• Taking my whole brood out to eat is always exhausting. My kids always end up bored and ready to leave long before the food arrives. That’s why my purse is always loaded with stuff to do. Usually crayons and the like are the easiest to handle while we are out. The crayons that you get from most restaurants are awful. Each child gets only three, if you’re lucky, and they are always those super waxy, don’t cover well, cheapo crayons. My kids also tend to fight over them too.

    You would think that just throwing a box of crayons into my bag would help here right? Unfortunately no. The box gets squished in my bag, and then it doesn’t hold the crayons inside and my purse turns into a disaster of loose crayons. Been there done that. A quick search on Etsy will show you the many clever ideas for carrying crayons with you. If you are even the slightest bit crafty you could even whip up your own version of the cute crayon rolls yourself.

    For me, I’m a bit more practical. I use an old travel sized plastic wipes container. Once the wipes are gone the box is the perfect size for crayons. Best part is that it won’t break, and my kids are less likely to dump the whole box trying to get one color. With the wipe container they can see the entire selection of crayons at once.

    Another clever idea floating around the Internet is the recycling of old DVD cases. The side of the DVD case that holds the pamphlets and other paper is perfect to hold extra paper for the kids to color on. Cut out the part that holds the actual DVD, cover it with some cardboard or some scrapbooking paper. Glue it in to cover the hole you made when cutting out the DVD holder. This is the perfect size case to carry colored pencils and your extra paper. Now you’re really ready to go!