Pretty tricky, indeed.

When both kids have been good at school all week, we reward them by having family fun night. For Sophie, this has never been an issue, for she's yet to have a bad report. Izzy on the other hand...well, it varies. Generally this year, he has gotten "A's" every day for behavior, but during the last two weeks, he'd been marked down to a "B" on three separate days. All it takes is one "B" however, and family fun night is cancelled.

Over the weekend we bought a cool model skeleton and book about the body, and we told Izzy we were saving it for family fun night if he got all "A's" this week. It worked, and we had a blast putting the skeleton together and flipping through the book, after we all ate our fill of pizza, of course. Suzi ate nearly an entire slice. Unreal.

Anyhow, Chris then popped us some popcorn and we sat down to watch "Arthur and the Invincibles." About halfway through, Izzy says, "I wish I had some ice cream instead of this popcorn. Mom, can I have some ice cream?"

"Only if your daddy wants to fix it for you," I tell him from underneath my warm quilt on the couch.

After a few more minutes of watching the movie, Sophie looks at me, sizes me up, and says, "Mom, if you'll fix me and Izzy some ice cream, I'll give you a hug and a kiss."

Chris and I smiled at each other and I told her that was an offer I couldn't resist.

I went into the kitchen and as I got out the ice cream cones, I heard Sophie excitedly tell Izzy, "Izzy, it worked! I told mommy I'd give her a hug and a kiss if she'd fix us some ice cream, and it worked!"

He ran in to pick out his ice cream cone flavor (strawberry, vanilla, or chocolate) and he took the first one to his sister, grateful, I'm sure, that her evil little plan worked.

After I fixed Izzy his, I went back to the living room where Sophie was happily eating her ice cream, and I smiled hopefully at her. She bounced up and walked across the couch to me. As she leaned over to give me my hard-earned hug, she said, "That was pretty tricky of me, wasn't it?"