Birthday solution and stickers!

When Maggie was born one of hubby's biking friends gifted her money to start a college fund. After some searching around, we decided on this fund and have been happily watching it grow since.

And speaking of birthdays and kids, children's birthday parties have started taking over our lives.  That with our friends and family in town, it really does take over certain months of the year. My thought this year was to pay it back a little and make it easier on myself with the gifting. I kinda need that as I prepare our home for another lovely bundle of joy.

I love giving the perfect gift, but this year I'm looking for ways to not only not buy junk people don't need but to also pass on the love that our dear friend bestowed upon Maggie. So far, two of Maggie's little friends have recieved college fund money...soon to be four by the end of this month. I know it's not the most fun for kids, but parents I think appreciate it (I know I do!) and throwing in a packet of stickers puts all the fun back in it for the kids :-)

With being on a pretty strict budget, saving has become even more important because we have little ones to think about for the future and there is less to spread around so I often get creative with the use of money and how we spend it and I think there is a lot of fun in that! Hopefully this saving and scrimping as well as giving rubs off on our kids - it's a useful skill and makes you realize that you don't need a ton to live well.

One last note...Maggie recently got mail to join a sticker club. We sent stickers to one boy and six letters to her friends. Supposedly you get 36 pieces of mail back with stickers and so far, we've gotten close to 10! I don't think Maggie fully understands mail or why she is getting stickers, but it's cute to watch her open the envelope and find her treasure. Good job to all the moms out there following through!