My 5-Year-Old Feeds 85 Other Kids by Katie Kimball

What five-year-old doesn't love toys?

My son is no exception, but he made us burst with pride when he accepted service over self-indulgence for his own birthday.

We actually told other kids not to bring presents.

Someone asked at my last post whose idea the act of service was, and if it was hard to convince our son. It was my idea, and we were careful and sensitive about how we brought it up. I wanted to show you the results of a birthday party with no toys:

For my son's fifth birthday, we wanted to give him a "kids" party but didn't want to deal with all the toys he didn't need. He decided it would be okay to forego the toys and ask his friends to bring donations to a local organization, Kids Food Basket. I used to work with KFB back when I taught third grade, and they've been providing sack dinners for schoolchildren who might not otherwise have their third square meal of the day for almost 10 years.

The guests at the party brought cards for my son instead, and most of them went all out creating handmade masterpieces.

I don't think anyone missed the presents...

...and yes, most of my son's friends are girls. He happens to like older women! I was blessed to know many Catholic friends having children around the same time as me, and most of them happened to have girls. He's grown up with these lovely ladies!

Aren't birthday parties mostly about the playtime and the CAKE anyway?

Here's his birthday "loot". We took him down to Kids Food Basket to donate the food himself, and we volunteered to help make sandwiches and pack some bags while we were there. It was the best thing I did all week!


Copyright 2010 Katie Kimball