Here’s a Spring / Easter bingo game you can download and play with your family.
Click here to download the 12 bingo cards and 23 calling cards
If you decide to download, please become a follower of Big D & Me.
Category Archives: games
Mary Poppins Party Activities
In order to celebrate my daughter’s 3rd birthday – Mary Poppins style – we came up with a few related activities that 3 year olds would enjoy.
First up, drawing on cardboard with chalk (relates to Bert and him drawing chalk pictures in the movie).
Next up, a Mary Poppins bean bag toss. We have used these boards for many many parties. We just take off the old pictures or glue right over them with the new themed pictures.
Third, racing around with stick horses (relates to the carousel horses and when they race in the movie).
These were a huge hit. I’m putting together a tutorial on how I made these.
Next, pin the bow tie on the penguin (come on, do I really need to tell you what part of the story this is from?)
Lastly and the biggest hit of the party, chimney play! (these are supposed to be the chimneys that the chimney sweeps pop in and out of when they sing “Chim Chimney Cha-roo.”)
We bought five large cardboard boxes and two small boxes for about $6.00. My husband then connected them all and cut holes on the top in order to give the small boxes a place to sit. In order to make the entire thing stable, he screwed 3 pieces of wood together in the shape of a “C,” and then put it at the beginning of the box and then another one at the end. The 3 pieces of wood touched three sides of the structure – the bottom space where the kids crawled through didn’t have a piece of wood.
Traffic jam
Even the big kids got in on the action.
Caroline had a good time popping through the top of the structure yelling, “Cha-roo!”
So those were our Mary Poppins party activities – I also bought sugar cubes in hopes of doing a relay race with a “spoonful of sugar,” but decided against it at the last moment. Another activity we didn’t use a bunch of musical instruments I had gathered. I thought the kids could play in a band like the one that plays while Mary Poppins receives her prize for winning the horse race.
Altogether I spent about $60 on the entire party. I would have spent about $40 had I planned ahead and used coupons to purchase many of the items. Oh well, I like to think I do my best work at the last moment.
Soon I’ll share her cake and the decorations.
For Mary Poppins hat instruction go here.
Valentine Bingo
January Goals: #3 Complete Valentine Bingo game for etsy
Done!
Chance to Win Something!
I am giving away 3 sets of my bingo games to people over at I Heart Crafty Things.
Go on over there and enter.
You have a pretty good shot since only one person has entered so far 🙂
It’s a Blogiversary!
Exactly one year ago today I published my first post.
This is my 239th post.
I never thought I would be a blogger in a million years. What do I have to say? Turns out I have a lot to say. Sometimes the words were kind, sometimes painful, sometimes humorous, sometimes judgmental, and sometimes sarcastic.
When I started pondering a blog, I assumed my blog would focus primarily on crafting projects. Along the way I discovered I enjoyed writing about life and it’s ups and downs. There have been many wonderful moments and a few sad. I never imagined opening up as much as I did in the spring but I don’t regret it. This blog gave me an outlet for my feelings and I thank you for encouraging me along the way.
When you write a blog there’s really no way of knowing if anyone else really benefits. Sure, people are nice and leave comments but did my post really add anything to their day?
I received this email last week and felt it was the perfect exclamation on my first year.
Thank you so much for the Lego bingo game!!! I printed it out; then laminated it all so that we could play it over and over again using dry erase markers. We had to come up with a super fun birthday party for my son, for obvious reasons, but also because he had a bone marrow transplant and isn’t allowed to be around other people (only close family). This is one of the components that made his birthday so special and so much fun that I don’t think he even realized there weren’t any other kids there… Anyhow, THANK YOU so much, I am very grateful! – Jenica
Jenica – Thank you so much for your message – it made my day, in fact, it made my whole year – sometimes I wonder if anyone really benefits from my blog besides myself so this was great to hear. Best of luck to your little guy and your whole family. I’m glad he loved his birthday – let me know what you decide to do next year for his birthday – I’d be glad to make another game for him. – Jennifer
Jennifer, I just wanted to let you know that the benefit of your blogging is going to extend greater than my family. I am planning on printing more copies of Lego Bingo & laminating them to bring to the Seattle Children’s Hospital cancer floor. This children’s hospital does not have a play room, so children are hoping for things like this to fall into their hands. I know, because we were there… for way too long. We would have LOVED to have played this for hours. It is great because it doesn’t require much thinking- a major bonus for a child going through cancer treatment! The lamination will make the games easy to sanitize, which is huge! And I plan on making smaller versions of the game (by setting aside some characters & playing mats) so it would be easier to have a two or three player game (often times a child is alone with one parent). This might be more information than you wanted… sorry. But I do want you to know that you are going to make a lot of little kids very happy. Seems like such a small thing right? I guarantee, it is not 🙂 Again, thank you.Jenica.
Something I created made a difference for a little boy. That’s it. I’m completely satisfied with my first blogging year now.
I truly don’t know how long I will write for but thank each and every one of you who have taken a seat on this crazy ride I like to call Big D & Me.
Care Bear Bingo
I don’t know about you but last night I ate about twenty mini candy bars.
If anything, I am underestimating.
I spent the rest of the night complaining about my aching stomach while my husband looked on with a, “Why are you surprised by this…. this happens every year,” look.
Later in the week I’ll post some of our Halloween pictures but for now I have this for you.
Care Bear Bingo!
