I am not sure if this has ever happened before but having Easter Sunday and April Fool’s Day celebrated on the same day is a double whammy.  Additionally, since I grew up Catholic it gives me angst to think about practical jokes on the day Jesus rose.  But I digress.  To quote the much overused saying: “it is what it is”.  To that end, my daughter, Ella, enjoys celebrating Easter Sunday as a time to be with family and enjoy her visit from the Easter Bunny.  She also really enjoys April Fool’s Day.  As a matter of fact, she talks about it all year!  Ella still remembers the time she was in her first grade classroom and it was snack time.  Well, it was April Fool’s, so I replaced her Dum Dum lollipop head with a clove of garlic!  It was so realistic looking.  She was truly so excited at what an awesome mom I was for giving her a lollipop for snack!.  Then she unwrapped it.  Yep- the joke was on her.

So this year having both Holidays on the same day, I thought I would show what I am putting in my kid’s Easter baskets.  Additionally, I will share some of the April Fool’s pranks I plan for Ella.

The Baskets

The first basket is for my 22 YO son.  I know, I know- he doesn’t need an Easter basket but it’s fun for me.  Even though he is older, he still appreciates the thought.  For his basket, I gave him some Funyuns, a Nerd-filled Easter egg, a few packs of Juicy Fruit, and some scratch tickets.  He really isn’t into chocolate so I didn’t add any to his basket.  Being that he is older, I just tried to stick to items that he would use in his day to day.  In addition to these, some additional ideas are car air fresheners, gift cards to restaurants, movies or coffee shops, gift certificates to car washes, and even an iTunes card.  Personally, I think you are never to old for a basket!

My daughter’s basket contains quite a bit more candy!  She does love her chocolate (kind of like her Mom).  The big gift for her are some Pokemon cards.  She loves these cards and knows many of the characters, their special talents and even their evolved form.  I know she will love this!  I also gave her Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, Lindt chocolate lambs, a Kinder Easter egg, a Nerd-filled Easter egg, a pack of Juicy Fruit, hand sanitizer, and an Emoji lip balm.  This will definitely make her day!

The actual baskets that I use are the same baskets I have been using for many, many years.  I just store them when Easter is over and get them ready for filling the night before.  I love being able to fill my kid’s Easter baskets with things they like.  This way there is no waste of money and I don’t have to go store to store searching for a basket that already incorporates things they like.  It is a time saver and helps me maintain balance.  In addition, you can get really creative with any age group.

April Fool’s Pranks

If there’s anything you have to know about my Daughter, she expects to be pranked on April Fools’ Day.  I have been doing it every year since she was in Kindergarten -except one year.  That year, I had a business trip and my Hubs just didn’t have the bandwidth for the creativity.  I however, enjoy thinking about this and often scroll Pinterest for some great ideas.

The first prank of the day will be delivered during breakfast.  Here, I took 1 package of Gelatin and some orange juice.  I followed the package directions so that her ‘juice’ will be a solid mass!  This probably won’t take her long to figure out but having it happen first thing in the AM will be a great start!

The second prank has to deal with her electronics.  Back story here.  I have told her multiple times not to leave her Switch or her iPad on the floor.  We have a dog, Oreo.  I don’t want the dog stepping on the devices and I also don’t want the dog to ruin them.  Sometimes, she has a sensitive stomach and does occasionally vomit.

Therefore, I got some Elmer’s glue, some green food coloring, wax paper, and some of my dog’s food.  I mixed up the glue and the food coloring so that it was the color of bile (sorry if this is graphic – being a nurse, this doesn’t phase me).  Once I was happy with the color, I spread it onto the wax paper and placed some crunched up dog food in the puddle.  It takes at least 24 hours to set but once it does I will have dog puke!  My plan is to place these on the floor and on her electronics so that she thinks the dog vomited on her devices.  I am totally setting up my dog for the fall but it is worth it!  Just make sure you use a disposable cup and spoon for the mixing!

 

The last trick that I have planned out is already in motion.  You see, as I stated above, she loves chocolate just like me.  So, I bought some beautiful chocolate Easter eggs and I have already placed

them in the candy dish she made a few years back.  As a matter of fact, as soon as she came home after school today, she saw them and already popped one in her mouth.  Well, on Sunday, these chocolate eggs will instead be grapes! Yep.. grapes.  They are the same exact shape! So Saturday night, I will carefully unwrap some of these chocolates and use that same wrapper to wrap up individual grapes.

All in all this should be a successful day on both the Easter front and on the April Fool’s Day front.  I cannot wait! What items are in your Easter baskets? If you are also celebrating April Fool’s Day, what is your favorite trick?