April Fools’ Day is on Thursday and I figured I’d gather up some of the better easy prank ideas I’ve seen in order to give you time to prepare.   In my experience kids really, really love silly good-natured pranks and will spend all day trying to prank you back.

A super easy “prank” that seems to go over well with kids of all ages is tinting the milk.  Either discreetly put a few drops in with cereal or in a drinking glass. If your milk comes in a carton you can tint the whole container before you pour it. Blue and green are unexpected and the kids are less likely to expect a flavor to go along with those colors.  Last year I put red in Kitty’s milk which turned it pink and she cried when she realized the milk wasn’t strawberry flavored.

Some other super easy April Fool’s Day tricks you can play on the kids:

Take the ball out of a trackball mouse, or put a post-it note over the light on an optical mouse.

Freeze some water in a cereal bowl overnight leaving enough room on the top for a layer of cereal that will cover the ice. Immediately before serving  pour some cereal and a bit of milk over the ice and watch the kids try to dig in.  Might want to have a placemat on the table for this one!

If your child sets out his clothes for the next day before bed, replace his jeans with a pair that’s a size or two smaller.  In the same vein you can shove a wad of tissue or a balled up sock into the toes of his shoes. 

Sneak in during the night and safety pin all of your child’s underwear (or pants) together side by side.  When she goes to grab a pair in the morning a whole bunch will come out.

Make a meatloaf and press it into a pie plate,  Bake it in the pie plate and the top it with mashed potatoes you have tinted pink with red food coloring (or ketchup if you like that).  “Frost” the meat loaf with the pink potatoes and bring the whole “pie” over to the table!  “Dessert” for dinner!  Family Fun has a whole slide show of “faux-food” like this one!

Know of any other good pranks?  What was the best prank you’ve ever had played on you?  Leave a comment and let me know!

It is soooo like me to start a shiny new blog and then get sidelined with one of the worst illnesses I’ve had in awhile.

I found this note from Nate’s school in my inbox this morning:

There have been increased reports of “norovirus like illness” in King County.

Norovirus is the name of a group of viruses that is a common cause of viral gastroenteritis (stomach flu) outbreaks. Although people who have norovirus infection may feel very sick for several days, the illness is seldom serious.  

Symptoms include:

                Nausea/vomiting/watery diarrhea

                Stomach cramps

                Fever/chills, headache, muscle aches

It is very contagious, spread by person to person contact.

Prevention includes:

                -HANDWASHING before eating, after using the toilet, before preparing food.

                -Clean and disinfect surfaces that have been contaminated with vomit or stool.

Thanks for that; I’ve been throwing up for three days.

In honor of “Norovirus like illness” that is now ransacking King County here is very first Parenting Geekly product reccomendation:

Bath and Body Works PocketBac Deep Cleansing Hand Sanitizer 

Look, I understand why hand sanitizer is bad.  If it’s over used it can create resistant super-bacteria that’s bound to kill us all.  I also understand that plain ol’ soap and water is perfectly capable of killing most bacteria on our hands.  In a perfect world I would have access to a sink and soap whenever my progeny decided to wipe their boogers on my hands,and the park would offer hand washing stations so that when my kids were done playing on the swing set – which your precious little snowflake just finished slobbering all over- we could wash up.  Being a parent we find ourselves covered in ick at the most inopportune times, that’s when I love my PocketBac.  They are tiny.  I keep them in my purse, in my car, in my diaper bag and in my stroller.  They come in about a bazillion fragrances (and unscented if you’re no fun), and they are super cheap (on sale online and in stores now for 5 for $5- Tip: They are all $1 after 5, so don’t let the sales people upsell you if only want 6).  They also sell a cool little rubber cover for them with a loop for attaching to a stroller, backpack or belt loop.

Buy them here.