Sometimes we underestimate our kids...

So last week was my oldest birthday..she turned 5. We had a birthday party and invited her whole class and our friends. There were upwards of 25 kids there. It was NUTS. Luckily it was outside at a picnic pavilion we had rented nearby a playground. The kids were like a giant freight train on that playground. They would climb up all the equipment and go down the slide in one big continuous line. If you were one of the smaller kids you simply got trampled. It was insane. But everyone had fun (even the trampled ones).

DD got SO many presents. It was horrifying, really. I thought of my playroom, and the complete lack of empty rug surface, that I couldn't bear the thought of any more toys down there. So. I told her (and her sister) that before we brought the presents downstairs they had t fill 2 trash bags with toys we could give away to children who didn't have so many. They were like "GREAT!". They happily tramped downstairs and filled three trash bags within about 10 minutes, with little prompting. It was amazing. They were so excited. I figured they didn't understand we would really be getting rid of this stuff. Nope, they got it. A few days later we all went on a "secret mission" to Goodwill to drop it off. They loved it. I loved it!

I'm going to try and institute the same thing about once a month!