<p>April 1st is right around the corner. I’m interested in hearing suggestions for harmless pranks. Pranks you have heard of, pranks your were on the receiving end of, or pranks you perpetrated. My senior son and I have been butting heads a bit lately, and it’s time to remind him Mom and Dad can be fun and lighten the college prep tension.</p>
<p>The best prank I’ve ever played on someone was a couple of years ago. A friend/co-worker had purchased a mink coat from someone on eBay and, instead of having it delivered to her home to wait on the porch until she got home, she had it delivered to the school where we both work. She called down to the main office and asked us to let her know if the UPS man delivered a box for her because she was excited about seeing the mink. I immediately told the other girls we were going to play a fabulous prank and, when the UPS man came, I gently removed the mink from the box and placed it in another office. I then placed an old, nasty ski jacket from the lost-and-found in the box, taped it back perfectly and called her to let her know her package had arrived. She was so very excited to rip that box open and show us her mink. I will NEVER forget the look on her face when she lifted that nasty ski jacket from the box and said, “I’m going to vomit. I’m going to be sick! OMG, I’ve been ripped off!” One of the other girls and I put on a great show trying to console her, etc. After a few torturous minutes, I excused myself, went to the other office and came back wearing the coat she had purchased. We all still laugh ourselves silly about that prank! Have fun! I’m sure you’ll think of something great.</p>
<p>Simple one, but effective. :)</p>
<p>If you have a kitchen sink with the side nozzle, put a rubber band around the nozzle rather tightly so that the next person who goes to turn the faucet on the sink will get a nice, um, shower…I did it to my son. 
Make sure you’ll be in the kitchen when it happens! If you do it in the morning to one of your kids it’s even more fun especially if they are rather sleepy when they come down for breakfast…</p>
<p>Ohhhhh, last year was the first I didn’t get squirted by the sink sprayer. Somehow I didn’t think about it every year but the kids did so I got “hosed”. Kind of nostalgic thinking about it. (Scotch tape works too)</p>
<p>Same here with the sink sprayer–my DS or DH get me every year!!</p>
<p>When I was a freshman in college and my husband (then boyfriend) hadn’t yet learned about my rather twisted sense of humor, I concocted a plausible story regarding a traffic ticket that I had gotten the previous year. I called him in tears just after his orchestra rehearsal got out that morning and wailed that there had been some big trouble as I’d gone to run errands after I’d dropped him off at campus that morning. Something had gone wrong with the paperwork for the ticket and that instead of having it all taken care of, there had been a bench warrant issued for my arrest, and that I was at the Harris County lockup after having been stopped for a broken taillight. I had been arrested. I couldn’t get in touch with our family lawyer and my parents weren’t picking up the phone. At this point, he is full-tilt freaking out, and as I hear him start to ask random people in the hallway for rides downtown, I decide to put him out of his misery. I say that I’m probably stuck there for at least the night because of it being April first. He doesn’t catch it, and says that he’ll be there as soon as he can, and I interrupt him and say again that it’s April first. April fool’s. Boy, was he mad.</p>
<p>It’s now eight years later and he’s still irritated with me about that one, but I (and most of our friends) contend that it was really funny.</p>
<p>My mother woke me up early when I was in first or second grade, when April Fool’s fell on a Saturday. She ousted me from my warm bed and shuffled me into my school uniform, saying that since we’d had so many snow days that year, we had to make up a few days on the weekend.</p>
<p>A different year, during a bout of adolescent insanity, I’d bought a packet of watermelon seeds and had planted them in the backyard. In late March, just after the seeds had sprouted and had started to grow tiny little watermelons, I went on a school trip and was gone for a week. I gave my dad and brother strict instructions to water the seeds when I was gone. I came back, said my hellos, and asked whether or not they had taken care of my tiny little watermelon plants while I was away. My dad and brother look at each other, horrified. I shoot them a glare, stomp out to the backyard, and probably do the greatest double-take ever as I look over at the garden and see three MASSIVE watermelons (which, of course, still had their grocery stickers on).</p>
