Water cooler: Easy, safe April Fool’s Day pranks that you can pull off at home

Be the jokester of your house today for April Fools’ Day. These pranks can be played on kids and parents alike, but we’ll let you decide who gets to be the jokester and who gets fooled.

Fake brownies: Wrap a pan with aluminum foil and present it as a pan of brownies. Instead of brownies, this pan is full of brown letter “E’s” either cut out of brown construction paper or written with a brown marker or crayon. This will set some up for extreme disappointment, so be ready.

Fake spilled milk: Make a mixture of one part white paint and one part glue. Paint a thick layer of the mixture into the shape of a spill on a sheet of parchment or wax paper. Let it dry overnight or put it in the oven at a low heat for about 15 minutes. Peel it off when cool. Set the “spill” in a tipped over glass and remind who finds it that they really shouldn’t cry over spilled milk.

Colored cereal: Put a few drops of food coloring in a bowl and pour cereal on top. When someone pours in the milk, watch them wonder why it’s a weird color. Blue, green or red are the most effective colors.

Dirty coin trick: Rub the circumference of a quarter (or any coin) with a lead pencil. Challenge someone to roll the coin from their forehead to their chin without it leaving their face. When they’re done, they will win the coin, but make sure to tell them to look in the mirror because they’ll have a streak down their forehead.

Short shoeing: Stuff the inside tips of someone’s shoes with toilet paper, tissues or cotton balls. Watch them wonder why their shoes suddenly don’t fit – they must have grown a lot overnight.

Balloon pillow: Replace someone’s pillow with several balloons, blown up about halfway. Put the balloons in the pillow case and wait for them to lay down their head.

Spooky eyes: Cut eye-shaped holes into toilet paper tubes. Put a glowstick or some other light source inside the tubes and hide them in a spot where someone will only see the glowing eyes staring out at them.

Green water: Use a cotton swab to apply green (or any color you’d like) gel food dye to the faucet aerator (the metal mesh screen in the faucet opening). When someone goes to turn on the faucet, they’ll wonder why it’s green.

Jiggling juice: Make a batch of Jell-O. Let it cool and solidify in a juice cup. Offer someone this “juice” and when they go to take a sip, it will stay put.

Social circle

Brain train

Test your knowledge with today’s trivia question

How many squares are there on a chess board?

• 36
• 64
• 81
• 49

Tuesday’s answer: 30

Game night

Beat the late-night boredom with these fun, family-friendly board games

Operation: This Hasbro classic requires some decent dexterity and patience as you try and perform surgery on Cavity Sam. Games are typically completed within 10 minutes and can be played with any number of people.

Guess who?: Tired of looking at the same faces day after day? This two-person Hasbro game is played by guessing clues to eliminate a group of 24 pictures down to one. Be the first to guess your opponent’s card and earn bragging rights.

Checkers: The perfect game to introduce young ones to game strategy without the strict rules of chess. Just be on the lookout for possible double jumps and “kinged” checkers tracking back.

Apples to Apples: Get ready to laugh with your whole family. Select the card from your hand that you think best describes a card played by the judge. If the judge picks your card, you win that round.

Candyland: Twists and turns take up to four players from the start, over Gumdrop Pass, through the Lollipop Woods and to the Candy Castle. By drawing cards and following the color blocks, the first to reach King Candy wins.

Boggle: Playing with older children or teenagers? Get a game of Boggle going to keep everyone’s brains stimulated. A grid of 16 letters is jumbled and players create as many words as they can via connected letters in three minutes.

Monopoly: Have anywhere from 60 minutes to 10 hours to burn? Monopoly might be the perfect quarantine game, as long as everyone keeps their cool. This is the perfect game to teach strategy, fiscal responsibility and meditation. Just be sure to nab Park Place and Boardwalk at first chance.

Story time

With our spring weather taking a turn for the cold and wet this week, it looks like everyone will be stuck inside even more than last week. Use your imagination for an escape with these storytelling games.

Pass the story: This can be done in person or virtually. Have someone start a story by writing a sentence or two (you can choose how much you’d like each participant to add). Send or pass the story to the next person and have them add some more. Send it along to however many people you want and when you get to the length you’d like, have someone end the story. See how zany the story gets when each person added individual twists, turns and fun ideas.

Story cards: Draw images on cards that represent certain story elements or themes, like seasons, fairy tale characters, animals, different people, objects, settings. Mix up all the cards and draw them from a box or bag without looking. Try to make a story out of the images you chose.

Put on a play or make a movie: Collect items around the house to use for costumes and props. Use them to spark your imagination and come up with a story in which to use them. Either make a stage to perform on or use a camera or phone to record each scene. Set the mood with your favorite soundtrack or find music for the genre of your story on YouTube. Write lines of dialogue or make them up as you go.