For his 8th birthday, my sweet son wanted to have a food drive. So we sent out invites asking friends to bring a few bucks for a present and a food item for the food pantry. I wasn’t sure how he would feel not having a pile of presents to open like at every other birthday, but the whole thing was awesome. We had his party at the Tae Kwan Do studio and it was super fun, and then we took the 67 lbs(!) of food he collected to the food bank a few days later. The TKD instructor gave him a special “community” band for his TKD belt. Very awesome. What I loved the most was that everyone helped to make a big deal out of his food drive idea, which just encourages his giving heart even more. It was a wonderful birthday. And he’s being very patient with the money that his generous friends (parents) gave him - waiting until after Christmas to pick out his birthday toy.

I feel like I should tag this with #firstworldproblems, but we have so much. A safe neighborhood, good friends, plenty to eat. I worry sometimes that my kid’s easy existence is setting him up for trouble as an adult, or somehow not preparing him for real life. But this whole experience has put my mind at ease a little. He was excited to drop off the food, and still excited to have a little money to get a toy after Christmas - excited about both. And that’s fair, right? What more can I ask?

Here are some photos:

Cake and party favors

TKD training

Cutting the cake with a sword

I especially love this one of Grandma’s excitement about the sword!

Dropping off the donation at the food pantry

67lbs!

Lots more pictures here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/beatyfamily/sets/72157638719977514/