we traveled to Estes park, Colorado last week with WM. it was such a surprise treat to be asked to go so that lance could serve with the student ministry. so, of course, a 16 hour drive with four little ones... means PREP work for mommy. and i didn't mind a bit...
here are some of the things that i gathered to help the time pass along.
the kids helped me make hide and seek bottles. i used things we already had, snapped pics of each set and hid them in rice. i'll be honest, i should have hidden more things in each one because it was way to quick for my big kids. but it also ended up a favorite toy for the one year old.
i gathered a little flip book of 10 ideas to "reset" bad attitudes. some of the ideas include sharing highs and lows, playing "i'm going to the beach and bringing ____," seat dancing to fun music, but freezing when the music goes off, etc. i'm keeping this little book in my car for always.... there are so many times that we are waiting in the car and i think it might just keep coming in handy.
grammie helped me out ALOT with this basket of goodies. i filled a skinny basket with all our snacks and treats. it fit right between the two front seats and was such a lifesaver about every two hours. ;) everything was individually packaged or i divided it up in snack size baggies so that i could just throw them to the back of the van.
yes, i know that lunchables are not the most nutritious meal out there, but they are perfect for the car and the were a $1 last week. God was sending more winks my way because the caprisuns were on sale for $1 too. so for $4 all the kids had lunch on the way there. can't beat that!
we used our cookie sheets on our florida trip, but i switched up what we used them for this time. the gel clings were a huge hit and they are in any dollar spot.
grammie also bought the kiddos some learning books which allie was really into. i put them in slip covers and grabbed some dry erase markers. this was a wonderful thing to bring into restaurants. there were dot to dots and tic tac toe sheets too. kept everyone busy.
managed to explore our new library before we left and snagged these books on CD. i could not believe how much they enjoyed these and it was nice to take a break from the DVDs every once in awhile.
evening driving activity
activity pads and twistable crayons!!
with some ammo in my arsenal... it was off to Colorado.
more posts to come!!!
Boy, my memories of long road trips that I took as a kid NEVER was this organized and funfilled. (Besides that, there was no such thing as a DVD.) You are so clever!I especially like the cookie sheet-magnet idea...awesome and putting the workbook pages in slipcovers is brilliant! Way to go, Mandy! Can't wait to hear more!
ReplyDeleteI'm just so impressed with your creativity! I love these ideas and will reference them next time we go on a car trip.
ReplyDeleteHee hee. just pinned this so you may be getting some blog traffic. :) LOVE all these ideas. They will come in handy the next time we travel by car to Texas.
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