Parental Prank Gone Awry

So yeah, last week I decided to play a little prank on my kids. You know how they keep leaving their toys and books all over the living room? Well, one night when they were sleeping, I gathered up everything and hid it in the attic. Figured they'd be so confused in the morning. But what did they do? They just started crying and asking me where their stuff was. Then my wife came down looking like a tornado hit the place. She's not big on pranks or surprises at all, you see. So I ended up having to go back up to the attic and bring everything back down for them, but that only lasted a few hours before they were all over it again. Now we have this huge mess again and I feel like such an idiot for thinking my little joke would work. Maybe next time I'll just be the mom or dad who cleans up instead of trying to teach through pranks, huh? Well, back to cleaning I guess.