April Fool's 2011

Is it April Fool's or April Fools? I hate to be incorrect, you know. Any hoo..

We had a day full of pranks for the kids. The day landed on the last day of our Spring Break, so I could play with every meal.

The night before, Chad and I prepared for breakfast by wiping food coloring around the insides of the cereal bowls. I tried to use colors that kind of matched the bowl. This meant a lot of yellow, which doesn't show up in milk as well as the other colors. I'll have to remember that for next time!

The prank was kind of a double trick because Rebekah was sure we'd tint the milk in the jug. She was disappointed...until the milk started turning color in her bowl.

Of course, it was morning, and I was not functioning at my best, so the only still picture I got was of Joseph's bowl before he tossed it in the sink. (Yes, we do waste more food than we eat around here. Don't get me started.) You can kind of see the green milk and the remains of food coloring around the bowl.

It was really funny to watch Nathan's face as he thought he noticed something going on in his bowl, but wasn't quite sure.

Up next for lunch was grilled cheese sandwiches.

Or something that looked like grilled cheese.

Actually, it was angel food cake, toasted in the toaster, with frosting tinted to look like cheese as a gooey filling. It was very yummy, but not a good lunch. I did end up serving melted cheese on real bread (keeping with the theme) in an attempt to add some nutrition to the meal.

For dinner, we had some friends over...the Prestwiches. The menu was planned in advance (that morning, I think) and included drinks, pie, and eggs. Those were the tricks. Salad and garlic bread were the normal things.

The drinks were jello.

The pie was meatloaf with potato topping. (The potatoes were tinted with beet puree.)

Dessert was a cup of eggs...or layers of vanilla ice cream, marshmallow creme and a drop of lemon pudding.

It was a fun day. And I was glad to have normal food the next day.

Should I be worried that a day of joking and fooling goes over so easily in this family?

FOOLish

I've been missing! Actually, I've been in Chicago. There will be more on that another day.

But today was April Fools' Day. And what a day it was!

Here was one of the biggest jokes played:


We drove home in a blizzard last night. The snow (magically) stopped at the state border, but it caught up with us today. The kids made several large (3-4 foot diameter) snowballs in only a few seconds. They were in heaven.

Then Daniel got one of his bright ideas and Chad's hand saw.

A snowball wedge anyone? You may notice Daniel's lack of winter gear. That's the foolish in the April Fools' day. I would say it's his age, but I rather think it's just him.

Because we were out of town until late last night, my April Fools' Day (from now on, it will be AFD) planning was poor. Actually, I forgot all about it until earlier this morning, I think. Last year, we were visiting in Utah and I had to resort to pouring chocolate milk on the kids' cereal. There was even less planning then. Two years ago, I went all out. (Read about it here, but scroll down most of the page to find it.) Today I found some good ideas that didn't require much work or planning.


We had cake for dinner and baked potatoes for dessert.
Leah referred to the cake as "healthy cake". She just didn't know exactly what it was...until we cut into it.

It's meatloaf layers and mashed potato frosting with cherry tomato strawberries and ketchup writing. It was very yummy! We also had salad.

Daniel was not enthusiastic about his dinner.

We hinted about dessert enough that he finally choked it down...mostly.

Dessert was vanilla ice cream, shaped and rolled in baking cocoa powder, with a dollop of whipped topping sour cream. It wasn't until the kids actually dug into their potatoes that they realized it was ice cream. :)

This was a lot of ice cream to eat in one sitting! And I think I've had enough cocoa powder to last me a little while.

Here was one of the potatoes before I started peeling. I almost felt sorry for this guy! He looks like he knows what's coming. Those eyes came off nicely under my vegetable peeler. I thought it was a very appropriate potato for the occasion.

Sarah sat in the high chair and played with her tray during dinner. What a cute girl!

Now, Easter is officially the next holiday. I boiled 3 dozen eggs this morning. We'll probably decorate them tomorrow night. I also got out the Easter bin to take a mini inventory. I found another AFD surprise inside:

Somehow, we missed this little fellow in one of the Easter baskets last year. Two peanut M&Ms sat out in the garage for a year. If I was about 30 years younger, I'd probably eat them anyway. They've surely melted and frozen a time or two. Yummy. I threw them out; Joseph cried.

And speaking of Easter...the girls wore their dresses to church on Sunday. Leah's holding her matching purse, but you really can't see it against the dress. Joseph is missing a shoe as a result of a tantrum at picture time. What a great-looking bunch of super kids!

April Fools!

We started off the day with yellow milk. It looked a lot like egg nog. I didn't have any though, so I don't know if my eyes would have tricked my tongue on that one. Chad said the kids stared at it for a bit.

Daniel wore his shirt backwards to school, but then I found out later that he turned it back around once he got there. I guess the pressure was too much for him. He's like his mom in that he loves to be the center of attention, but only intentionally. I think he was afraid of being laughed AT.

Chad took the girls to work with him yesterday morning so I could go shopping with just Joseph . I think he played an April Fool's joke on himself and the receptionist with that move. However, I was grateful for his sacrifice. It really did give me a wonderful break. Thank you, Chad!

I was shopping specifically for milk, TaxCut, and ingredients for my April Fool's Day dinner. I spent over $215. Obviously, I didn't shop strictly from my list!!

I went to FamilyFun.com because I remembered they had some good recipes for April Fool's Day a year or so ago. All my recipes for dinner came from their site. I only wish I was so creative!

For dinner, we had green beans, meatloaf, french fries w/ketchup, mini corn dogs and purple milk. The mini corn dogs were not tampered with and were added to the meal to have something somewhat healthy. That tells you a little something of the dinner!














Green Beans












Softened Jolly Rancher Chews expertly shaped into a bean resemblance. I'm sure Chad knew something was up with those right away since I detest green beans and never buy them.

Meatloaf













Essentially, it's chocolate rice crispy treats with bits of dried pineapple and red and green fruit roll ups. By the time I got a chance to put it out, it had cooled considerably and was extremely difficult to slice.

French Fries with ketchup













These are bread sticks cut into 1/4" strips and rolled in sugar before baking. The ketchup is seedless strawberry jam stirred until smooth. I could have used less sugar on these. Daniel decided he preferred real fries to these sugary ones and didn't finish his. I should always expect surprises.

The purple milk was just tainted with food coloring. I have to say, it plays quite a trick on your mind to drink colored milk. I kept expecting to taste a "mixed berry" flavor and Chad even thinks he did! We are weak-minded people! I'm glad cows just make white milk.

Here are some pictures of Rebekah eating the fake food and Leah was showing off her corn dog...another food that should be put into the Fake category.









Here's Joseph thinking he's been pranked, too because everyone else is at least tasting something and all he gets is a germy pacifier!