A word on Meatloaf

Many of you know that my husband has stated before " I married Mary because she hates meatloaf"  Yes, it's true that meat loaf is not my favorite food on earth and I've only thought of making it once or twice in the almost 13 years of marriage. 

So about a year ago while menu planning I asked everyone what they wanted to eat.  David whispered in my ear "mom what's that stuff dad hates"  I said "cucumbers, celery?" He said "No, the stuff with meat"  I let him know it was meat loaf.  Then he sits back down like he's at school and raises his hand and says "I want MEAT LOAF"  Mike of course was immediately repulsed and shocked at the same time while David is just a smilin.  We never made it of course but since then my kids have asked me.  "mom what is meat loaf anyway?"  You see, they've never had it ever and don't even know what it would look like.  Mike has demonized the poor innocent loaf of meat. 

Now up to date for today.  April 1st.  Mike's at General Conference and I've had sick kids all week and am itching for some action.  I thought I needed to do something fun so I looked up some April fools jokes on Family Fun on line.  I found the idea to make cupcakes that are essentially meatloaf with colored mashed potatoes on top.  They looked like real cup cakes. 

I made them and had them ready to go.  I told my boys we were having cupcakes for dinner and they were all too happy to go along with it.  I couldn't even make it through the prayer without giving away that something was amiss. I'm terrible at secrets or surprises.  So the boys started to poke their cupcakes and David licked the frosting and declared it to be mashed potatoes.  They all groaned and said I was the meanest mom, but they said it with a smile.  I told them there was meat underneath and if they didn't like the potatoes to take them off and eat the meat (unlike most children my kids hate mashed potatoes).  So David and Sam took a tiny,minuscule, hardly there kind of bite and declared it the worst thing on earth and Jack scraped his off and ate three meat parts with green beans from a can.  He loved it. 

Then I told them all it was meat loaf.  Jack's face was in total shock.  He said "Was there ketchup in this?"  He hates ketchup on anything.  I lied and told him there wasn't(not much really)  His face lit up and he continued shoveling it in.  He has decided to like meat loaf. 

David and Sam showed more interest after they found out it was meat loaf but still snubbed it.  They ALL want me to save some for Mike when he gets back.  They are just dying to pull this one on Mike.  It should be fun.  The only problem is Mike hates cake too.  We'll have to convince him it's a really good cupcake.  Maybe we'll tell him one of the boys made it and that will make him try it. 

Any other sneaky ideas? 

I'm dying to hear about other April fool's pranks.  Please share.