6-Hour-Car-Ride Prep

We are embarking on our first road trip since Henry was an infant and Audrey was in diapers. These kids are now old enough to need potty stops. Conversation. Entertainment. *gulp* My Type-A personality is freaking out a little. How am I going to keep the peace and not loose that fun light-hearted vacation vibe the whole way down to the beach?

I decided I'd better craft a plan. I tried to look up road trip entertainment ideas on Pinterest, but quite frankly it was overwhelming and many of the ideas were geared toward the wrong age group for us.

So I bought some basics (play dough, pipe cleaners, fresh new washable markers, clip boards) and I made up the rest.

First I drew up some 'I Spy' sheets, with words and pictures so both kiddos could play. They tend to play this on their own but they get stuck on the same thing over and over (I spy something big and blue! The sky? Yes! My turn! I spy something big and blue........) Along with these sheets I also found some free mazes, connect-the-dots, letter trace pages, and beach-themed coloring pages from a Google search, printed them off, and clipped them to the boards.

Next I bought two cheapie blank pads and filled them with sections of activities, followed by sections of blank pages for whatever they might want to create. Mimmy, Pappy, and Gramps added some pages, too, and now each kiddo has a custom activity book. Some of the activities are 'complete the picture' (using magazine clippings), 'Ocean Books' by Mimmy that slide out of a pocket so they can sketch what they find on the beach, 'draw yourself as...' using printed photos of their faces, and landscapes they can elaborate on. There are also little treasures sketched by the grandpas that the kiddos will have to flip through to find.

Finally I converted two shoe box-sized boxes into finger puppet theaters using scrapbook paper and Washi tape to cover up the brand logos. The finger puppets came from Ikea.

We also went to the library where we refreshed our book bags, and we're saving all the new books to look at in the car. The kiddos will of course bring a backpack of their own treasured toys, too, and that'll about do it I think.

My backup plan if all else fails are these 'Bribe Boxes,' for that extra element of hush we may need toward the end of the road...

...and that's that! Wish us luck, they say it'll take us about 6 hours in the car before we're sinking our toes into the sand...