Well, if you have been following my blog since the beginning then you would know that my shoe box goal for this year is to fill 50 shoe boxes and to have a lot of boy shoe boxes because they aren't supported as much as girls. Today marks the day I filled my fiftieth shoe box and in celebration of that, I wanted to show you all the process and what went into the shoe box. It was truly a wonderful blessing to be able to fill these shoe boxes and write individual letters for each and every one of them. Without further ado, here is my fiftieth shoe box!
WHAT WENT INSIDE:
This was an exciting find for any of us out there that have been raised off of Gerber baby food and products knows that Gerber is the go-to for baby-toddler products. I ended up finding this wonderful sippy cup the Dollar Tree in Roseville. If those of you in California need a Dollar Tree to go to where there are great opportunities for crafting materials and school supplies, sometimes they have more than other Dollar Trees so I recommend that one for your Shoe Box needs.
I included a lot of fun-oriented items for his box: three sticker pages, a set of crayons, a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse coloring book, a World Beanie Baby, Stacking Cups, that red Valentine's Light up wand and a stencil stick. Like always, along with go-to necessities, remember these are children that could have had their childhood stripped from them: fun things are a must.
School Supplies is a must in any box for any age group so I included: a Dodgers notepad with a matching pen, five Avengers pencils, five black pens, five pencil eraser toppers, a Dr. Seuss eraser, a heart pencil sharpener and a duct tape pencil holder.
So, if you guys have ever looked at some of the Facebook Operation Christmas Child pages then you would know about the multiple Instagram accounts that are available to give out OCC deals. One of them that I follow told us about a set of crayons that were wrongly priced at Walgreens and were coming out to 20 cents each. Of course, I was excited and went. Alas, they were all gone but as you can see there, there were Gildan sweatshirts that were originally 4 dollars that were 75% off! This was such a blessing to get sweatshirts on sale for only $1. So I included a sweatshirt, a set of socks and a wash cloth.
Lastly, hygienic items are always a top item in our boxes because we don't know their living situations and some might only get that much toothpaste in their entire year or have never had toothpaste before. I recommend getting the largest tube no matter what. Along with that I included: a toothbrush, a bar of hypoallergenic soap, facial tissue, a comb and a Fantastic Four tote bag for him to hold all his goodies.
PROCESS:
So, the first thing I do is put the stickers at the bottom so that they won't bend or fall from the page when in the box and I also put the coloring book upward in the back of the box because it fills up the entire length of the shoe box and I can bend it over the rest of the goodies to ensure everything fits.
Every water bottle should be used to hold other objects so I used the sippy cup as a holder for his erasers, pencil sharpener, wash cloth and the set of socks.
After I filled the sippy cup, I placed it in first along with the other large item, the sweatshirt, because those are the ones that you want to be able to fit no matter what.
At the bottom I placed the comb and stencil because they are thin and don't take up much space, after that I placed the pens and pencils down between the sweatshirt and coloring book. Over those, the toothpaste and the tooth brush fit absolutely perfectly.
After that, I added the pencil pouch, the notepad and the beanie baby. It might not look like it from here but there is still a lot of space in this box.
I'll admit that I forgot about the stacking cups so this became a bit more difficult. I placed the cups at the base of the beanie baby and after some maneuvering, I was able to get it to stick between the beanie baby and the soap. The light up wand fit in as well but was too thick for the box to close on top so fingers crossed.
I placed the tote bag behind the coloring book and placed the tissue right next to the Beanie Baby. What isn't shown in the picture is a small box of Sweet Hearts that I put underneath the light up wand. Like I said, it doesn't appear that way from the image but there was quite a bit of space in the shoe box left.
After writing out a kind letter and surrounding the box with nothing but prayer and rubber bands, I finished my 2016 goal of fifty shoe boxes. I don't plan on stopping here as God has blessed me with countless resources to make many more boxes. I want to say that this was truly a great feeling to reach fifty shoe boxes so early in the year and I look forward to what the rest of the year will bring to the table. For my fifty box stash, I have at the moment:
Girl 2-4: 7
Boy 2-4: 10
Boy 5-9: 3
Girl 10-14: 6
Boy 10-14: 24
This has been a great experience and I hope you all are having just a great a time as I am as you pack up your shoe boxes all year round. God Bless!
Happy Packing!
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