April Fools' Day pranks for kids

Dessert disguise

Surprise your kids with "cookie dough" after school. This deceptively delicious recipe has the texture and flavor of homemade cookie dough, but it's actually a bean dip in disguise -- from FamilyFunMag.com.

Beetles, bugs, worms -- oh my

Give your kids a fright at lunch by tucking plastic bugs in bagged sandwiches or containers with fruit. Grab a few gummy worms and serve with an apple. Or, tell your kids you'll be making hot dogs for dinner and put another type of food in the bun for a dinnertime surprise.

Give your kids Monopoly or play money to buy their lunch at school. Be sure to tuck real cash in their wallet ahead of time so they're not left without food.

Before the kids are ready for breakfast, open up all the boxes of cereal and remove the inner bags. Then put each bag in a different cereal box. When your children pour their cereal, they'll get a kind they weren't expecting. You can thank kidzworld.com for this idea.

FamilyFunMag.com had a unique cheese platter idea: Use cookies and candy chews as a stand-in for the traditional savory snack.

If you have a mailbox, put one of your child's favorite toys (think dinosaur, monster, stuffed animal, etc.) in there before he or she comes home from school. Ask him or her to get the mail -- and the toy surprise.

This prank is great for the morning or after school: Put a few drops of food coloring in a pitcher of milk -- choose blue, green, red or whatever your kid's favorite color is. When your child pours the milk into a bowl of cereal or into a cup, he or she will be in for a colorful surprise.

Serve your kids cupcakes for dinner. Simply bake meatloaf in a 12-cup muffin pan and frost them with mashed potatoes. You can play up this savory surprise by adding food coloring to the "frosting."

Late at night, gather your family's toothbrushes and wet them with water. Then dip them in salt. To avoid suspicion, take care not to overdo it with the salt. But if they are covered with just enough salt, everyone is going to have a nice surprise as they get ready in the morning -- from kidzworld.com.

Fill your child's usual cup with a gelatin dessert after dinner and place it in the refrigerator the night before April Fools' Day. In the morning when the drink is firm, offer your little one a cool refreshment. Watch as your child ponders the gelatin disguised as a glass of lemonade -- from familyfunmag.com.

Parenting.com featured a fun television prank, which can work on both the kids and dad. Place small pieces of clear tape over the sensors on the TV and gaming console remotes. When your kids try to turn on the TV, they won't know what happened! Or, you can always take all the batteries out of the remote right before your kids try to watch their favorite shows.

This may be one of the oldest tricks in the book, but it's still one of the silliest, from Kidzworld.com. Lift the toilet seat and cover the basin with plastic wrap. The next person who uses the bathroom will be in for quite a splash.