April Fool's Fun

It's become a tradition that on April Fool's Day, I make a meal where at least something is awry.  Two years ago, I told the kids that we could have our dessert first for once and I brought out a chocolate pie with strawberry whipped cream.  It turned out to be a pie plate with meatloaf topped with mashed potatoes colored with a bit of red beets.  They thought it was hilarious.  Last year, I made them quail eggs for something new.  Those turned out to be peach halves in whipped cream.  They actually looked like real eggs.  We also had cupcakes for dinner (similar to the pie of the previous year), and then I decorated real cupcakes to look like spaghetti and meatballs.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed it all.  So this year, I knew I had to come up with something or there would be disappointment.  I get all of these ideas from the internet, so I started looking a few days ago and came up with this - Chicken Pot Pies

You bake a real pie crust to cover your little dish, but instead of traditional filling, you use vanilla pudding and various candies shaped into the vegetables.  I also used bananas for the chicken chunks. 

I thought for sure the kids were suspecting something.  David asked me several times that day if I was planning on making something fun for April Fools.  I hemmed and hawed and said I wasn't sure if I would get around to it.  In order to help fool them, I made real chicken pot pies for supper, so they saw me making them and smelled them cooking.  They all wanted to help me make the real ones and were constantly under foot in the kitchen while I needed to be preparing the fakes ones.  So I finally got on them and banished everyone outside.  They kept trying to pop back in at inopportune moments, so I had to pull my "grouchy Mommy card" and tell them I needed a bit of space and that they couldn't come in until I told them they could.  I was actually getting a bit grouchy that they wouldn't stay outside, but not enough to be mean about it.  Thankfully they all listened and stayed outside so I could quickly assemble the fake pies for them - I had prepared all the "vegetables" the night before.  We finally all sat down for supper - Aaron and I had real pot pies on our plates and the kids had the fakes ones.  They all took their time in digging in, eating off parts of the crust first.  Finally Ana took a bite and said, "This is cold!"  A few moments later, "This tastes like skittles!"  They were all surprised and delighted to learn it was April Fool's Day.  Apparently David's asking me about special food was not in relation to it being the actual day - he thought it was still a few days away.  : ) 

So then I got out their special lemonade I had saved for them from some I had a bit ago.  They fell for that too.  It was lemon jello in their cups.  They were all trying to drink for a bit before they realized nothing was coming out.  Of course they thought it was hilarious.

Abby got smart and just dug her fingers in.

So once again it was a sucess and they were fooled.  I'll have to find some new ideas for next year and hope they don't remember what day it is again! 

How about you?  Have you ever been "fooled" by an April Fool's joke?  Any fun memories to share?