April Fools Day 2009

We've never done much with the whole April Fools Day tradition, but Ben is getting old enough to appreciate and enjoy things like that. This year I saw a fun idea to make a fake dinner in Family Fun magazine (see picture above) and knew it would be the perfect way to introduce the holiday to Ben. I took him shopping with me to buy the supplies (sugar wafers and air head candy). We enjoyed our special date to Wal-mart to do secret stuff together.

The afternoon of April Fools Day I got Maddie and Jacob napping and we got to work "cooking" Brian's special dinner. Ben even wanted to name our house "Ben's Restaurant" so I decided we should go all out. Ben made a menu. He drew pictures of everything we were serving, which included fish sticks, ketchup, green peas and punch. Then he wrote the names of all the stuff on the menu. It took a long time and he was really proud.

Here is the finished meal (minus the apple jelly with red food coloring "ketchup"). We had fish sticks made of creme filled wafers coated in peanut butter and rolled in bread crumbs, green peas which were rolled up Air Heads candy and strawberry punch made of water and red food coloring. Ben thought it was hilarious that Brian would be so confused when he got home.

To help make the restaurant extra nice, I got out our nice red table cloth, some placemats and linen napkins. Ben wrapped the silverware like they do at real restaurants (or at least his best approximation of it). When Brian finally came home Ben was beaming as he acted like a greeter would at a real restaurant. He showed Brian to his table and motioned with open hand to have any seat he would like. Brian was smiling as he played along with our game.

Ben gave Brian his menu and Brian selected his dinner, but not before Ben had arrived with his plate full of food. He used a cardboard box as a server tray and covered the meal with an extra placemat so Brian couldn't see the dinner until he "chose" what he wanted from the menu. Then he uncovered it like a magician revealing a grand surprise from under a silk. It didn't take long before Ben was covering his mouth and laughing while Brian tasted something, then went wild telling Brian what everything was really made of. It was great fun.

To end our night off properly, I had real fish sticks for dinner. I love to see Ben proud of something he has put time and effort into. He loves "Joke Day" and is already planning what he will do to me next year.

My sister made a fantastic dinner for her family. I think I'll do it for mine next year. She made cupcakes for dinner. They were meatloaf covered with mashed potatoes colored with food coloring. Their drink was pre-poured into their cups, but turned out to be jello instead of punch. I'm already excited!