A year ago, I wrote about the fun family tradition my family had of having mystery dinners for special occasions, or to make regular occasions special. I had created an April Fools version which has become pretty popular on Pinterest leading up to April Fools Day. We had so much fun last year, that we decided to do it again, this April Fools Day. We invited over some friends and lead them into our Fool’s Cafe. I changed the menu from last year (and made it a little cuter)! AND thought you might like the menu or a blank menu to create your own meal. So see the bottom of this post for free printable menus, the key, and a sign, like this one:
We set up a kids’s table and a grown-up table, although BSB and I were waiting tables the whole time.
Here are some of our cute April fools before they know what’s coming.
You can get a better explanation of the process on my first post. But it’s kind of like a crossword puzzle that you eat! Everyone is given a menu with numbered items written in code. Utensils and such are included on the menu as well. My favorite clue that I came up with this year was “A Sleepy Relative.” Can you figure it out?
Each guest orders all four (or how ever many you choose to have) courses before the meal begins and fills them out on these slips of paper.
Then the fun begins.
Here is my daughter mid jello-slurping.
Because she ordered this plate for one of her courses–and no utensils. (Roast beef, marshmallow, jello, ice cubes and something she had already eaten, I think.
Here were a couple of other more humorous courses:
Marshmallow, toothpick, green olive, chocolate syrup, and napkin
Or this one with nothing edible at all, except for water (I think he did order his ice with his water, at least.)
Judging from the non-stop giggles and occasional bursts of uproarious laughter, I’d say the cafe was a hit! And if that wasn’t enough silly foolishness for one day, we finished it off with balloon animal tying lessons from BSB. (Remember he is a man of many talents!)
Special thanks to my friend, Becky and her family for being good sports (we hadn’t really warned them ahead of time what they would be doing), and for taking several of the photos above.
I think we may have to have a Fool’s Cafe every year now on April Fools. Who wants to be our next fools victims guests?
You can really do this kind of meal for any occasion. My sister shared several mystery/surprise meal variations on this post. If you want to replicate what I have done, here are my menus. Or you have the option of a blank menu you can adapt to your own menu.
Hope your April fools Day was full of some good, silly fun!
Printables for personal use only. Click on the image to bring up a full resolution jpeg. You can then save that to your computer and print as desired. The sign is formatted to be printed at 4×6 and the menus 8 1/2 x 11.
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