I treat April Fool’s Day like a national holiday.

In fact, it’s actually one of my favorite days. I love playing innocent tricks on the people I love, and I enjoy having tricks played on me. While I don’t discriminate and will play a trick on anyone, my daughter Zoe and I have gotten into a groove of really focusing on each other.

No one else in our family appreciates the planning and skill it takes to carry out a strong April Fool’s Day trick.

Great ideas don’t just fall from the sky. They have to be carefully developed, thought out, and implemented. It takes time, patience, and imagination.

Some years the trickster in me comes out easily, and my trick playing skills have been outstanding. Other years, I’ve struggled. But, here’s the thing: if you’re going to play tricks on people, you have to be willing to be the recipient of tricks. You can’t dish it out unless you’re willing to take it.

Here are some of my favorites:

• One year, while out eating sushi, I convinced the man making the sushi to substitute the avocado for hot green wasabi in one of Zoe’s pieces. She was enjoying her sushi, until she bit into the one piece with the wasabi. You should have seen her face. She was chewing and everything was great, until it wasn’t. We both laughed so hard we had tears running down our faces.
• I was sitting outside enjoying the sunshine when out of nowhere a water balloon, dropped by Zoe from the window above, hit me and broke, getting water everywhere. I was sopping wet and impressed.
• I thought it would be fun to involve the upper school principal at my daughter’s school, and emailed him to try to convince him to call Zoe into his office and pretend she was in trouble. Unfortunately, he didn’t go for it and said, “I’m going to tell you the same thing I told your daughter when she asked me to call you and play a trick on you…NO.” I felt such pride when I learned Zoe had spoken to him also.
• Zoe changed my birthday on Facebook one year, and everyone thought it was my birthday. I received “Happy Birthday” messages all day.
• I packed lunch for Zoe using tinfoil instead of bags. When she opened the individual tinfoil packs, there wasn’t anything inside but cardboard. I called her teacher ahead of time and asked her to tell Zoe, “April Fool’s Day from your Mom.” Zoe bought lunch that day.

Other tricks we’ve played on each other have included putting toothpaste on a toilet seat, rubbing salt on a toothbrush, and adding food coloring to eggs. We’ve also placed fake spiders around the house. These are fun innocent tricks that left us laughing uncontrollably.

This year, I had a great trick planned. Sadly, the kids don’t have school on April Fool’s Day, and I can’t implement my plan. I was going to go to school and move Zoe’s car. When she came out of class at the end of the day, her car wouldn’t be in the parking space. I was going to move it to another space on the other side of campus. How funny would that have been? I planned to tell her friends so that when she freaked out, they would be able to tell her where her car was, and of course say, “April Fool’s Day from your Mom.”

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with playing a few innocent tricks on April Fool’s Day. Life is serious enough. It’s fun to have a day, once a year, when we do silly things that make us laugh.

We sure do have fun with it. As for my tricks this year, I’m working hard to come up with something grand. I’ve got some work to do.

Find meaning each day,

Dara

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