Oh, it’s that wonderful time of the year…Girl Scout cookies are going on sale!

At the GS Cookie Training I attended a few weeks ago, I discovered that even though Girl Scout Cookies are only sold for three months of the year,  that five of the eight GS cookies are in the top 10 of all cookies sold nationwide?!?! WOW! Here are the top Four: 1. Oreos;  2. GS Thin Mints; 3. Oreo Double Stuffs;  4. GS Caramel Delights (aka Samoas). That’s a whole lot of cookies these girls sell!

I thought I’d share a couple of our family’s favorite recipes to make with GS cookies, in case you might want to pick up an extra box or two from your local girl scout! I mean, who can resist those smiling faces! Note: Girl Scouts uses different bakeries in different parts of the country, so the variety of cookies does vary from region to region.

S’mores – Roast a marshmallow and put it between two Thanks-A-Lot cookies. Instant s’more! Note: you can also make in microwave, but frosting does melt quickly!

L’mores – Roast a marshmallow and put it between two Lemonade Cookies. (These are a personal favorite of mine!)

Shout-Outs Apple Dip – Mix Together: 1 crushed package of Shout Outs (note: 2 packages in each box), ¾ cup sugar, 1 pkg cream cheese, and 1 cup of chopped pecans – then serve with apple slices. Yummm!!

ABC Smart Cookie Bakery (who makes the cookies in our region) also has this website which has many more recipes to make with Girl Scout Cookies!

I think this is a cute 30 second video! Every Cookie has a mission…

Which Girl Scout cookie is your favorite?

My kids just finished doing the most awesome fundraiser. It was a Fun Run, 5k and 10k race to raise money for the whole school district. The best part was that for several weeks leading up to the big race they started a “Running Club” at the school to get ready. Anyone who was interested could join. Tuesdays and Thursdays during recess kids could go over to the soccer field and run. For every mile that was completed the child received a plastic charm that looked like a running shoe. Wow, was this a success. My kids couldn’t wait to get more charms. Teachers were talking about how much better the kids focused in class and parents were talking about how excited their kids were to exercise.

Once the big race was here, both of my kiddos insisted on the 5k. Although I thought it was too far for them I figured we could give it a try, we could always just walk it. Our whole family ran it together and everyone finished with huge smiles on their faces. So, not only did our schools raise a lot of money but our kids gained confidence and healthy habits. The afternoon after the race my son excitedly asked if running club was the next day at school. When I explained running club was over because we just finished the race, he actually looked out the window, bit his lip and his eyes welled with tears.

Thank you for teaching my boys more than just academics.

Do you have any great school fundraisers to share? Let us know!

Our elementary school runs a fabulous fundraiser called Pumpkin Patch.

This has evolved over the years into a major PTA effort and yields in the neighborhood of $35,000 profit for the school.

Yes, really.  In one 5-hour Saturday.

This year I was in charge of Big Kids Games out on the blacktop – a collection of 12 or so games intended to appeal to the older crowd.  Little Kids Games are in the gym.

This is Pumpkin Pop, a board with balloons that are popped with a real dart.

Pumpkin Football was a real hit.  As you guessed, you need to put the football through the hole.

This was the biggest hit: Pumpkin Pitch.  A radar gun tracks the speed of baseballs thrown against this backstop.  One 15-year-old boy spent more than 20 minutes at this game alone.

In addition to the game areas, there are bouncy slides, a Running Scared Obstacle Course through the playground, a giant Hay Maze, a Haunted House, Little Tykes Village, and of course:

A bake sale, that sold out in 2 hours flat.

I just love the fall (especially when the weather cooperates)!  What types of activities do you do in your community?

This giveaway was such a favorite of mine – and we were able to fund 2 great school projects – that we’re doing it again!

With all the hype on Back-to-School (The Good Stuff Guide included!), it’s easy to forget the thousands of adorables who won’t be bringing new crayons, markers, and backpacks to school.

