Things to Make and Do - Roadtrip Survival Kit

My usual solution for road trip boredom is to check out some new DVDs from Netflix and hope for the best. But as three children had to share the not-very-large backseat for over 700 miles, I figured we needed a better plan. First stop the library where I told the kids they could choose as many books and DVDs as they wanted - 10 DVDs and over 30 books later, they seemed happy enough. But how long would it last? So I also purchased the following activities for road trip survival:



F and P took turns "decorating" with this one. They really seemed to like it, though they had no desire to reuse the stickers, so it didn't last for as long as I hoped.



All three kids seemed to enjoy working on these together, I heard several cries of "let's make her look funny!!" as I drove.



F really loves this creative coloring book. I'm not sure how she managed to draw while in the car (of course, we stopped a lot, so she probably created during the breaks), but this was the biggest success of all the car activities, as she continues to bring it everywhere. The book contains several pictures with doodle suggestions - like "decorate the piggy bank"; "what can you see in the crystal ball?"; and "finish the dandelions." Fun.



A friend recommended these and they look awesome. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a place that would deliver them in time for our trip. But hopefully next vacation season we'll try them out.



I've written about car trips with this book before (click here for past post) and now that P's learning to read, we've been bringing it with us everywhere this summer. The dictionary matches THOUSANDS of pictures with thousands of words and really helps early readers learn.



We actually didn't use our travel bingo kit on this trip, but we have used it quite a bit on past car trips and we all really enjoy it (yes, even us adults). It really helps make the time fly by.
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What about everyone else? Any road trip tips?

Places to Go (Vacation) - 5 Kid Road Trip - Chicago or Bust!

A few weeks ago, one of my best friends from high school flew from Denver to visit us, bringing along her incredibly chill 2 month old baby and her super nice 8 year old son. We brought then to a few of our favorite DC places - Mt Vernon, The Jefferson Memorial, The Uvar-Hazey Air and Space Museum, Spaworld, and (of course) The Arlington County Fair (not so surprisingly, the fair seemed to underwhelm them). And we drank lots of diet cube libres with peach rum (my newest beverage of choice), while the kids slip and slided and created matchbox race tracks throughout our house.

After a few days of touristing, Allison and I packed up all 5 kids (aged 2 months, 3, 5, 6, and 8) and loaded up the minivan to drive 730 miles to our hometown to visit our folks. We're brave like that (or naive).



Day 1, Mile 32 - Picking raspberries and digging for potatoes at Butler's Orchard. These kids need to work.



Day 1, Mile 72 - The C&O Canal Visitor Center in Hancock, MD. T pulled the curtains off the window and cried after the park ranger called him out for misbehavior. Good times. We then let them all loose to run. And somersault.



Day 1, Mile 262 - A hotel with a swimming pool and a much needed bottle of wine. F wrote love notes to Ryan Lochte. Apparently, 8 hours in a car with a real boy made her decide to start crushing on celebrities. Or maybe she just wanted to make A jealous (I don't think it worked).



Day 2, Mile 282 - Great Lakes Science Center (Cleveland, OH). A pirate ship on an outside deck made T's morning. Eight year old A seemed more impressed by the flight simulators in the science section.



Day 2, Mile 730 - Grandma's House with Murphy the dog and a backyard with room to run. And run. And run.

All in all, a good trip! Though A may never sit in a middle seat again. As for my car, it looks like a tornado tore through the inside, leaving lots of sticky surfaces in its wake.