your teacher has a sense of humor before you attempt this one!!) Have the good copy ready to hand in when the joke’s over.

3. Switch seats with your friends after lunch and see if the teacher notices.

We’d love to hear from you. Do you have any April Fool’s jokes/pranks to share? We need some ideas over here at BBH!