On Saturday I joined Z's Brownie troop along with a group of 5th grade Junior Girl Scouts for the annual food drive pickup. We went door-to-door asking for nonperishable food donations for the Oak Park-River Forest Food Pantry, and Z was so excited to help out she raced from one house to the next, sharing her pitch to donate with everyone who dared answer the door.
In fact, she was so inspired that she donated all of last week's as well as this week's allowance ($6 in all) to her Jewish school tzedakah (charity) box. "Being a Brownie and a Girl Scout it is your duty to help the poor, so I want to give all my money to the poor this week." She added that some poor people "only earn a few pennies a day," so it's possible her altruistic streak is being furthered not just by the Girl Scouts, but by her choice of reading materials.
Saturday evening we dropped the girls off at their gymnastics facility's Parents Night Out event and headed over to Kate and Jay's house to prep for the clothing swap Kate and I were co-hosting that evening. My last clothing swap was about two years ago, and we ended up with absolutely zero overlap in attendees, but the mix of ladies and awesome clothes meant everyone went home very happy--not only with the fresh (and free!) additions to their wardrobes, but with the knowledge that some of their old items went to good homes. My major scores include a lovely Ann Taylor pant suit, a gray floor-length silk Banana Republic dress, a pair of nice gray trousers and a strappy black Gap dress. And as if the clothing swapping wasn't enough of an attraction, Jay made beautiful appetizers and he and Josh kept all the guests happily sipping Champagne cocktails.
Other weekend highlights included the Derby Lite lock-in (although I was only able to attend for 2 hours), a birthday party for A, hanging out at the Oak Park Conservatory's Family Fun Fest (snakes alive!), lunch at the Depot Diner where A finished a bowl of chicken noodle soup (she ate something that wasn't pancakes!) and the picking of pumpkins for our front porch (even though we got them at the Jewel).
