Birthday Money

We partied hard...the birthday boy requested chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, an escape from school for a quick lunch at McDonald's, and dinner at our favorite Mexican food restaurant.  We've also been at church every night this week for our special Winter Bible Study, so we raced home after dinner to open presents before heading to church. 

We had a first this year...Caleb was requesting $$ more than toys.  He's saving up for some techy gadget that every 11 year-old must have.  I remembered Pam's suggestions for clever ways to give money and decided to try this one.

I went to the bank, traded some larger bills for ones, 

and lightly taped them together end to end. 

Then, I rolled them all up and placed them in a tissue box that I had opened on the end and removed all the tissues from.  (I actually also stuffed a plastic grocery bag on each side of the roll of money so it wouldn't rattle around in there.) 

I wrapped the box with paper and cut a slip in the top to feed the bills through.  I wrapped this box in a larger box to keep it concealed until opening.

  

Caleb was thrilled!  

The best part was stringing it across the floor and counting!  

(It's not that much, but a lot of $1s end to end look impressive!)

Due to our busy day and party decorations strewn about, I didn't quite finish up my project I've been working on enough for it to be photo-ready.  I'll show you on Monday. 

(Oops!  I just noticed...maybe you do get a sneak peek of my project in the picture of Caleb at the top!)