Super-Couponing Picnic!
The first-ever Super-Couponing-Picnic took place today in Castaldo Park in Woodridge! Close to 100 blog readers, coupon spouses, and coupon kids attended this great picnic, which certainly had to be one of the most unique gatherings of people ever!
It was so much fun to meet so many people from the blog and hear what a difference Super-Couponing has made to them over the past year. I was very touched by everyone's stories and presence today -- I know some even came from Indiana for the picnic! Amazing to see so many of you and spend time together!
Some showed their coupon love in the most unique ways... check out PaintedLady's incredible Catalina cakes:
Right down to the bar codes and the green light on the Catalina machine! What a great tribute to our favorite, hard-working little coupon generator....
Recam led the group in a stockpile swap, where we brought wrapped "secret" items. She read a story about the day in the life of a Super-Couponer, and every time she said the words "left" or "right," we had to pass our wrapped items to the left or the right in the circle.
It was fun... and guess what I brought home as my prize? Another bottle of ALL laundry detergent (!!!)
After that, the coupon kids in attendance enjoyed smacking a pinata decorated like a $100 bill! Hey, we're teaching them to save money young.
To my surprise and delight, when the pinata finally exploded after many enthusiastic whacks, not only did candy and toys spill out of it... but dozens of Blinkie coupons rained down like confetti! And, if you want proof of how well trained our coupon kids are... not a single coupon was left on the ground! Those kids snapped the coupons up faster than you can imagine. Even my 2-year-old opened his bag to show me, exclaiming, "Mama! I got COUPONS!"
Throughout the afternoon, people were voting on their favorite coupon-related T-shirts, which a bunch of creative people designed just for the picnic. Here were some memorable ones...
Kanye West taking an award away from Coupon Mom to give to me...
And... a coupon husband's lament that the self-checkout lane is seeing more action from his wife than he is..!
The people involved in planning this day did an amazing job (hats off to Prea, BlueDemon20, Recam, PaintedLady, and everyone else I may be missing/forgetting/overlooking...) what a fantastic day!
Thank you to everyone who came and enjoyed the day! I'm especially happy that so many people brought donations for area food pantries too -- they covered two tables! I continue to be impressed by the generosity of this group, especially in the current economy.
If you would like to see more photos from today, visit the Super-Couponing page on Facebook, where there are many, many more photos!
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Comments
Thank you!
On behalf of the picnic planners, and everyone else who was involved, I would like to extend a huge "THANK YOU" to everyone who brought items for the food pantry. Everyone was very kind in their donations, giving away some really expensive, name brand items, (wink wink).
You donated a whopping 161 items:
4 Hunts Ketchup
2 Fiber One Poptart
1 500 ct Q-Tip
2 Kens Dressing
3 Hellman's Mayo
1 Box Crystal Light
4 Campbells Select Harvest Soup
1 Raccoonto Pasta
1 Dreamfields Pasta
1 Secret APDO
2 Colgate Total
6 Macaroni Grill
2 Bertoli Pasta Sauce
5 Cheerios
1 Honey Nut Cheerios
1 Wishbone Dressing
2 Dry Idea APDO
2 Ragu
1 Wesson Oil
2 Manwich
2 Kraft BBQ Sauce
2 Hunts Diced Tomato’s
3 Rice Krispie Treat
27 Knorr Pasta Noodles Plus
2 Fiber One Bars
2 Ajax Dish soap
2 Nature Valley Granola Bar
1 Triscuit
1 Ritz
1 Milk Bone
1 Crunch N Clean
1 BC Cookie Mix
1 Celestial Tea
1 Fisher Pnut Butter
1 Healthy Choice Soup
1 Kraft MacNCheese
1 Bush's Grillin Beans
1 Kashi Cereal
2 Cocoa Krispies
2 Rice Krispie Cereal
2 Progresso
1 Hunt's Spaghetti Sauce
1 2L Dr Pepper
7 Nature Valley Clusters
1 Spaghetti O's
1 Jewel Black Olives
2 Duncan Hines Cake Mix
5 Jello
1 Motts Apple Juice
1 Skippy Naturals Pnut Butter
12 Carefree Ultra
3 Reach Total Care Floss
10 Reach 360 Acti Flex Tbrush
2 Frosted Mini Wheats
1 Frosted Flakes
2 Oral B Indicator Tbrushes
10 Mighty Dog
It has been through your great effort, tireless shopping and extreme deal hunting that has kept many pantries stocked through these rough times, and has fed many families, who without your donations, may not have otherwise had food for their tables. It only takes one person to change a life - and Jill is proof of that. Thank you Jill, for teaching so very many, many people to fish. :-)
Nice post Prea...
You should copy and paste this onto the facebook page. (:
We also had a great time!
