3 SAFE APRIL FOOLS’ PRANKS YOUR KIDS WILL LOVE Ditch the Danger and Plan Family-Friendly Fun
REBECCA PRICE CLIENT STORY: 1. The Undrinkable Juice You know what looks a lot like grape juice? Grape jello! To baffle your toddler (or even your 10-year-old), make a batch of jello and let it set in a juice glass. When they try to drink it later, enjoy the hilarity that ensues. 2. Rocks — It’s What’s for Dinner! If you want to confuse and horrify your kids, scatter chocolate rock candy (treats that look like real rocks) in the backyard before dinner. Then, when it’s time to eat, head outside and chow down on a handful of “rocks.” Your kids’ faces will be priceless! (Visit Nuts.com to score this candy for $8.99 per pound.) 3. Stinky Caramel ‘Apples’ Everyone loves caramel apples, but caramel-covered onions … not so much. This April Fools’ Day, swap the tasty fruit for its smelly vegetable counterpart and watch as everyone in the house falls for your trick! These are just a few pranks you can have up your sleeve for April Fools’ — or any day of the week. For even more hilarious ideas, check out the book “Pranklopedia: The Funniest, Grossest, Craziest, Not-Mean Pranks on the Planet!” from your local library.
Every year, a prankster makes headlines on April Fools’ Day for taking their joke too far. In 2001, a DJ in England famously broadcast that he’d spotted a replica of the Titanic floating off the coast. Hundreds of people scrambled to the spot, and their combined weight actually caused a cliff to collapse into the ocean! Luckily no one was hurt, but a Montana man who played a different joke years later wasn’t so lucky. He donned a Sasquatch outfit and leapt from the forest to scare travelers. Unfortunately, he traumatized two teens so much that they lost control of their car and ran him over. If you’re a prankster, you can probably understand what drove the radio DJ and Sasquatch to their doom. It’s easy to go down the April Fools’ rabbit hole and plan a prank that’s too elaborate for adults, let alone your kids. But don’t worry — the internet is full of funny ways to introduce your little ones to the holiday safely. Instead of concocting a potentially harmful prank, try one of these harmless jokes instead, courtesy of Parenting magazine.
The three black lines on school buses serve a purpose. The bottom line is the floor of the bus. The middle line is the seat line. The top black line is the top of the seats. These lines of the bus are reinforced, but they also let firefighters know where to cut in case of an accident. I love learning stuff like this. Old dog, new tricks.
I have wistful memories of riding school buses as a youngster. While I walked the couple miles to school each day (yeah, in the snow,
Maybe this explains the fondness I have for these ladies. I’ve written about a few of our bus driver clients before. As a kid, I never considered all they do and howmany job hazards they face. Our client Rebecca Price has many years under her belt with River Valley Local Schools. She’s retiring soon after many years and lots of injuries! We’ve handled her claims going back over 25 years, including her first “slip and fall” broken ankle, a hip fracture leading to hip replacement, and a fractured tailbone from falling on the bus. I think one of the most interesting ones was when she hit her back on the underside of the bus while pulling plastic that was stuck on the drive shaft. But the topper has to be the time she was training a new driver who hit the brakes when the light changed — the brakes grabbed and she fell on
the “dog house” (the engine cover that sits in the floor just as you get to the top of the bus steps), rolled down the steps, and hit her head. She really doesn’t remember much of this one, but she must’ve been a sight! Fortunately, this didn’t break bones, but it did cause bruises and sprains from head to toe! We’ve been able to help Rebecca through each injury and even the settlements from the claims when the time came. It seems she’s pretty happy with us, too, as she’s sent other clients our way so we could help them. These drivers offer welcome smiles to kiddos in the morning and at the end of the school day. They take our children and grandchildren safely, in all kinds of weather and all sorts of drama. They are friendly faces during the turbulent years of youth and adolescence. I’m glad we know Rebecca and so many others like her!
uphill each way) in grade school, many
of us signed up for the after-school bowling league. I remember looking out the bus window each Wednesday afternoon as we went along, crossing the railroad tracks, seeing the supposedly “bottomless pond” where, legend had it that people had driven off the road and their cars sank, never to be found. After we moved to Upper Arlington, I regularly rode the bus to and from junior high, rain or shine. My bus drivers were all big-hearted women who welcomed us kids and our boisterousness. We respected them and sometimes chuckled as they’d grind the gears while shifting.
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