<p>Gosh. . . such memories. My father told us about the time that he was a little boy and put salt in the sugar bowl. (Did not go over well–it was the depression and his father ruined a bowl of cereal.) We thought we were very clever when, around college age, we snuck out to our mom’s and dad’s cars and set all of the radio presets to the same station (one that they didn’t like). Have done the sprayer thing often. A good friend called when we were in our mid-20s and said, “GUESS WHAT?” She didn’t even have to tell me–by the tone of her voice I said, “You’re engaged!” (Of course, my question was going to be, “to whom?” She wasn’t dating anyone at the time.) My best, though, was many many years ago. I was in a small office with, I think, four women of various ages and marital status(es?). Spaced throughout the day, each of us went into the boss’s office and told him we were pregnant. About 1:30 in the afternoon, he came out, grabbed another man in the office, and went across the street to a bar for a beer. All these years later we’re still in touch, and it’s still the only time I’ve known him to take a drink. <strong><em>brimming with pride</em></strong></p>
<p>YOu are in the perfect part of the country for this one. Wait until is in the shower, so he is completely awake. Knock on the bathroom door and yell “Snow DAY!”. When he comes out all excited and asks if it really is a snow day act all innocent and like he’s an idiot who hears things. Works on my kids every time.</p>
<p>Of course we may have a snow day yet this week, if the weather man is any where close to accurate.</p>
<p>Here are 3 we’ve done for years and they never got old - </p>
<p>We have gone over and completely covered the inside of my H’s car with string - laced back and forth through car parts so it resembles a spider web. The entire inside of the car is covered. Of course we leave a pair of scizzors on the dash!</p>
<p>My mother use to do this one - She would take a small spool of thread. She would wear a shirt with a pocket on the front. She would take a needle and thread the end of the thread (still on the spool) and poke it from the inside of the pocket out right at the bottom seam. She would then remove the needle, leaving an inch or so of string coming out of the bottom seam of the pocket and the spool of thread in the pocket. One of us would reflexively grab the string to remove it for her and it would go on and on forever. She would laugh and laugh, rewind the string on the spool, and be ready for her next victim.</p>
<p>An April 1st nighttime trick is to sew up the neck of whatever your kids wear to bed. Gets them every time!</p>
<p>The most memorable April Fools trick I ever experienced was when my sister replaced the cream in a Twinkie (we were not allowed such things, so having a Twinkie was a BIG deal) with toothpaste, then carefully rewrapped it, and gave it to me.</p>
<p>I was eight. </p>
<p>I think a lot of April Fool’s tricks are just plain mean, not funny. It’s a hard line to walk.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone!! Keep them coming; they make fun reads. </p>
<p>dmd77 completely agree, don’t want anything mean, but something to get a laugh out of all parties involved.</p>
<p>When I was a child, I replaced the sugar in the sugar bowl with salt. My mother put it in her coffee.</p>
<p>That’s when I learned that morning coffee is a sacred thing. :(</p>
<p>^LOL’ed at that one! Don’t ever mess with the coffee. :)</p>
<p>I’m trying to come up with a good one to play on my roommates, but i haven’t thought of anything so far.</p>
<p>Well, here’s a very bad one from my youth, and I kind of hate to mention it: plastic wrap under the toilet seat.</p>
<p>I was never involved with that one, of course.</p>
<p>Might be an idea or three buried in here <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/366825-parental-college-pranks-folks-certain-age.html?highlight=pranks[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/366825-parental-college-pranks-folks-certain-age.html?highlight=pranks</a></p>
<p>Juat saw this article on April 1st pranks on-line
[April</a> Fools’ Day - April Fools’ Day & Users’ Pranks - 1](<a href=“http://specials.msn.com/April-Fools’-Day-Users’-Pranks.aspx?cp-documentid=18800918]April”>http://specials.msn.com/April-Fools’-Day-Users’-Pranks.aspx?cp-documentid=18800918)</p>
<p>I’ll post this here since people will likely look at this thread today - I don’t know how long it will last - but i-tunes is celebrating some anniversary or another by offering a free download of John Cage’s 4’33".</p>
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<p><a href=“http://www.expedia.com/daily/mars/flights-to-mars/?mcicid=Mars_home_us[/url]”>http://www.expedia.com/daily/mars/flights-to-mars/?mcicid=Mars_home_us</a></p>
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