So today our “winners” are going to be those adorables.

I need you to meet DonorsChoose.org

Donors Choose.org is a highly-rated 501(c)(3) Not-for-profit which pairs helpful people with needy classrooms.  You can find classrooms to help by a specific subject area, by state (even by city), or by urgency of need.

“Giveaway”

The Good Stuff Guide will donate $50 + $1 for every comment entered by Tuesday, September 13th for a maximum of $200 to DonorsChoose.org.  The “winner” gets to choose the state where the money will be sent, and has the option to choose the specific classroom (high poverty classrooms only please).  UPDATE: I will extend this to Friday, Sept 23rd and may be tempted to go to $300 donation if there are tons of comments to support it.  Please read through the comments and support these schools!!

Because I just LOVE comments, here’s how to gain extra entries (please leave them as separate entries):

1. Do you subscribe by email or RSS to The Good Stuff Guide? I love my subscribers, so you get an extra entry. Wahoo!

2. Email 5 of your friends about The Good Stuff Guide and tell them what a rockin’ website this is. We’d love to have them join us!

3. “Like” The Good Stuff Guide on Facebook and receive the latest news and your chance at additional giveaways. (We LIKE you too!)

4. “Share” any recent post from The Good Stuff Guide on your Facebook wall by clicking ‘Share’ under our Facebook posts with links to The Good Stuff Guide site.  This makes a visit to our site just a click away for all your Facebook friends – the more the merrier…

(Feel free to do them all – that’s a total of 5 entries!)

So, yes, each of you can be responsible for $5 going towards DonorsChoose.org.  In fact, I’d be thrilled!

And please visit DonorsChoose.org to see what classrooms have need of in your area, or nationwide.  Every little bit helps!  You can donate in any amount.

Hopefully through our efforts, lots of adorables will become winners today!

So to recap….

This is NOT just another photo book that you create with My Publisher, Photoworks, etc.  Artimus Art SCANS all of the artwork using heavy duty scanners.  So here’s how it works:

1.  Go to Artimus Art and purchase your book.  There are 3 sizes: The Red Wagon for a 24-page book; The Trolley for a 50-page book (that’s what I’m buying); and The Dump Truck for an 85-page book.

2. In the mail you’ll receive a huge art box for all of your art.

3. Ship it back (all shipping labels are included so you just have to drop it off) and in a few days all the magic happens.  You’ll receive a message that your art had been scanned and you’re ready to create your book.  It will take you approximately 7 minutes to create your book online.  You can change the order of the pages easily, choose the color of the cover and title the book.

4. Then you’ll receive all of your artwork and YOUR BOOK back in the mail!

5. Place the box under your couch and start collecting art for next year’s book.

I really thought this book would be more for me as a way to keep my adorable’s art without having tons of loose papers laying around.

What I hadn’t planned on was how much my he loves to pour over his book.  He regularly requests his book as part of our nighttime “reading”.

The quality of our book is absolutely outstanding.

Here’s the thing: art that was 3-dimensional actually LOOKED 3-dimensional on the printed page.  Their scanners must be outstanding because you can even see textures.  If you looked at this book, I promise you’d touch a couple pages because you’d think the art is glued in.  But it’s not.  Scout’s honor.

And here’s my favorite part: you can turn boxes of art into one sleek, store-able, shelve-able book that will last for the ages.  Now THAT is brilliant.

Naturally I asked for another coupon code:  Use 7NTOQEFIE for $15 off at Artimus Art.

Have a great day everyone!

I immediately went home and got started:

1) I had this great rectangular photo of my eldest and his 3 buds who have been playing together since they were 6 months old (we were totally that Tostitos commercial where the boys would sit in their car seat carriers and we would ooh and aah about how much fun they were having).  So I ordered 9 X 14 snack trays for each of them.

2) Then I had my eldest draw up a storm and selected the best one to be made into a plate.

Then I sent it off to MAKit for production and thought, “well this will be cute”.
About 10 days later, my package arrived.