My husband and I & our kids also had a wonderful time! Thank you to those of you who took the time to organize all of this. You did a remarkable job putting it all together for us!
It was so nice to put faces to the names & Jill, it was a pleasure meeting you as well. Many thanks for all you do for us!
Thank you for all the compliments on the cakes. They were fun to make and I'm glad you all enjoyed them so much.
The cakes
The cakes were amazing! I can't thank you enough for answering our call for help. They were better than I had imagined! A million thanks and more!
Sorry I missed it!
It sounds like it was a blast and a half! I would have loved to surround my non-believing husband with a hundred couponers/"couponers in training"; we could have given him the choice to convert or be hung up with the pinata and get clubbed by couponers until he screamed, "Show me the catalina!"
The picnic was SO awesome!
I LOVED meeting all you fellow couponers! :) And thanks again, Prea, Recam, Bluedemon, Painted Lady==Yummy cake!! and Jill, you guys are so creative and fun!!!
Huge thanks to the organizers!
Please let me add our thanks to you ladies who made the event such a nice gathering. We all had a very nice time and it was great to meet so many of you.
We had to leave early for another commitment, so we missed the games. Jill, thanks for posting the pictures - it sure looks like it was fun!
The donation table looked to be well stocked, so I'm sure some less fortunate folks will benefit as well.
The cakes were such masterpieces - I hope the tasted as good as they looked. Very clever :)
BlueDemon, Recam, PaintedLady, Prea (and others I'm forgetting to name) - thanks so much for doing this. Truly a job well done!!
Sorry I am just getting
Sorry I am just getting around to posting.....A HUGE "thank you" to you awesome girls that put this all together. Nice job! I hate to admit that the picnic was THE social event of the year for me and my kids....great to meet all of you and we had a great time. Everyone had such nice families.
Also, the cakes tasted WONDERFUL, which is unusual for a good-looking cakes! You should be very proud.
Thanks again for the picnic!
Tee shirt contest
OK who won ?????
The little girl that was the
The little girl that was the "Couponer in Training" won the children's prize and my DH won the adult contest with the self-check getting more action...
What were the prizes?
... as if I couldn't guess!
I know the adult prize was
I know the adult prize was some very coveted inserts as well as a Jewel gift card......my husband promptly turned them over to me under penalty of death!
LOL
I bet!
Prizes
The kids prize was a really cool bubble set which was perfect for my DD, and the adult prize was....... sets of coupons from this weeks paper - what else?
Inserts
And you should have seen the massive stack of inserts just sitting at the table... easily 8-10" high. It was the envy of everyone there :)
My girl
Couponer in Training is my 7 year old. :-)
All the kids were so
All the kids were so nice....so what was her prize???
I didn't get to comment on all of the wonderful little kids! There was a little boy named Drew who was so SMILEY and happy! What a cutie-pie! Also, when the pinata was broken there was a very awesome 9 year-old too who turned around and gave candy to my 2 year-old and 18 month-old who didn't know what to do....Ofcourse, thanks to the mini-Cataldo (Benny?) who played catch with my baby girl. They get so excited with other children around and we don't have any in our neighborhood.
I am sorry, I have a very bad memory on whose children were whose.....
=)
Awwwee...you just made my night. Drew is my little guy. All this kids are so well-behaved because they all eat like kings and queens! Fishys, Cakesters, Ritz, Capri Suns....what more could a kid want? They're happy! Maybe we're on to something here...the kids there WERE really happy and well-behaved. Couponing parents=happy kids.
WOW!
Excellent point
I have to echo this too. For such a LARGE group of kids who previously never met, we too were impressed at how well they all played together and got along. :) Go coupon kids!
Hmph
Dr Phil's got nothing on us!
"I am sorry, I have a very
"I am sorry, I have a very bad memory on whose children were whose....."
Probably because they weren't wearing name tags.
I'm still trying to remember all the ADULTS I met yesterday.
I missed it too
I wish I could have made it, it looks like it was fun. It must have been nice to be with other crazy couponers (crazy in a good way :)).
So sorry I missed it!!
I was so bummed that I had to miss this - and even more disappointed after seeing the pics!. That cake looked great and it seemed like you had a great time. Maybe next year?
Thank you
Thank you to all who organized this event. It was nice to meet many of you. And thank you for your suggestions on how to improve my skills!
Awesome!
Looks like you guys had an awesome time! I wish I could have been there. PaintedLady - your cakes look amazing - great job! Hope there's another one next year. Hats off to those of you that planned what looks like a GREAT event. :-)
prea's plan...
Prea already has ideas for next year--and of course, wants to have it more up north. I hope so! It was lots of fun and while walking around I heard things like, "well, if you have two Buy one Get ones..." and "they paid me 3.24 to take it out of the store..." and "my paperboy gives me extra inserts" and "where's my beer?" Oh, wait. That was me. =)
yea for next year!
