Donation

This year we asked Natalie's birthday party guests to bring a set of children's pajamas to donate to a local community center in lieu of bringing a gift for the birthday girl. This idea wasn't an easy sell to the pink party princess at first...Natalie was concerned that we were going to donate all of her jammies...but when we explained that she would get to keep her own jammies and she'd still have gifts to open from family members, she reluctantly came on board.

We collected 11 pair of jammies at her party and Natalie actually had a great time opening them. There was only one Tinkerbell nightgown that was difficult for her to part with. She tried to convince us that it wasn't sleepwear but actually a dress so it must be for her and not intended for the donation effort. Nice try, Pinkerbelle!

Well, today she delivered the pajamas to the community center and was as proud as can be. The director of the center made an event of it by meeting us at the front door, greeting Natalie by name, and welcoming the office staff out to watch as she encouraged Natalie to show her each and every pair of pajamas. What an impact that made. Natalie loved it. I loved it. It was a lot to ask of a four year old but she handled it beautifully and we are really proud of her.