Buried Treasure!

A couple weeks ago Nate was invited to a fellow-first-grader's 7th birthday party. I picked out a small gift at Home Goods...thanks to Cecily I have discovered this to be one of my favorite stores. When I showed Nate what he was going to give Theo, he said in all seriousness, "I don't think Theo really wants that." I was so surprised. It was something Ben had gotten for his 5th birthday and both boys loved. Who wouldn't love a brick with treasures cemented inside? You have to dig and brush like a real paleontologist to find what's been buried. Then he said, "I don't think I want to go to the party. Maybe I'll just keep the treasures." The truth came out. My boy would give up a trip to the Marine Science Museum rather than part with this perfect gift.

I told Nate that I was so glad he thought I had such good taste in birthday presents, but that he had to go to the party. He thought for a minute and then asked how much it cost ($8.00...this fact is important to the story) and wondered if we could go back to my favorite store and get another one. Then to help sweeten the deal he suggested earning the "brick filled with treasure" by doing extra jobs around the house. We compromised with the fact that he could do eight jobs to earn $8.00 and they had to be hard jobs, not his normal everyday "unload the dishwasher and wipe down the bathroom sink" jobs. Deal!

And so the story goes. I wrote a list of "hard jobs". He worked hard. And his brother even helped him...they washed windows, sorted the shoe bins, vacuumed the whole apartment, etc...he got distracted and tired. He decided he could finish crossing things off the list the next day.


And then the mail came. An Easter letter from Grandma and Grandpa Asay and it came with a treasure the boys didn't have to dig for. Dollars! Nate quickly added the dollars he had earned to the dollars in his card and realized he was still a couple dollars short...blast that 10% :-) Then Ben piped in that he would share his dollars. Eureka!

It was a messy job, but they quickly figured out that a hammer and
screwdriver worked a lot better than the flimsy brush that came in the box.

Honestly, I don't even know where those plastic treasures have disappeared. But in the end, it wasn't really about what was inside the brick. It was about working hard so they could play hard. And of course the fact that you can ALWAYS count on Grandma and Grandpa to come to your rescue!