To Fool and To Be Fooled

I think I pulled the biggest April Fool's joke that I will ever be able to pull off on my class yesterday. Afterwards I felt a little bad because it ended with about three of my students on the verge of tears. I waited until about 2:30 to fool them and I started out by saying that I had been putting off telling them this news all day because I really didn't want to tell them. I told them that because of all of the delays, cancellations, and construction that has been going on at our school, the teachers and principal decided that everyone in the elementary would be staying in the same grade next school year. You could hear a pin drop in the room after I said that. Then I said that I knew it was a shock but I wanted to tell them now so that they could get used to the idea. I began to see two of my boys get completely beet faced red and tears starting to well in their eyes. They asked me questions like "Is the high school doing it too?" and "Will we learn 4th grade stuff in 3rd grade?". I gave very believable answers to both because I still had them ALL at this point. I went over to my desk and got a stack of papers acting like they were letters that were going home about the news. I began reading the fake letter and then turned the papers around to reveal "April Fools! Gotcha!" on the other side of the papers. I had a few kids laugh, but I think I really shook them all up! I figure they deserve a little shock before they give me grief for the next two months until school is out.
So when I got home from work, I was still feeling very proud of myself of the prank that I was able to pull off that day. I listened to a message from my mother-in-law on the machine where she frantically told me that her stove had bit the dust and she was asking us to have Easter at our house this year. After I heard the message I totally freaked out wondering how in the world we would have all of those people in our tiny house, where they would all sit, what would I make, etc. I called her back and she preceded to tell me that she had hurt her hand after a fall (which was true by the way) and would it be possible to have Easter at our house. I even started talking to her about the menu for the day. She finally told me "April Fools" after about 5 minutes of rambling. What goes around comes around! I did deserve it!