A pink and sparkly Wednesday

On Wednesday, C's school had their annual White Elephant Sale. Kids in grades K-8 were asked to bring in toys that they didn't play with anymore to donate to the event. All of the toys were then priced and put on display for the big shopping extravaganza. All the students were allowed to bring up to $3.00 with them to school that day & were given about 15-20 minutes to shop the sale. All the proceeds were going to benefit "the Missions" (I am not sure which missions these are, but I it is held at a parochial school. I'm like 95% sure that they are sending the money to a worthy cause of some sort.)

K was really upset to learn that she was not allowed to shop at the sale. We pacified her by telling her she could come with me to Target that morning & pick out anything in the dollar section at the front of the store. Oddly, what caught her eye was not a toy. The item that she had to have; the item she clutched lovingly to her chest & would not let go of was a small bottle of pink glitter hair gel (or jelly as she called it). No amount of cajoling or other temptation would turn her attention from the pink princess glitter jelly. "Isn't it beautiful Momma?"

I put it in her hair once we got home & I learned that there must be a skill to get the glitter from the bottle into the hair that I do not possess. The gel part went into her hair no problem, but the glitter just didn't want to make the leap from my hands to her hair. No matter what I tried, my hands just kept getting more pink & sparkly and her hair just got more and more stiff. I think in total I probably only got about 5 pieces of glitter into her hair. On the upside, at least her hair stayed out of her eyes all afternoon. By the time I was done, I looked like I had raided Michael Jackson's glove drawer.

Once I was finally able to get all of the glitter off my hands it was time to pick the boys up from school. I got a little nervous as I waited in the carpool line & watched the teacher helping the kids out to the buses with giant shopping bags full of toys. I started wondering how much crap many cheap toys C would be bringing home with him. I felt a little bit better as he walked to the car & I noticed that he had no shopping bag. Whatever he had bought was small enough to fit in his school bag.

He got into the car & immediately started digging in his bag to proudly show off his purchases. The first thing that made it out of the bag and into his hand was a 4" high metal bee bobble-head figurine holding a shovel.

"Hmmm... is that what you picked out from the sale buddy?" (I thought that perhaps he had just grabbed the first items he saw once he got to the sale.)

"Yep, Momma. Isn't she cute? I got her for you!"

Holy Cow! I was in shock. I couldn't believe he used his money to buy me something at the sale. Not that C isn't a thoughtful boy, but I figured if you gave a 6 year old money and put him in a room filled with toys that he could buy, picking out gifts for family members wouldn't be something that would pop into his head right away.

"Did you get anything else? Did you get something for yourself at the sale?"

"Oh yeah, I got this too." he said as he pulled out a pink sequined phone with marabou trim.

"Wow...that sure is pink and sparkly." (even though it was the girliest thing I had ever seen, I was trying to assure him that he had spent his money wisely.)




"Yep, it sure is. I bought it for K 'cause I knew she'd love it."

Again, I was stunned. "That was so nice C! What a great big brother you are."

"Want to see what I got next? Look!!" He then pulled out 2 Batman figures. "One is for Daddy and one is for me. Which one do you think Daddy will like best?"

"Daddy will love whichever one you give him sweetheart. It was so nice that you thought of us while you were shopping today!" (Honestly the whole thing completely blew my mind).

"You want to know something else cool Momma?"

"What buddy."

"I even still have money left over!"

That's right. My son brought $3.00 to school and came home with gifts for everyone in the family & still had $1.25 left over. Truly shocking! Clearly I can learn a few things from my little man. I would have kept shopping until every last penny was spent. Perhaps I should turn over the household budget to him (of course I'll probably have to wait until he learns how to add and subtract...).