A Beautiful Day

What a perfect day for the first pic-nic of the year! Ben's birthday BBQ was yesterday, and we enjoyed temperatures in the low 70s!! It was the kind of day that would be just the thing to have all summer long. Gentle breeze, sunshine, kids climbing trees and digging in the sandbox...and lots of great food. Ben says "It was probably the best birthday I ever had". Well, Steve and I are certainly proud of Ben on his 10th birthday, as he chose to donate all the gift money he received to charity. Here's how he got the idea....

On New Year's Eve, Ben and I watched a movie called Millions. The story focuses on two brothers who find a dufflebag full of (stolen) money. The older brother dreams of electronic gadgets and parties for all his friends, while the younger brother wants to find a way to help those in need. Hilarity ensues. After some lessons hard learned, the end of the story results in a well being dug in Africa to help a village without clean water. After we shut off the TV, we had a discussion about charitable giving and made it our New Year's resolution to save for a cause as a family. Ben decided it would be for clean water. Ben and Will got started on that resolution right away by pulling incredible amounts of change from our couch cushions (!) and we have been saving our change ever since. The birthday money really filled our jar, though! Right now we have enough money to make a sizable contribution! We are all soooo excited! Thank you to everyone who joined us in helping to make this contribution possible!