Not an April Fool’s joke, but this annual 3-day Spring street fair starts on April 1st.
It runs 10 to 6 p.m. daily for 3 days.

The Street Fair takes place between Ninth Street and University Blvd. along Fourth Avenue.The Fourth Avenue Street Fair brings together 400+ arts and crafts booths, 35+ food vendors, 2 stages, street musicians, food, jugglers, street performers, the Free SPIKE kids hands-on-art Pavilion, face painting, balloons, and tons of other fun activities, then packs them into three days of celebration.

Thousands and thousands of people attend this fair, held twice a year on 4th Avenue. There’s lots to do: shop, eat, enjoy music & art, shop some more, pick up information, etc. etc.

4th Avenue Spring Street Fair (Bike Valet)
“Parking can be a challenge, so ride your bike and enjoy free Valet Bike Parking at 7th Street near Hoff.”

Also consider taking the Sun Tran bus # 3 which runs on E. 6th Street right through the Street Fair. I’ve taken the bus to this event and it was so much easier than finding and worrying about on-street parking. And it’s only $1.25 one way.

For more information log onto the 4th Avenue website,http://www.fourthavenue.org/.

April Fools’ Day is marked by the “commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, family members, enemies, and neighbors, or sending them on a fool’s errand, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible.” (from wikipedia)

So for those of you reading this far into this blog, I guess this was my humorous attempt to fool you into thinking it was already April 1, 2010.

Frog and Toad are Friends book cover

Plan ahead for April Fools’ Day tomorrow. One of my best gags is to pretend you are sick (i.e. sore throat which no one can see) after you wake up. Tell everyone in your household, get a lot of sympathy from others, and then laugh and say “April Fools”.

Another funny trick I learned from reading that delightful “Frog and Toad Are Friends” book with my son, was to change the calendar or try to fool someone in your household to think it was a different month/day.

In that book, Toad is hibernating in the fall, and lonely Frog comes by and sees that the wall calendar is on November, so he rips off all the pages of the months till May. Then Frog wakes up Toad, and tells him to look at the May calendar as it is Spring and time to wake up. Poor Toad believes this hoax and gets out of bed. Thankfully they are best friends, and remain so even after Frog’s trick.

We can all afford to be a little foolish and learn to laugh more, especially in these dire economic times of the 21st century. After all, laughter is free.

Happy April Fools’ Day on April 1st.

If you have other April Fools’ Day experiences and/or tricks or tips, please share them below.