Cleaning the house is fun to do..fun to do..to do, to do...

Imagine the kids excitement when we told them we were going to organize for FHE this evening! After the initial weeping and wailing, (and a few "off to bed for you"threats for complaining too much) I convinced them that it would be fun. First of all we split off into teams.

Dad and Ellie= Team Dellie

Casie and Annie = Team Cannie

Mom and Jack= Team Mack

Then each team chose a job out of a bowl. I said that the team who won (by vote) would get a really big chocolate chip cookie while the rest of us had normal sized cookies.

Team Dellie chose to organize the massive shoe basket.

Team Cannie chose the pantry.

Team Mack chose the kitchen cupboards.

Off we went to our tasks. My partner bailed on me and I ended up doing the job myself. But the other teams really went to work and we were done in no time.

After we completed our tasks, each team showed the others what they had done and gave a few pointers on how that area could stay organized.

Team Cannie told us to:

-Remember to put food items back in the right place

-If you spill honey or sugar in the pantry, wipe it up

-It would be nice if everyone would throw away empty containers instead of putting them back into the pantry

-Put food labels on the outside so we can see what they are.

(and the part that was music to my ears was when Annie expressed she was glad I had her clean the pantry because now she understood how hard I work!! YESSSS!)

Team Dellie advised us to:

-Put our shoes in our closet instead of the basket.

-If you are too tired to bring your shoes up to your room, place them on the stairs and bring them up with you the next time you go up

-Don't ever throw back packs, socks, jackets, pencils, paper, or crayons into the basket. (they found all of the above in the basket)

-They decided to fill the basket with blankets for TV or Movie watching instead of shoes. And asked that once you are done with the blanket, you FOLD it and return it to the basket.

Team Mom...(because at this point Jack was making messes elsewhere in the house) asked:

- Always stack dishes that are alike together

-Never put measuring spoons, or Tupperware in the cupboard.

-Make sure all the bowls, cups and plates are on the right shelves.

We gave each team a round of applause and congratulated them for a job well done. When it came time to vote nobody could decide who had done the best job. We decided that Casie and Annie got the big cookies, but Dad and Ellie got the first cookies. Jack and Mom were just happy to get cookies. :-)

As an extra team building experience, each team got go off together to a "special" corner of the house to eat their cookies and celebrate their victory.

Dad and Ellie chose to sit in the corner of the family room. Ellie told me that Daddy taught her to just.."Do the job fast...like BOOM, BOOM, and then you can just chill while everyone else is working."

Casie and Annie sat on the stairs. These two actually made a really good team. I for sure need to pair them up in the future.

Jack and I also sat on the stairs. (but before Casie and Annie. They had to wait while their HUGE cookies cooked a little longer.) I tried to get a picture of us both drinking out of our straws, but right before I snapped the shot, Jack finished drinking and did the big "AAHHH" that usually follows a satisfying drink of milk. :-)