Charity Basket

Big Sissy is obsessed with Webkinz. She had 3 of them before her birthday, and by the time we were finished with her birthday and Christmas she was up to 17. But as marketing schemes go, you have to have certain KINDS of Webkinz to unlock all the games on the website. So it's never enough. I sort of refuse to buy her any more. I finally just bought a pet net--you know, the hammock that hangs on the wall and harbors stuffed animals. I don't really want any more. But she is determined. So a few weeks ago she decided that the quarters for making beds and other household tasks were not getting her to her goal fast enough. She made 15 Easter cards and set up a shop at the end of our driveway. Our sweet neighbor across the street, Becky, was her first customer.

Well, let me rephrase. She was the only customer. After a little while of waiting for random cars to drive by, notice that she had a shop, and stop to buy cards; she talked her daddy into taking her door to door. I was mortified when I found out because I didn't want the neighbors to think we were scamming them or that we were desperate for money. But Hubby took it as an opportunity to meet the neighbors and teach Big Sissy some interpersonal/sales skills. He's much nicer than I am.


It totally worked. She had sold all of them within about 15 minutes. I am completely shocked that (a) she got $1 each for those cards, (b) my introverted husband went door-to-door to meet the neighbors, and (c) she ended up pooling her money with her siblings to buy Tangled instead of another Webkinz.

But the story doesn't end there. Because on Good Friday my nightmare came true. Remember Sweet Becky? She came knocking on the door with an Easter basket stuffed full of treats for the kids. I'm doing self talk to tell myself that she just thinks our kids are adorable and she misses having little ones, but secretly I am afraid that she thinks we have to sell cards for money. Probably we don't have enough money to buy an Easter basket for our children. Regardless of the motivation, we had a nice neighborly chat and we used the charity basket to put our beautifully dyed eggs in this Easter.

Now go make some more cards, honey. Baby needs a new pair of shoes.