$453.78...

...is how much the kids and I cashed in this weekend at Coinstar! Of course Coinstar charges a nice 8.9% fee, so we got a little less, but it was well worth not having to roll all of those coins! I got sick of looking at the three large "coin" containers in the kitchen corner so I thought it be fun for the kids to cash in the coins and get a toy (I hesitate to call them actual coin containers because they were 2 vases and 1 large powder protein container - about the size of a large pickle jar). Little did I know we had so much change! I also was not aware of how noisy this machine would be. Along with the typical noise in the customer service area in Wal-Mart , the loudness of the kids fighting over each having a turn to drop in the coins and the yelling about the coins dropping on the floor, we were very loud and the entertainment for quite a few people in the store yesterday! Regardless, the kids were very excited about getting new toys (as if they don't have enough). The boys each got a new Wii game and Maya got a new "Darbie" toy. She calls Barbie, Darbie and I can't get her to keep it straight... might be that she doesn't have many "Darbies." I think those coins have been collecting for about 4 years, so maybe in another 4 years we can do the same thing! :-)