I am going to a birthday party for a little girl turning four with my two youngest this weekend. The birthday girl is very into Care Bears so I decided I would make her a Care Bear bingo game.
The set consists of 5 cards and 25 calling cards.
The game is a preschool version of bingo with only sixteen spaces instead of the usual twenty-five. Fewer spaces for the younger kids tends to work better.
I also printed off two copies of the calling cards, cut them apart, and placed them in a small box for a memory game.
In order to download the bingo game, please click on the bingo board above. The PDF document should come up. From there, print.
If you decide to print, please consider becoming a follower of Big D & Me.
If you are interested in other printable bingo games please look in my “Printables” section at the top. I am also selling a Thanksgiving bingo game in my etsy shop.
Hopefully this is the first of many girly bingo sets!
Monster Food & Mummy Wraps
We had our second annual Halloween party over the weekend and for the second time I forgot to take any pictures. I set up these photos after everyone had gone home and right before I crashed on the couch. In addition to the new food below, I also served the same food from last year.
Marshmallow Pops: Place stick through marshmallow, dip in chocolate, add sprinkles, thank husband for wonderful marshmallow holder he created, place in refrigerator for 20 minutes
Marshmallow Holder : spare wood with holes drilled into it
Food on a stick is always popular and these were no exception.
Chocolate Witch Fingers – Use a paint brush and melted chocolate to paint the fingernails. Allow to cool in the refrigerator for ten minutes. Fill up remaining space in the mold with different colored melted chocolate. Lay pretzel sticks into the chocolate and cover with more chocolate. Place in fridge for 20 minutes.
Chocolate Grave Stone: same idea as the fingers minus the pretzels
Halloween Cookies (known in our house as the Christmas cookies despite the shape of the cookie or the time of the year)
Alex and Andrew named and labeled all of the party food. Dracula’s Skin was banana bread slices while the Monster Teeth were Rice Krispie Treats. They had a lot of fun creating these…let’s just say the Marshmallow Pops above were labeled Frankenstein Poop. Yes, we through classy affairs around here.
Along with our party boards, there were games and crafts to keep the kids busy. A big hit with the 3 to 7 crowd was my Halloween Bingo, I gave plastic spiders to the winners.
The fourth grade crowd primarily ignored my games in favor of a football game but did decide to stop to play the “Mummy Wrap.”
Kids got into groups of two with a roll or two of toilet paper and wrapped each other as mummies.
That WRAPS up (Ha!) another edition of our Halloween party. The left over Rice Krispies have been eaten by me (about 20 in 2 days – NOT A JOKE!) and the games put away until next year. Hope your Halloween is filled with lots of sugar and dressing up.
Fun with Rolls
The last week of summer vacation was a little bit of a challenge in our family.
Everyone had been around each other just a little too long.
Arguements errupted for no reason, whining occurred at record amounts, and my patience was shot.
I knew I needed a project for the boys to work on so I scowered my house for ideas.
When I came across these fabric tubes in my guest room I was inspired.
Presenting..the Two Story Challenge
Using these tubes, get your hot wheels cars downstairs without using the steps.
And no, you may not throw your cars down.
After removing the fabric from the rolls, they got right to work.
A simple design was developed and executed using lots of duck tape
3…2…1….Go!
The tubes were taken apart at one point due to the two year stuffing objects at the top
Towels were placed at the bottom of the chute in order to protect the floor
A few hours into the challenge the basket was added
The basket was a necessary component to rest their weary legs
Eventually the picture was removed for fear of car and basket damage
If we ever need to get water from a well my kids are ready
This entertained my kids for three days! Obviously there were interuptions due to meals, trips to the pool, and sports practices but listen to me when I say THREE DAYS!
There was even talk of adding a loop next time.
Go beg, borrow, or steal some fabric tubes from your local fabric store!
Mr. Potato Head
CARS Bingo & Party
When Alex turned 5 four years ago he requested a CARS party.
It was tons of fun and fairly easy to put together.
Since it was a race car party we needed a race track cake. The track is made of black sugar crystals while the side boards are cardboard. We made the “start” and “finish” signs and placed some of his hot wheels on the cake.
 Race Car Birthday Cake
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The first activity of the party was to take some Crayola Air-Dry Clay and use it to form their own race cars. This activity didn’t turn out as well as I would have liked. Some of the kids were not satisfied with their creations and complained since it didn’t look like Lightning McQueen.
While the clay didn’t go over so well, the bean bag toss was a huge hit. We took a large piece of wood, cut 5 holes in them, and modged podged some large CARS stickers on with various point values underneath. HUGE HIT with the 5 year old crowd.
 Creating Cars from Air-Dry Clay
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 Bean Bag Toss
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Another favorite outdoor activity was “The Big Race.” Alex and I decorated 2 diaper boxes and turned them into cars. Alex put race numbers on them as well as headlights and wheels. Two at at a time the kids raced around the yard usually laughing the entire time. The plastic helmets I bought added to the excitement.
 “The Big Race”
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 Little Brother wants to play too
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After running around the backyard the kids were ready for an inside activity. I made the CARS Bingo cards, laminated them, and created call cards. I went a little over board and created 15 individual cards. All of the kids loved the bingo game and played several rounds.
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CARS Bingo Game
It’s a Printable!
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Would you like a copy of the CARS BINGO game?
Please go here & print a copy.
Please consider becoming a follower of Big D and Me if you decide to download the game
Having difficulty downloading? Contact me and I’ll email you a copy.
