Government Money and Other Riches

Tis the season of government money.  Since our kids and house gave us a nice tax return, we decided to give something back.  The house gets the biggest cut for the backyard it so dearly wants.  The kids get a piece too.  We let them split $100... that's $33.33 each, and the extra penny is for me.  Noah has been obsessing about the latest Lego sets and set his hopes high.  He was the only child disappointed with the size of the tax payout.  He has really been trying to find other ways to raise the money for the dojo set that he longs for... yet another way that Legos encourage creativity.

Last week, an unexpected turn of events brightened his outlook.  The librarian at school pulled him aside and told him that someone wanted to buy his habitat box for "20 bucks!" (yes, the one from two posts ago--same, same).  Again, we pulled out a parent intervention to help him understand that sometimes people, yes even adults, will say something like that, but they are not really offering money for kids' school projects.  For the next two days, Noah wrestled with whether or not to sell his elephant to the unknown buyer.  He and a friend Em.. started plans for a new business molding elephants and other animals to sell to other adults who might pay $20 for each item.  Em.. has learned to crochet this winter and she started making crochet bags to put the elephants in.  We hoped that reality wouldn't hurt our dreamer too bad.    By Thursday, Noah was back in the library to tell the librarian that he would be willing to sell his creation.  Friday afternoon, Mrs. S caught up with us at the Dads, Doughnuts and Dr. Seuss reading to make sure it was ok with me that Noah was selling her the elephant.  After my consent, she pulled out a $20 bill and went to the library to collect her elephant.  She told me that originally Noah told her that the elephant was $20 and the box for it to live in was another $30.  When she only wanted the elephant because the box was too expensive, he decided to give her a deal and let her have the box for free.  She is adding it to the elephant collection in her home.  Well, reality has a way of living up to Noah's expectations more often than I can believe is possible.