Category Archives: organization

Super Hero / Bad Guys Scavenger Hunt

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At Caroline’s super hero training birthday party, the kids were required to complete 4 missions.

Each mission had one or two components. For example, there was an “Accuracy Mission,” since all super heroes need to have good accuracy when fighting the bad guys. A bean bag toss and a ping pong bounce game were played in order to test our little super hero trainees. Since they passed that mission, they received super hero cuffs – more on those another day.

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The 2nd mission, the “Eye Test,” consisted of two activities – Super Hero Bingo and Bad Guy Scavenger Hunt. Super heroes need to have good eyesight to spot the bad guys so these activities tested that.

The Bad Guy Scavenger Hunt was definitely a 4 year old favorite.

Each trainee was given a marker and a sheet containing 16, “Bad Guys.” I used characters they might know of instead of typical comic book villains.

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Click here for the Bad Guys Scavenger Hunt

The trainees were then asked to walk around our first floor to find the bad guys. They particularly enjoyed being able to mark off each character once they found a bad guy.

Before the party I had printed out large versions of the same characters on their scavenger hunt sheet and taped them around the house.

Mother Goethel from Tangled

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Can you spot Captain Hook?

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Syndrome from the Incredibles

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Once the trainees completed their eyesight mission –  bingo game and the scavenger hunt – they received a chest letter (piece of felt with a safety pin (with a flat back) glued onto the back.

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Man, four year olds are so much fun!

All 11 of the girls loved dressing up and were totally game for each mission.

Scavenger hunt for 4 year olds, mark that one down as a keeper!

 

Simple Christmas Card Display

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Last year I hung our Christmas cards in the entry way. They were placed on large pieces of ribbon and attached with clothespins.

Well, I’ve radically changed things up this year and hung them in the family room on ribbons with PAINTED and GLITTERED clothespins.

Yep, pure craziness around here!

One of our countdown to Christmas activities was to decorate the clothespins.

Can you tell who has been a challenge to photograph lately?

The kids each painted about 8 clothespins with white, red, and green paint.

Some were solid colors, others with stripes and dots.

Yes, she’s in her bathing suit in December. Technically it was about 45 degrees outside at the time so she should have been in pants and a long sleeve shirt but sometimes it’s best to choose your battles.

The next day, after the paint was dry, the kids used a glue pen to make designs or words. Silver and gold glitter was then poured over the glue.

 “Ho Ho Ho.”

“Naughty”

“Nice” and candy stripes

In order to hang the ribbons I used Command Strips.

I folded the ribbon several times and then cut a hole so that I could double up the ribbon.

 Add a bow to the top and your done!

These pictures were taken a week ago so the ribbons are filled with cards now and look great.

How are you displaying your Christmas cards this year?

 

The Countdown has Begun

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Folks, it’s time we get serious here.

I’m going to tell you something that may excite you but it may panic you.

Are you ready?

Christmas is less than 100 days away!

In fact, it’s only 94 days away!

Yep.

For some (my children), it seems far away and for others it seems like it’s right around the corner.

I must confess that I have started shopping already. In fact, I’ve almost completed some people off my list. What can I say, buying for my little nephews is just so much fun. Big people, well, they’re a little trickier.

I came across this site the other day with free Christmas organizing printables and I thought it would be worth it to share.

I have in the past, bought something for someone, completely forgotten about it, and bought them a second gift. Not that anyone is complaining but I do plan on using some of the printables in order to avoid that mistake this year- the shopping list, the gift list, and I kind of love the master checklist.

So confess now…

Are you a Christmas shopping planner or are you a the last minute shopper?

 

A Clever Container Giveaway!

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I have a great giveaway for you today.

Molly from Clever Container contacted me about having a giveaway and I jumped at the chance. Molly just happens to be my good friend who I taught with for several years so this is extra special for me.

Yesterday I mentioned my recent car organizing failure which involved me trying to make a holder for the kids’ junk. Look, I could call it toys or books, or figures, but when it’s on the car floor it’s just called junk.

My piece just didn’t work so I was looking for another option. Molly sent our family the Backseat Entertainment organizer to try out.

Well, so far, everyone thinks it’s awesome.

The inside top section is filled with little notebooks, Mad Libs, pencils, stickers, and pens while the outside section holds snacks (or toys if you want).

The bottom two sections are used for toys and are within reaching distance. The bottom section has a string on the bottom which allows for the bottom section to sit tight against the seat.

For our books I decided to place them in a basket in the backseat since we usually have tons in the car. And yes, that’s my O magazine sticking out – those car pool lines can get pretty boring sometimes.

Clever Container is committed to providing top quality, unique products and solutions to reduce the stress of an organizational task. They have products for the kitchen, crafts, closets, drawers, children, storage, offices, and more.

Remember when I said there was a giveaway for you?

Pay close attention now. This will be good.

Molly is giving one lucky Big D & Me reader 1 item of their choice from the Clever Container catalog!

Yep, I know amazing. You get to choose your gift.

Here are a few items from Clever Container that make the organizing bug in me gitty…

Items for your kitchen

 Wraprack

Over the Cabinet Towel Bar

Items for your Bathroom

Blown Away

Make Up Manager

Items for Out the Door

Handbag Organizer – I need this one desperately!

Items for the Closet

Scarf Hanger

Handbag File

Aren’t you inspired to get organized?

