The "Birthday Money Grab"!

Are you looking for a new idea for kids birthday celebrations? Do you have lots of spare change around? There's your answer! Have a "Birthday Money Grab"! It's easy and fun!

What do you do with all of your spare change? When our boys were small, we saved it for extra money for our summer beach trips. We also used it for motivating good behavior on long car trips to the beach:

https://www.msnancysnook.com/2013/06/car-trips-with-kids-reduce-chaos.html

My 3 Sons!

We have also used some of the spare change for school fundraisers and contests like the Nickel Harvest.

Dilemma: We're grandparents now, so what do we do with all that change? We could roll it and take it to the bank to trade for bills, but what's the fun in that?

Last Easter after our Egg Hunt with some of the grandkids, the grandkid who found the most eggs would need a prize. Oops! I forgot to buy a special treat! Brainstorm! A Money Grab! I poured some change into a container, and grandson Noah got to grab a fistful of coins! The problems was, the container was a little small, and he had trouble getting his hand out after he grabbed the money!

Of course, the other grandkids wanted to grab, too. I thought about this and came up with a solution that could include all the grandkids - 

A "Birthday Money Grab"! 

Each grandkid could grab a fistful of coins on their birthday! If they are not at Mamaw and Papaw's on their birthday, they could Grab on their next visit.

Granddaughter Mia's birthday is the first of the calendar year, so we started this fun activity with her birthday. I told her there would be a special activity for her after she opened her presents. Then I showed her the metal bucket of money! (This container was much larger than the previous, big enough for Papaw's hand with room to spare!) Okay, it is a Christmas bucket, but at least it is green!

She was very excited! She put her hand in and stirred the coins around a couple of times and practiced for the Final Grab. 

Finally, it was time for the Real Money Grab. She grabbed a lot of coins!

Mia had fun grouping and stacking her coins before she counted them. That's a tall stack. Will it stay after she lets go?

It stayed!

Mia's total count was $8.31 and a Chuck E. Cheese token that somehow got into the change!

And then it was time for - you guessed it - CAKE!!

Mia's Favorite:
Triple Chocolate Pound Cake
with Chocolate Glaze

Next birthday is grandson Alex's, and he will be the second to do the "Birthday Money Grab". We will keep a record of how much they "Grab", so it will be interesting to see if they get more each year as they grow. Of course we will continue to add change to the bucket, and each time I will make sure there is a $1 coin and a $0.50 coin.

Do you have more ideas for using spare change? If so, please comment!

Money Grab, anyone?