April Fools!

I get a kick out of making fun food for my family for April Fool's Day. It started out about 4 years ago, when I was at Thomas family house. We went out for spring break, and it happened to fall on April Fool's day. I convinced my sister that we should do something silly for everyone for dinner. So we looked at the Family Fun magazine and got some fun ideas of things to do. We worked hard, and REALLY got them. It was so funny to see my (then) 4-year-old niece grab one of the "cupcakes", open it, and take a huge bite to find that it was really meatloaf and potatoes. It was so great! Then we had "meatloaf" for dessert that none of the kids dared try (it was chocolate rice crispy treats. it looked pretty convincing!) So every year since then, I have tried to come up with SOMETHING to trick my family. (I usually tell the hubby, but he's good to play along with the joke)

2 years ago, I made chicken not pie. The kids weren't impressed. With either pie. The hubby isn't that impressed with regular chicken pot pie, so I ended up eating most of this meal by myself. But they sure enjoyed the "drink", but it was too hard to suck up with a straw! (red jell-o).

They also liked the "grilled cheese sandwich" (angel food cake toasted with colored frosting on it) that they had for after school snack.
Last year, I had a big spread. We had Bigleman family over to enjoy the meal with us. We had "ice cream cones" (mashed potatoes - and some of them even had it in cones. I whipped them up good!!) Cake (again, meatloaf, I just cooked it in 9 inch round pans and layer them and put colored mash potatoes on top) and "baked potatoes" (ice cream we formed into potato shape and rolled in cocoa powder) complete with "sour cream" (whipped cream in a sour cream container), "butter" (melted starbursts), and "gravy" (caramel topping in a bowl). Again, another really fun meal. I let the kids pick what they want to eat first. Most of them with for the "ice cream" and were disappointed to have potatoes.

I pondered for a long time on what to do for this years dinner. (We invited Denison family to join in the fun meal with us this year.) I was talking to some friends about it, and one said it was their year for Ice Cream Soup. I was intrigued. She melts ice cream, puts candy in it, and calls it soup. Sounds like my kind of dinner! I colored the ice cream yellow, put in some green coconut and orange starburst pieces and Viola! "broccoli and cheese soup"!!
But I needed a real main dish. I googled April Fools dinner recipes, and found this one for April Fools Cake from Taste of home. It looks like an angel food cake, but it is really inside out pizza. I used italian sausage (because that was what I had!) and it was spicier than what the kids liked. The adults liked it okay, but it was too much for the kids. Oh well. It looked pretty convincing, though!
We had a good time with our April Fool's dinner this year. I'm looking for ideas already for next year!!