Year book time again

Well the air is getting warmer outside, the day is stretching into the evening later each night, and we have started to count down the days until school ends and summer begins (35 days if you are curious)! So we are approaching the end of school and all the lovely rituals that brings with it. Field trips, field days, yearbook signing-ahh a family could go broke on that last one! 2 of my 3 kids are in the same elementary school - a yearbook cost $25.00 and of course they both wanted their own. My other child attends middle school where they charge $40.00 for a yearbook. That adds up to a grand total $90.00 just for each of my children to be able to have their own book to take to school to have friends sign all over it. So what is a mom to do? What can a mom do? Well I have to state I really think this is one of my best ideas ever!!!

I went to Hotprints it is a free application on facebook that allows you to transfer one of the digital albums you have to a printed scrapbook (it does have a softcover) but you can receive one free a month, and any additional copies are $3.00!! So I went to school and ate lunch with each elementary school kid and snapped tons of pictures on the playground and in the classroom as the filed back into the room. I went home and made a digital album that included all those pictures along with the ones from through out the year that I took at each kids activities, parties etc... . The middle school kid I did break down and send the camera with her to school to take pics of her friends. We then ordered a book for each girl which we have dubbed a "your"book which each girl has their own custom book, where they are on almost every page with the kids from their class, their best friends, and their activities really get highlighted!!! ( above is a picture of the cover of one of the books we made my youngest daughter -below is a closer look "inside" of a hotprint book I made for myself after a Halloween party)

and me well I am treating myself to a Starbucks coffee with the extra $90.00 I saved in our budget! To quote a popular commercial "What could you do with this in your wallet?"