One week to go!

You may not have realized it, but in a week March will be over. It will be April. April 1, to be exact. April Fools Day! It's time to start preparing, people. There are a lot of websites out there with pranks you can play on your kids. I'm beginning my search for some new ones tomorrow! But I thought I would share some of the past pranks from the House of Payne, just in case you need a little motivation. If you have a good one, post it in a comment. I'd love to hear it!

• The ol' kitchen sprayer prank: If you have one of those sprayers on your kitchen sink that is operated by a lever, place a rubber band around it, holding the lever down. Then sit back and wait for someone to turn on the faucet. I got Haley with that one year. Good one!
• Switcheroo's : Kids sleep pretty deeply and you can move them while they're sleeping so they wake up in their brother's bed, under their own bed, or in some location other than where they fell asleep. It was great when Alec, then 8, woke up in Landon's crib. LOL! If you have a little girl who sleeps in a nightgown and also have a baby in size 5 or 6 diapers (or even pull-ups would work), put a diaper on the older daughter while she's asleep. She'll wake up wondering how she got switched back to diapers. I have also switched cereals from box to box and switched the kids' clothes to another kid's dresser drawers. You can switch their shoelaces to lace toward and tie at the toe of the shoes. The list of switcheroos is limitless!
• Hey, that's not what I thought it was!: Once I made Jell-O in the Kool Aid pitcher. When the kids went to pour a cup of Kool Aid, nothing would come out. Once I made dinner out of candy. They REALLY liked it when the peas were really chewy fruit candy and the mashed potatoes were really ice cream. That was a bad plan, though. The ice cream started melting on the plates and the jig was up pretty fast. Too bad my kids don't eat gravy or they would have gotten caramel sauce on their "mashed potatoes" like I did!
• Piddle Puddle: A classic. Put clear plastic wrap over the toilet bowl, but under the lid. If you get it on nice and tight, the unsuspecting victim won't see it. If it works, it will make a mess, but I would think it would be hilarious. Unfortunately it didn't work in the House. Alec was not an unsuspecting victim. He was very suspicious that April 1 and was on the lookout for my pranks. He saw the plastic wrap, and I was busted.
• Drive bye-bye: This was one of my favorites. The kids knew we were going to play pranks on them, so they waited all day, suspicious of our every move. Nothing happened all day. The morning went by uneventfully. The afternoon was spent at a carnival at their school. On the way home the car started acting up. It was kind of jerking, almost as if someone was abruptly hitting the brakes. Then it just coasted to a stop. We ran out of gas! Unbelievable! Fortunately, we were already in our neighborhood. Roger got out with the kids to walk home and get the gas can in the garage. When they got several yards up the road, I started the car back up and sped past them yelling, "APRIL FOOLS!" out the window. Then I had to run into the house and lock them out because they were coming after me with vengeance!

I'll have to ask my kids what has been the most memorable prank for them. I have been messing with them for so many years that I can't even remember everything I have done to them. Poor kids....they are going to be so messed up. Let me know what you do to your kids. I need some fresh ideas!