Ready for a wacky taste of some April Fools' Day fun? That's what was in store for my friends this past monthly dinner as the date fell right on April Fools' Day. As you can tell from the above photo, we had a blast!
Entry: The fun started before guests even approached our door. As the gusts parked in front of my house, they were met with silly signs and warnings -- Caution Tape and Danger of Poison signs blocked off the entire front yard, Wet Cement and Caution Tape cordoned off the driveway (and we wet it with the hose to look wet). This left no way for guests to reach my door! At the front door, the doorbell had the Shock Hazard sign and the door said Wet Paint.
Decor: Guests walked through upside down balloons after walking in the front door just for fun. In the bathroom, rubber duckies were floating in the toilet!
I set the table with a bright colored tablecloth and multicolored napkins. I bought silly glasses at the Dollar Tree for each guest and folded the napkin inside of them. Two upside down balloon bouquets were above the table with a silly wooden doll and a flip calendar sign that I made on my computer as the centerpiece. Next to each wine glass was a fake lottery ticket I also got at the Dollar Tree.
As a place card, I printed off a joker playing card from the internet and put each guest's face in place of the joker face. I glued these to real playing cards so they would look from the back and feel like a real playing card. This isn't a great photo if it because of my flash, but you get the idea.
Menu: After a yummy salad with colorful fruits in it, I came out this with birthday cake. The guests laughed and assumed I was doing the Groundhog Day thing of starting out with dessert. They soon discovered that this was a meatloaf cake with mashed potatoes as frosting! The red decorations are cherry tomatoes. This was served with carrots -- Starburst candies that is!! I put orange Starburst in the microwave briefly to soften them, then molded them and used a fork to make the crinkled look! I replaced these with real carrots as we started to eat.
I also served Strawberry Italian Sodas with the meal which was really strawberry jello.
For dessert, I served hamburgers and french fries in baskets I bought at Smart & Final and linings Ruby's Diner let me steal. The hamburger is a cupcake!! The bun is a vanilla cupcake that I cut out the middle of. I used a little water to adhere the sesame seeds. The meat is the top of a chocolate cupcake. The ketchup and mustard are red and yellow frosting and the lettuce is coconut I tinted with green food coloring. The french fries are pieces of pound cake cut in the shape of fries and placed in the broiler for 30 seconds to crisp and brown a little. The dipping chocolate is just white frosting I added red food coloring to. Super fun April Fools' prank as it really did look like a real hamburger/fries!
Added Fun: While I was serving dinner, my husband snuck outside to play some more jokes on my guests. We decorated one of my single friend's cars with a "Just Married" sign and cans tied to her bumper. The other guests all received fake parking tickets each with a different citation! We were going to toilet paper another friend's car, but did not have a chance.
We had a great time at this monthly dinner with our mismatched/wacky attire, silly jokes, and funny food. The only thing I created, but then forgot to play was my activity. I had post-it notes with random things I was going to stick to people's backs during the night. Anything crazy, like "Flap your arms when I talk" or "Spin in a circle every time I say the word 'I'" or "Call me Suzy." I definitely recommend trying some of these ideas next April Fools' Day! If you need any of the templates, feel free to email me!!
