James turned 12 today. We celebrated with an ice cream cake. A Friendly’s cake, a Girl Scout Thin Mints cake to be precise. If it seems like an odd choice, there’s a story behind it.
Up until a few days ago, James was pretty ambivalent about what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday. “Whatever” was his answer. We would buy a store cake, to be sure, but I left it to him to decide whether it would be an ice cream cake or a baked cake. He was ambivalent.
Last night he came with me to the grocery store, and as we were passing through the coolers we saw that Friendly’s Thin Mint cakes were $7.99. It’s an astonishing deal – $15 off, I think.
“You’re buying me that cake for my birthday,” he said.
James can’t resist a bargain. He hunts, like his mother, for good deals on things he wants online, and reports to me when he finds them. There have been a couple of cases where I’ve missed the chance to buy things he’s asked for on sale (a video game, maybe, or a special toy), and I’ve apologized and offered to get it anyway.
“No,” he says. “It was worth it to get it on sale. It isn’t worth it now.”
All the kids have gotten the same lesson from their mom about the importance of a bargain, but the only one it’s actually sunk in to is James.
It’s a good lesson to learn.
Good for James. It’s funny, I saw the same deal and thought about getting that cake for his party with us. Guess that would have been too much of a good thing! Plus, Grandpa Ron doesn’t eat chocolate.
Sound like he is turning out to be a fine lad. Complements to his parents.