April Fool's: 12 kid-friendly pranks

Make this April Fool’s Day one your family won’t forget when you “foolify” your gang’s morning routine. These time-tested gags are safe, easy to do and guaranteed to garner giggles from your troops.

Join five or six of your child’s undies corner-to-corner with safety pins. Replace them in the dresser drawer. When your target takes out a pair, he’ll get the whole silly string!

Or, swap the position of your child’s underwear drawer in her dresser so when she opens it up, she’ll get an underwhere? Surprise!

Got gadgets with clocks on them? Reset them — all of them! — so there’s one ringing every five minutes during the morning routine. It will drive everyone crazy as they run to find them before the next one starts to ring!

Fill someone’s closet with balloons, so when he opens it... balloon-o-rama!

On a few squares of toilet paper, use permanent marker to write a goofy gag line such as “Diving for pearls — back in a flash.” Then float the paper in the toilet for the next “visitor” to find. Tip: For a longer flotation time, make sure the paper’s edges touch the sides of the bowl.

Or, unwind a bit of the toilet paper from the roll. Tape a five dollar bill to it, then roll it back up. First one to use the bathroom will reap the reward for being an early riser.

Lastly, you can stuff some folded toilet paper neatly into the toes of your kids’ shoes so they’ll think their feet have grown overnight!

Colour the milk in the carton with purple food dye.

Or, use an apple corer or small, sharp paring knife to carve a hole into an apple and insert a gummi worm into the cavity. Cover it up with a part of the plug you removed from the apple. When your child takes a bit, she’ll get a gummilicious surprise! Alternatively, let the worm “head” poke out of the apple to greet the eater with a gummi “G’morning!”

You can also switch the inner bags of cereal in the boxes. Blame the mix-up on the Lucky Charms leprechaun.

Secretly add quick-acting dry yeast to a box of pancake mix. Then offer to make pancakes as a treat for your kids, but only if they help. When the pancakes start to cook, enjoy the kids’ surprise as the pancakes start to grow, and grow… and GROW!

You can also prepare this trick the night before: Pour milk over half a bowl of cereal. Put it in the freezer. In the morning, add another thing layer of cereal and milk on top of the frozen cereal. Put the bowl on the table and enjoy your child’s still-sleepy confusion when the spoon just… won’t… go… in.