Pride and Joy

Ask me what my pride and joy is... Go on. Ya already know the answer. My kids are. And they are always surprising me. From their teachers telling me how well behaved they are to the schools office staff telling me how well mannered they are. (Are we talking about the same kids?!?!?! :p) But the thing that gets me the most is their generosity. And the simple fact that I don't have to encourage it, they come up with these things on their own.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and this year, Sissy is collecting pink lids from Yoplait yogurt. She has well over 100 now. Last year? We were VERY short on funds and so the kids emptied their change out of their piggy banks and we went to the dollar store to get costumes for Halloween. We stopped at Safeway to cash the change in their change machine. I can't remember exactly how much we had, but it was around $30 dollars. When we walked out, a group of Marines had set up a hot dog roast fund raiser for Breast Cancer. Eli at the time was drooling over the camo pants they had one, so we stopped and the kids decided they wanted hot dogs for lunch. While we waited for the young Marine to get the dogs from the grill and into buns, another one was talking to us about Breast Cancer research.

Whatever he said to Sissy really hit her heart. After we finished at the dollar store and while I was getting things out of the cart and into the truck, Sissy and Eli made a decision. I got in and buckled up and they asked how much money we had left. After I told them, (somewhere around $15) I started to tell them I would split it evenly between their piggy banks, Sissy interrupted me and said rather seriously:

"Mommy, if the Marine guys are still at Safeway, Eli and I want to give them whatever is left for their fund raiser. Don't argue Mommy. We decided."

How do you say no to that? Luckily they were still there, or knowing my kids, I would have been hunting down a couple Marines!!!

Anyway, over on my favorite scrapbooking blog, Page|Maps (www.pagemaps.com) Becky Fleck has issued a challenge that ends tonight. Make a layout about something meaningful to you using her sketch. I chose my relationship with my kids and their gifts to me. And what better way to make this layout even more meaningful than to have them help me? Eli picked out the paper stack, Liz picked out the flowers, and they each picked out their favorite picture of them together. So here's our take on it. Hope you like it!

All the paper and letter stickers are from Masterpiece studios. The flowers are from Prima, i think. I got some in a swap and I don't know where they all came from. :p I know the colors in the flowers don't really go with the pictures or paper, but well.... That's how my kids picked them out. :p

Smoochies ya'll!