april fool's food

I've never been good at tricking anyone on April Fool's Day.  Sariah came home from school and told us how many kids she got to "look" with the old "your shoe's untied" trick.  I was always the one that looked!  I wanted to try something fun for the holiday that wasn't too mean to play on toddlers, so I found this idea for a fun meal.

Here's what it was supposed to look like.

When everyone got home for the day I told them I was working on spaghetti for dinner and wanted them to go out in the pasture and start a fire for roasting marshmallows for dessert. (They had been begging for a camping trip and this would be the compromise).  With the house to myself, I used strawberry cake mix to make cupcakes then placed them upside down on small plates and piped butter cream frosting all around like spaghetti.  I topped it with strawberry ice cream syrup and chocolate truffles.  I set the table with a pot and jar of spaghetti sauce to complete the illusion.

 It might have worked except the kitchen smelled like cake and the "meatballs" looked plastic. Everyone was immediately suspicious.

 They may not have been tricked, but at least everyone cleaned their plate and enjoyed dessert first for a change.

After "dinner" we went out to the fire and had hot dogs, chips, and marshmallows for our "real" dinner. Not the healthiest meal, but it was a holiday.

 Jim used the fire as an opportunity to burn some unwanted brush, so it got a little too hot. 

After the food lost the kids' attention I broke out some glow bracelets to keep Hank from trying to walk through the fire and from trying to pick up every spark that blew out on the grass.

The only problem created by this joke was Porter asking for "that spaghetti dessert we had last year" every night for dinner for the next three days.