Parenting fact: one of the best things about the job is getting to prank your kids.
That's just what Catherine Velez did when she decided to play a joke on her 7-year-old son Xander.
She didn't tell her son what her Halloween costume would be, just that it would arrive by the time he came home from school.
So when Xander's school bus pulled up outside his house on Oct. 24, his dad was there recording. Xander spotted the life-sized Super Mario blow up on the front porch of the phone and had no idea his mom was hiding inside.
"We tried to act as if this was just a new piece of decoration," Velez told "Good Morning America."
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The Beacon Falls, Connecticut, family had been planning a Super Mario-theme for the town "trunk or treat."
(More: Town goes all-out on early holiday decorations for girl battling brain cancer)
But when Velez jumps at her son, he appears terrified and then starts laughing uncontrollably. His 3-year-old sister, heard crying in the background, did not find it nearly as amusing, Velez said.
