"Toys for the Naughty Children"

I've always wanted to go to the Children's Wish Breakfast. For those of you who are not from the Lower Mainland, it's toy drive for the holiday season. The idea is you bring an unwrapped toy and they put on a buffet breakfast. It was held at the Pan Pacific Hotel and runs from 6-9am. All the other years, I've always held back because it's all the way downtown and I'd never make it back in time for school. This year I decided that we'd go for since we are homeschooling and don't have to rush to be...well...anywhere! I brought up the idea with the kids about a month ago. They have different jars for different saving reasons. One of the jars is a 'Sharing' jar with the idea that this money is used for charity. When the kids get money, they split it up and put it into the four jars. I introduced the idea that mama and papa would match whatever money they had in the Sharing Jar and they could go to the store and buy a toy so that a needy child would have something to open on Christmas Day. Maddy understood the idea, Ethan needed a bit more convincing. He came around eventually and off we went to Target to find the presents. The title of this post comes from Ethan. Whenever he mentioned the toys he always said "Toys for the naughty children" instead. The phrase 'needy children' doesn't make sense to him, I guess he is still naive enough to not understand that everyone isn't as lucky as he is.

Yesterday we set our alarms to 6am and were able to leave the house by 7am. That is a record for us homeschoolers! :) The organizers did an amazing job with the logistics of getting so many people through the hotel, donate the toy and fed breakfast. The line up was very long and snaked around the lobby of the hotel. I was impressed with how quickly the line was moving. Anyway, it was a fun morning and it's something that I'd really like to do again with the kids. Hopefully by next year we'll be able to clear up the whole 'naughty/needy children' thing with Ethan!

 Standing in the line up.

 Finally made it to the front to drop off our toys.

 Sitting down to breakfast. Surprisingly Ethan didn't even eat. Early morning. He wasn't in the best of moods.