I had family in so couldn't make it this year, but I love the idea of another one. Sounds like it was a blast!
paintedlady's cakes look terrific, and I'd love to meet who's behind these log-in IDs. Great game idea, too. It sounds like those planning this year's picnic set the bar pretty high for the next organizers.
Thanks to everyone who posted pictures and stories of this years picnic. It sounds like it was lots of fun and I hope I can make the next one!
North
and of course, wants to have it more up north.
That's the one thing I heard from the myriad of northern-burb couponers up by me - "it's so far away..."
... and yet, some people came from INDIANA. :)
Hey, I drive all over creation to teach workshops... no big thing to drive for a picnic with all "my people" :) And yes, to those of you that missed it -- definitely don't miss next year. It was FUN! There's nothing quite like being surrounded by so many like-minded couponers all talking shop, deals, and sales...
FYI some places in Indiana,
FYI some places in Indiana, such as Hammond, are closer to Woodridge than say, Huntley or Crystal Lake or Waukegan.
But yea, I could go for somewhere north/west next time...
Wait until next year?
I thought that was the Cubs motto :-)
Who says there can only be one of these gatherings a year?
I am with you.....
I am with you.....
Just looking at pics
Just sitting here looking at pics from the picnic. It was so nice meeting so many of my fellow bloggers.
A special thanks to paintedlady for the great cakes that were so good looking we didn't want to cut into them!
And thanks to bluedemon and recam for all their hard work and great ideas for the games and everything else that went into the picnic!
I just made it home too.
I just made it home too. Sorry I couldn't stay longer, but I had a rocket launch to attend. Hope you folks didn't get as wet as I did :-(
Great meeting everyone. Wish I could have stayed for some of the cool cake.
Thanks to everyone that organized it, or just showed up and shared stories.
Thanks!
I just got home from the picnic & wanted to say thanks for everyone's hard work planning it. I had a great time meeting all of you and seeing your faces.
Painted Lady, the cakes were beautiful!
Lulu, I didn't get to vote, but your shirt was my favorite! Very timely!
Make sure to take some pics!
I am so bummed that I can't go! I hope to see pics put up especially of the Tshirt contest! Jill you could (in your spare time, LOL) set up a Supercouponing facebook page, great for posting deal pics from your followers! Have fun everyone!!!
AWESOME!
I can't wait to see the cake! Thank you in advance for taking the time to do that for us....
Can't wait to meet everyone...see you in a few hours.
Fabulous Cakes
I got a sneak preview of the cakes my friend has made. I won't be able to be there, but you all are going to have such a blast. Even the weather is going to cooperate. I heard the showers will be delayed.
Now, wait 'til you see those specialty cakes. PaintedLady is so clever!
She's also a fantastic friend.
Oops!
Commented to wrong spot. Trying again.
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Bump
Awesome, I'll bring some
Awesome, I'll bring some Breyers! Just kiddin' - sounds like a great plan!
Do any of the people putting
Do any of the people putting this together need anything? Any help? ANYTHING AT ALL?? I am happy to do whatever.
thank you!
Thank you LuLu for asking....and I think you asked before too. I am so happy you are coming...do you know anything about coupon swapping? I don't. I must be coupon miser! =)
Hey BD...I sent an email last
Hey BD...I sent an email last week sometime to you seeing if I was supposed to do anything!
email me at ldaniels75@hotmail.com
I also have some possible prizes for you.....I wanted to offer these to you before I put them on the public blog and offered them to everyone else.
BD - email
BD - I'll email you swap instructions. It just so happens that I wrote some! ;)
name tags?
I don't want to be a dork but? Bluedemon and others, have you come up with an idea so we all know who each other is? I know you guys have been working on this picnic for along time now!
Of course!
In the spirit of bargains, I picked up some name tags on clearance at Walgreens. Never fear! =)
Activities
How about a coupon swap/share event in the activities . . .a working picnic?
YEP, SURE!
Sure, we can do that! Anyone wanting to swap some coupons is welcome to bring some to swap. I don't know exactly how coupon swaps work...any input? Is it the "take one, leave one" policy?
We can have a special spot or table for this. Great idea!!
How about a therapy booth for
How about a therapy booth for addicts or penned-off area for unenthused couponing spouses.....
No need for a pen
just have them bring Frisbees! If I tell my hubby there's a picnic at Castaldo park, he'll be all over it for the chance to throw a round of disc golf on the nice course they have there. Seriously, it's a good family activity that could occupy any brood for a good half hour or more (okay, so maybe we'll need to corral them after their round, but that's nothing that some cheap drinks and food won't take care of).