When I opened it, I could barely breathe for 5 minutes.  I knew it was going to be great, but nothing prepared me for this:

This photo doesn’t even come CLOSE to doing this tray justice.

In this angle, you can see the rim.

But what you can’t see from these photos is that this tray is really nice, thick, durable melamine.

After my five minutes of gasping I packed up the adorables in the minivan and went to deliver the trays to their friends.  Like STAT.  I was too excited to wait.

Their mommies felt exactly the same.

And here is Sloan’s plate he drew.  He is so proud of this.  Everything is dishwasher safe, but not safe in the microwave and we’ve been using at, oh every meal.

The Photo trays were $21.95 each to make and the Drawing plate was $16.99.

Note: you can also get a Classroom Kit of 50 templates for $6.95.  Each plate you purchase is $5.95, so I would go this route every time and let’s keep our fingers crossed they won’t change this pricing after reading this.

These would be excellent for class gifts, grandparent gifts, Father’s Day (sorry I missed the boat on Mother’s Day), etc.

I’m off to make some bowls now…

BRILLIANT.

SHOW-STOPPING.

And I’ve been so excited to share.

Okay, see this?

This is the final copy of the Art Book I made with Artimus Art of my elder adorable’s art.

This is NOT just another photo book that you create with My Publisher, Photoworks, etc.  Artimus Art SCANS all of the artwork using heavy duty scanners.  So here’s how it works:

1.  I went to the website and purchased my book.  There are 3 sizes: The Red Wagon for a 24-page book; The Trolley for a 50-page book (that’s what I went for); and The Dump Truck for an 85-page book.

2. I was shipped a huge art box to place all of my art.

3. I shipped it back and in a few days, I recieved a message that my art had been scanned and was ready to create the book.  The book took under 7 minutes to create online.  You can change the order of the pages easily, choose the color of the cover and title the book.

4. Then I received back all of my artwork and MY BOOK! (I saved the box because I’m doing this again.)

It was love at first sight.

And I wish you could have seen my elder adorable’s face when he saw this bound copy of his work.

The quality was amazing.

Here’s the thing: art that was 3-dimensional actually LOOKED 3-dimensional on the printed page.  Their scanners must be outstanding because you can even see textures.  If you looked at this book, I promise you’d touch a couple pages because you’d think the art is glued in.  But it’s not.  Scout’s honor.

Artimus Art was created by a kind mom to three adorables aged 8 to 16.  She launched Artimus Art just a short time ago when she wondered what to do with all the art created by her prolific little artists.

She’s even provided a coupon to get you started: Use code UHGHLUH51 for $10 off at Artimus Art.

I’m thinking I’ll make this an annual thing and I’ve placed the big box under the couch where it is collecting all this year’s artwork.

P.S. You can also contact Artimus for your school fundraising.

A local elementary in our town puts together a super-fun event and fundraiser that I look forward to all year.

At Pumpkin Patch, you can purchase your pumpkins…

your mums…

and your bulbs…

Then there are the activities for the adorables:

Obstacle course through the playground,

Hay maze with elevated way-finders,

Bouncy fire truck slide where we spent a good deal of time,

A little farm-themed beanbag toss,

Miniature golf hole,

And an oh-so-scary haunted house.

There was also face painting, a Halloween costume swap, bake sale tables, and many more that I’m forgetting.

Most of the events were held indoors because of impending rain, but this did not stifle one lick of our cheer.

It was packed.  A great community event. And oh-so-much FUN!

The Junior League of Greenwich charged $20 per family for this event where kids could touch and sit inside the following: a fire truck and a variety of diggers and backhoes, dump trucks, a rescue vehicle, police cars and motorcyles, and a crane which offered a harnessed ride in the bucket.

The vehicles were provided by local contractors who benefited from the free advertising.  We’re talking good bang-for-the-buck here people.

FYI, we learned something too: backhoes have wheels and diggers have treads.  Now you can sound like a pro.