April Fool!

I sometimes wonder if this holiday wasn't made up by a bunch of kids with too much time on their hands. april-fool

Speaking of which, my kids have been plotting their April-Foolishness for days now. I'm beginning to think that my husband purposely scheduled that out-of-town trip this week so he wouldn't be home to play victim to their little pranks.

With three kids of widely-differing ages, April Fool's Day can get interesting around here. The seven-year-old is all about the hoax. He wants to pop into someone's room in the dead of night and inform them that they've missed the school bus. He's a bad liar, though, and doesn't have the timing down. He tries three or four such pranks in a row and wonders how we've caught on to him so quickly.

My daughter, age 13, prefers physical comedy--the grosser the better. She has been yearning for years to Saran-wrap the toilet. I've been hiding the Saran wrap every March 31. This year was no exception. Generally the target of her pranks is her older brother, but I often wind up as the unwitting victim, so I watch her carefully.

My 17-year-old isn't home much and these days doesn't see the humor in his younger siblings' pranks--or mine either. Yesterday I suggested that we set up a cup-of-Jello-with-straw to trick his little brother, and he didn't show a bit of interest. He does enjoy clever "April Fool's Day" issues of magazines and websites, though.

I was planning on trying a new recipe for dinner tonight, but I'm afraid that the kids will refuse to try it, because they'll be convinced that I'm trying to put one over on them. I know! I'll tell them that I'm taking them out for fast food, and then pull a switcheroo. (Hey, it works for the first-grader....)

COUPON TIME

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. These great deals are no joke, though, and you might even be able to work some of these products into your genius pranks.

$10 off online orders over $150 at Brookstone.com
Use promotion code AF8MAR.
Valid through: April 15, 2009

$10 off a Homeschool Level 1 product
$20 off a Homeschool Level 1&2 set
$50 off a Homeschool Level 1,2&3 Set at Rosetta Stone
Use promotional code hsw18 in your shopping cart.
Valid through: December 31, 2009
Homeschool products only. Cannot be combined with other coupons. Not valid on previous purchases. Valid online only.