Road Trip Prep

      As I sit to write this blog post I am in Manawa, WI at Daniel’s Aunt Kelly and Uncle Dave’s house, tucked away amongst tall, green trees where chirping yellow canaries feast from the feeder and woodpeckers knock away on the mighty trunk.  The serene water of Bear Lake is within view, and the gentle breeze coming in from the open windows is heavenly.  It’s peaceful.  It’s beautiful.  It’s perfect.  I’m in my happy place and the company couldn’t be better.

I will tell you all about our drive up here and more about our stay in Wisconsin, but before I get there I just want to devote this post to the preparation part of this trip.   The two weeks prior to this trip, my life was consumed with making lists upon lists of things to pack, and scrounging around for ideas of activities to buy/make to keeps kids occupied on a three-week road trip…where a large part of the time all four of us would be in the confined quarters of a vehicle…daunting.  So far though, all the hard work and late nights has been totally worth it!!!  Let me share with you all what my plan for surviving a long road trip with a 4-year-old (almost) and one-year-old (almost) was/is…

Thinking of activities to keep Selah busy was really easy and fun, so I’ll start with that:

I cut up three different colors of pool noodles,
about 1 inch chunks, with a bread knife.

Then I printed off and laminated strips of paper with
 circles in those same colors in different patterns
(for example: blue, blue, green, blue blue, green...),
and then gave Selah a piece of rope so she could string the noodles
on the rope following a pattern...so far, this has been her favorite.
I have the inside of the folder covered in packing tape
and then the strips stuck on with rolled up tape so that whichever pattern strip
she picks I can tape it on the back of the headrest
in front of her as an easy access reference.
The inspiration for this idea came from here.

We also brought along a portable CD player so she
 could listen to/look at books on tape...
sadly, our brand new CD player doesn't work :(,
fail.

We packed a clipboard to serve multiple purposes.  In this picture I have
an activity for Selah to practice writing her name, I found the template
for this here and it is titled "Name Stamping".
Since I didn't want Selah to have access to stamps and an ink pad in the car
I brought ABC stickers instead.  I also have pages with Mom, Dad, and Owen
written on them so she can practice writing those as well.
She also uses this clipboard for coloring and working on a little booklet I made
with a picture of each state we go through in the order we go through it.

The clipboard is also used to hold these laminated Bingo cards.
I printed off two different kinds, one for the trip up and one for the trip down.
When she finds one of the objects she places a sticker over the picture.
I found the templates for these cards here and here.

This is a cookie sheet with magnet pieces cut from a magnet roll
stuck on the back of each puzzle piece.

This is an I Spy bottle.  Don't you just love my duck tape addition?? Sure makes
it look cute huh?! These projects were all about functionality and getting
as much done as possible, not about cuteness...clearly :)

I found 60ish odds and ends around our house
(bracelet, plastic spoon, paper clip, plastic butterfly, etc, etc.)
and poured some rice into a 2 liter bottle, added a few items, poured a bit more rice,
added some more items, so on and so forth until I filled the bottle up to the top.
Before putting the items in the bottle I took a picture of each item so that
I could print each picture, laminate it, hole punch it, and put it on a binder ring.
This activity hasn't been introduced yet so that I have something to whip out
later on, so I'll tell ya if it is successful or not in a future post.

I also brought along a coloring book, BrainQuest activity book, spiralgraph and magnetic draw pad thing (I don't know the technical term for either of those??) both found at the Dollar Tree, and lots and lots of books.

Now for Owen, who was a little bit trickier to plan for because his idea of fun is moving and shaking, not sitting in one place doing a quiet activity...

Here is a mess-free art activity, however, thus far, Selah has enjoyed the art
part of it and Owen has enjoyed destroying the packaging...whatever works!!

I got this fabric from my mother-in-law who had saved it from years ago,
when her boys were little.  I had no idea what to use it for until I saw THIS.

I found an empty Puff container and cut a hole on the top of the lid.
Then I cut strips of that fabric, tied them together, and stuffed it inside.
So far, this has been Owen's favorite activity and
 has kept him busy up to 10 minutes at a time!
Again with the duck tape...it may not be
super cute, but it gets the job done!
Selah loved this activity too, and she was super
helpful at stuffing the fabric back in the container.

My puppets!  Found clipart on google, printed them, laminated them, taped them on popcicle sticks

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Cast for Old McDonald Had a Farm

Cast for Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
or
Five Little Monkey Swinging in a T

Owen's view.
I sewed these curtains with some of
that above pictured fabric too.  I just
sewed some velcro on the very top and then
about half way down so that I could
loop it over the car seat handle.

The puppeteer, ready for duty!
Sadly, Owen doesn't care too much for the curtains,
he plays with them a bit since it's hanging in front of him, but when I sing
he just stares at me.  O well, still fun to put on a "show".

I took a piece of felt and sewed on ten pieces of ribbon.

And then I added beads, and then sewed the top piece of ribbon.
This proved to be super fun for both kids!
Got this idea from here.

Here's a picture of all the STUFF...we brought a tub of toys that Owen hadn't played with in awhile as well as some bigger toys he hasn't ever seen, like the shape sorter, hammer thing with shapes, and pop up thingy (again, don't know the technical terms), but they were great to bring along and had him busy for awhile.  Selah also watched two movies on the iPad during the trip.

That was helpful too. But I'm glad we were able to really limit it, I didn't want that to be our only form of entertainment.  We also enjoyed just looking out the window at the beautiful scenery!!

Like I said, I hope to be able to post in more detail about our trip later, but fore now, this was our preparation process.  And so far I'd say it has been very successful! Stay tuned!