The winner of this giveaway will be given their choice of 1 item from the Clever Container catalog.

 Here’s how to enter the giveaway:

1. Visit the Clever Container online catalog. Come back to Big D & Me and leave a comment telling me which product you think would be most useful to your family.

2. Buy a product from Molly at Clever Containers and get an additional entry. Leave a comment letting me know you bought something.

3. Blog, text, or facebook about this giveaway. Leave a comment telling me what you did.

4. Follow Big D & Me and leave me a comment telling me you do.

The winner of this giveaway will be chosen by Random Generator.

This giveaway will be open until Tuesday August 28th at 10:00 pm.

Thanks for the giveaway Molly! Can’t wait to see who wins!

A Car Organizing Failure

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The problem with being crafty is that you think, “I can make that,” no matter what item you may be looking at.

A Halloween wreath? I can make that.

A wall clock? I can make that.

A rebuilt car engine? I can make that.

The problem is, at least with me, I cannot make half the things I think I can.

 Way back in February I had a goal of organizing my car.

The main issue seems to be toys, books, and snack containers everywhere.

(This is what was recently cleaned out of the car. It fills an entire IKEA bag and that’s huge)

Because my kids seem to be in intense training to be on the show “Hoarders,” our car is constantly a mess.

Apparently it is just not possible to get into the car without having 2 stuffed animals, 3 books, and 6 random objects.

And what goes in our car, never comes out.

 So I thought, I’ll make a car organizer with material I already have.

Here’s the sad and final product.

Don’t you just love how it sags, how the velcro won’t stay closed, and how it’s too flimsy to old anything over 8 ounces?

Yes, this was my car organizing failure.

But I have found another solution to help me with keeping my car clean…and no, it doesn’t involve threatening my kids with spankings…although let’s not rule out anything just yet.

Come back tomorrow so I can show you how I fixed this problem

Hint – It involves a giveaway for you!

Lots of Shoe Storage

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Here’s my latest find at the Habitat store. Bought it for $30.

(And yes, those are Caroline’s Wonder Woman red boots below)

When I opened up the trunk of my car my husband was a little less than thrilled.

Maybe that’s because I had brought home a night table (which will require a paint job) for him the day before.

I told him, no worries, all we have to do is clean it up a bit and it’s ready to go – no work on our part.

Although I might have fibbed a little bit.

I was thinking about adding a little something to it with paint – roman numerals, shoe sizes, etc.

What do you think I should do with this piece?

Leave it as is or add a little something?

Kids Work Spaces

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I’ve been looking at tons of desks for kids on pinterest and have found some beautiful work spaces.

My helpful crafting hint for the day is that you simply do a google search for “pinterest + kids desks” and you will find tons of examples. Or type in, “pinterest + printables,” and you will get loads of boards with printables.

Here are several kid desks that caught my eye.

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How fun would that wallpaper/doodle art be in a room?

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Ummm…YES PLEASE! Love the bright colors!

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Love the art wall and the organized art desk

The wall reminds me of the art wall in our house

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The empty frames here just invite creativity but I would have to move this wallpaper to an area where the kids wouldn’t have to climb on the desk to use it.

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This desk is brilliant for a small space – it folds up!

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Nice use of an odd space

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IKEA to the rescue again!

Looking at these inspiring work spaces makes me think I might be painting some walls white in the boys room.

Shhhh!

Don’t tell my husband because he would freak out if he knew.

Backpack

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For our recent trip to Indiana, I packed each of our boys a backpack full of activities and books. I expected the boys to be responsible for their backpacks but thought I would carry everything for my 3 year old in a big bag.

That was not the case.

Caroline insisted on having a “pack pack” while we were getting ready and continued to insist on one throughout the trip.

She adores her two older brothers.

Whatever these big guys do…

she wants to be a part of it.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Packing Tip

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For our recent trip to Indiana I tried a new technique for packing.

You see, when packing for 5 people who are going on a 4 night trip with 3 hotel stays, things need to be as organized as possible.

Our clothing needs ran the gamut, from graduation clothes to traveling clothes to caving clothes so I decided to pack all of the kids clothes into gallon sized Ziploc bags.

I first wrote out a label for each bag with the name of the day/event the clothes inside the bag would be for.

The kids and I then chose the clothes and included a pair of socks and some underwear into each bag.

I ended up with 5 bags for each child and found this system perfect for all of our late nights. It was easy to just grab a bag, hand the kids their clothes, and yell, “Oh my God it’s 10:30! Hurry up and shower!”

Now if only I could get my husband into littler clothing all of our packing dilemmas would be solved

 

Where to Go? – Restaurant Printable

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My husband and I had a date night on Saturday.

Once the babysitters were settled we left.

We then drove around aimlessly for 40 minutes because we couldn’t think of a new restaurant to try.

 It seems like every other time we are in the car, driving from one activity to the next, we see a new place and say, “Next time we should try that place.”

But inevitably, we never remember the restaurant when its time to choose a place to eat.

We even say to ourselves, “We need to write that name down.”

But we never do.

So I decided to make a list.  If you would like a copy of this form, click here.

If you download the form, please consider becoming a follower of Big D & Me.

My husband and I eventually settled for a steak place and had a great meal though next time I hope we don’t waste forty precious child free minutes deciding on the restaurant.

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