The Saga of Kaiya and her Ariel Doll

Well, they say in scrapbooking, you shouldn't worry about getting caught up with old pages, you should start with what is current, and go forward, then as you can do what you can to catch up. So I am applying that theory to the blog, and am starting with what happened Saturday!

About 5 weeks ago, just after Christmas, Kaiya and I were at Target and she spotted the Singing Disney Princess display. She had been given a singing Belle doll for Christmas that she loves, and had earned a Rapunzel doll by giving away a bunch of toys until all her toys fit in one big bin. And her first princess doll was her beloved Princess Tiana that she got because we spent all morning at Toys R Us picking out toys for other kids and she didn't ask for anything for herself.

So...back to the Princess display at Target...so Kaiya did something unusual, she really got a bee in her bonnet about wanting this Ariel doll. It was kind of strange, she doesn't even love "The Little Mermaid" like she does some of the other movies, but she just couldn't get over wanting this doll. So I did what I usually do when she asks for something she doesn't really need, I asked her "Did you bring any money?" and she said no, so I told her it cost $10 and that I would be happy to help her earn the money for the doll. I had probably told her that same thing 20 times before about all different toys, and she had never wanted to do it, but somehow, Ariel must have seemed worth it. So that afternoon Kaiya helped empty the dishwasher and earned 50 cents. We found an old change purse for her, put her money in it and then kept the purse in a special place.

We even had a Family Home Evening lesson about tithing, and she learned that if she wanted to have $10 to spend on Ariel, she needed to earn $11 so that she could give Heavenly Father a dollar too.

So for the last 5 weeks, she has emptied the dishwasher, helped clean windows, helped clean the garage, helped clean out the car and earned quarters. And finally, this Saturday she had $11 dollars. So Mommy & Daddy gave her an extra $1 for Uncle Sam, and we filled out a tithing slip, put $1.20 in the envelope and got it all ready to give to the bishop tomorrow at church. Then we all tromped off to Target. I have to admit, I wasn't thrilled about taking my 12 day old to a store, but I wasn't about to miss the culmination of this epic journey.

It was so exciting! Kaiya picked out her Ariel and we went to the register and Kaiya kept trying to just give her whole wallet to the cashier, but the lady was so nice, and just played along while I helped her count out her money and she paid for her special new doll.

I am so proud of Kaiya for keeping after her goal for 5 whole weeks, which for a 3 year old, is practically an eternity. I am also so proud of her for wanting to pay her tithing. And the smile on her face when she walked out of the store with that doll was absolutely worth it taking twice as long to empty the dishwasher, or having to re-clean the windows after bedtime, so she could earn her $.50.

And Miller was also extremely excited for his big sister to earn her Ariel doll as well.