Grateful for good neighbors and learning experiences

Last week, when my neighbor was out of town, Spencer was riding his bike on the neighbor's driveway and I told him not to ride between the 2 cars, he circled around and rode between the 2 cars. As he did, another neighbor walked between the cars and Spencer had to swerve to miss her and really scratched up the car with his bike handle. So now, 2 things had to happen... Spencer had to be punished for disobeying me (I told him not to ride between the 2 cars) and we had to talk to the neighbor about the damage. So, Dave and I came up with what we felt was fair and a good learning opportunity for him. We estimated that the damage was likely close to $500 (as we've gone through this before, the last time he ran into a neighbor's car) so I figured out what the current minimum wage is for VA and how many hours it would take him to work off the $500. Now, we just had to wait until the neighbor got home to tell them what happened, with the plan being that Spencer would work for us, if we were paying for the car to get fixed, and we would have him work for the neighbor if they didn't want us to pay for it, either way, he would work off the money and not get to ride his bike until it's paid off.
So, enough of the set up, here's what happened: The neighbor got home and Spencer went over by himself and told the neighbor that he scratched the car. He came home and told me that he had told him, so I walked back over with him to make sure that the neighbor knew that we were willing to pay for the repairs. She smiled and said that they would never ask us to pay for it and I told her that we would do it if she changed her mind and that Spencer would be working for her all summer to pay it off. A couple of days later (this last Monday) I was able to talk to her husband and wanted again to let him know that we were willing to pay for the damages. He then told me about what happened the day they got home and when Spencer first told him about the scratch. He said that it was the first thing Spencer did was to confess to him, showed him the scratch, and said that he was sorry. My neighbor then said that he thanked Spencer for telling the truth. He told him that telling the truth is sometimes hard to do, but that it is always the right thing to do. He then reminded him to be more careful with his bike. I am so, so, so grateful for a good neighbor that takes a moment to teach my son the importance of honesty. That same day, I had a different neighbor boy come to tell me the truth about something of ours that he had broken. I had done the same thing, thanked him for his honesty and told him to be more careful. Because both of these things happened on Monday, they were perfect examples to use for a Family Home Evening lesson on honesty that night. It went well and it was good to talk about briefly with the kids. I say briefly because all FHE lessons have to be quick. During our activity portion of FHE, we were playing the Wii together, making it Family Home Wiivning. Carter was playing tennis and Miana walked in front of him as he was swinging. She started to cry and Carter fell down next to her and started to cry too. He was saying, "Oh, I'm sooo sorry, Baby. I didn't mean to hurt you. I hope you are okay, I'm so sorry." He was totally crying. He was so upset that he had hurt her. It was the sweetest thing I have ever seen. So, I took this moment to teach him. He sat on my lap and I said, "Did you feel bad that you hurt Miana?" He said, "Yes." So I told him that was the feeling I want him to feel everytime I say he should say sorry and that I really want him to feel sorry, not just say sorry. He's only 4, so I'm sure that we will have to talk about it many more times before he really understands. Woohoo for teaching moments!!