Giving & Loving on Valentine's Day

Preston loved his silly putty from Savannah

I'm not sure how I ended up with two children with such tender hearts and sweet giving spirits, but honestly I am so blessed in just watching the way they love to give to others.  As an example, just this week they received Valentine's cards from Grammy & Papa in the mail.  With each card came $10 and they were thrilled!!!  Preston immediately wanted to send them a thank you so when Savannah got home from school we sat down to write it.  Savannah started and wrote "I'm going to put it in savings."  Preston asked me to help him write his part and say "Thanks for the money.  I'm going to spend it!"  I got a good laugh until I realized just what he planned to spend his money on.  He had decided that he wanted to buy me a Valentine's present.  How sweet!  Even after trying to talk him out of it he was determined to do so.  I overheard Savannah and Preston talking and they were planning to buy me a necklace . . . but Preston also wanted to buy a blanket to donate to a homeless child.  Seriously, he was determined to buy both.

Finally Friday night we had a discussion about his $10 and did some math.  He knew the blanket he wanted was $7 so he realized that would only leave $3 for him to buy me a gift.  I told him to please buy something really small because I didn't need anything and would prefer for him to save his money.  By this point Savannah was on board with spending some of her money too so they talked Dave into taking them shopping.  Saturday afternoon after basketball they went shopping and came back with 3 amazing gifts purchased all with their own money . .. my favorite flowers (tulips) and 2 boxes of candy (runts and hot tamales) both nicely wrapped.  It really warmed my heart that they wanted to buy me something special and wanted to spend their own money too.

After I opened my gifts they each opened their small gifts.  Savannah was determined to get a special something for Preston from her treasure box at school.  She was disappointed that she didn't have enough tickets for Christmas, but had been planning to save them for a special Valentine's gift.  She traded 60 of her hard earned tickets to get Preston silly putty from the school treasure box.  Again, such a giving heart for an 8 year old!

We enjoyed an afternoon at home and treated the kids to a fun adventure at Chuck E Cheese for a good basketball season and Valentine's too.  Then it was Chili's for dinner and Cheesecake Factory with a good Redbox after the kids were in bed.  I not only felt loved on Valentine's but also proud to be the mom of such amazing, generous children.