Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Summer vacation here we come. Though it is not all roses and yummy sandwiches, Mom is a teacher so she gets the summer 'off' as well and Dad is resigned to wearing shorts at work as much as possible.
And so to celebrate summer fun-cation we would like to share our collection of "Things you have to have when you...."
So we will release these amazing can't live without lists of things in the coming days so you can get ready for Carmageddo or when you hear "I'm bored!" at 9:46 in the morning.
And so todays list is:
6 Things you must have when you are on a roadtrip.
1. Books
Lots and lots of books! Thropugh trial and error we have come to realize that we need to have the van about 1/3 full of books. It is one of those times that you feel like a terrrible person when you hear yourself say "That is enough books, put those back in the house!"
We have begun to gather our collection of van books in groups so we can switch them in and out and give hte kids some variety in their reading. Dumping 100 books all at once in the back of the van doesn't seem to work, weird.
2. Wipes, napkins, paper towel, garbage bags, tarps, etc.
The more options you have to deal with spills, messes, and things that come out of kids (boogers, spit, barf, poop, pee, and blood) the better.
We take our fair share of wipes for the small spills and sneezes, paper towls for those spills that happen right after the drink was just opened, dumped, and it takes you 10 minutes to pull over, and garbag bags to contain everything with an air tight seal.
Napkins and klennex are a last resort if you have nothing left. They will do absolutly nothing besides give you the illusion that something is being done about the ice cream cone that fell on the floor.
3. Games
We are a big fan of games. There are alot of different things that can become a game with the right planning.
For the kids we will play hide nd seek, we will put something small in the van and they have to find it by the end of the trip to win a prize (ususally the prize is stopping for gas!!!), Mom does up awesome bigo cards for hte kids that are customized for each trip (this summer it will have animals and things for our drive through the mountains), and even silly games like eye spy are fantastic if hte parents join in and give the game some excitment.
Last year we also bought the kids Nintendo DSs expecting them to wear them out with use. They do like them (they love hte voice recorded and hte simple drawing function that every DS has) but they don't idolize them like we did our old Game Boys.
For the parents we also do small silly things to help us pass the time and enjoy the long drives as much as the kids. Dad always buys $20 in scratch and win lottery tickets before we leave and Mom has to scratch tehm and reinvest all the winnings in more lottery tickets when we stop for gas. It is fun to see how long we can ride the wave of lottery winnings until we lose it all. Our record is $50 on one ticket nad Mom refusted to reinvest it all when we stopped, but I think we ended up winning enough to stop and rebuy 5 times. .....buckets of excitement, I know.
And this year we will be testing out our own Mommy and Daddy bingo card for our summer vacation. We will see how it goes but I fear we may get a blackout bingo sooner than anyone wants.
4. Presents
We usually buy the kids some colouring books or small toys for when we go on vacations in the van. And we are big fans of hitting up a few garage sales and buying little toys and dolls, and cars and wrapping them individually for the kids to open one every day or so.
Reason #1 Opening presents is the best thing ever!!!
Reason #2 Small toys help pass the time in a van
Reason #3 When someone throws up on a little garage sale toy you down even think twice about throwing it in hte garbage bag with everything else!
5. Coffee
No reason, We just love our coffee. We don't go bananas and cry if we don't get our coffee. we just like it...ALOT.
But you should make sure you take along your favorite drink (non alcholic) or snack for you to enjoy on the drive, especailly while the side kicks and ceasefires are flying in the back seat.
6. Bottles of water
We make sure the kids have their reusable water bottles that they fill up each morning we leave hte hotel, but still....keep a few bottles of water on hand. Not just regular bottled water, find ones with a wide opening.
They are great when you run out of water nad a red faced exhausted kid is crying dust becasue they drank all their water 3 hours ago and are soooooo thirsty it hurts!
a road trip multi tool must have!
But we also use the bottels to split any beverages that you buy through take out. THe drink sizes are stupid big and who wants a kid to drink that much iced tea or juice? So pour some into an empty bottle and problem solved, everyone gets some but just not too much.
Also the bottles come on handy....for....
Peeing in the van. I said it! You will find yourself in a situation where your little boy has to pee so bad they have a death grip on their weiners, oh and you are in hte city and can't pee on the side of the road.
Our little guy has learned hte deft art of peeing in a bottle a number of times. But we stress that this is only in the event of an emergency. Or as he states it a "Pee-mergency!" or "Catastro-pee!"
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7. Bonus entry on the list!
We have added one more thing onto the list, it is something we don't have (we just use a small rubbermaid tub instead - see top picture) but would loooove to have. But this beauty is something to behold....
Kids Back Seat Organizer from Organize It
I know I would have loved to have one of these when I was a kid. It would have been an awesome base for Ninja Turtles and GI Joes!
Check out the link above to order one online, only about $40.
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Well these are some of the things that we can't so with out on our long road trips.
If you have any must have items on your vacations please let us know! And stay tuned for the next list,
5 things you have to have when you go to the park.
UPDATE:
We almost forgot one of the most important tools to have with you on your long road trips. We have taken ours on the past two trips and have it ready to go this time again, it is the wonderful Grabber-nabber!
Or the robot claw hand pincher thingy.
Great tool for picking up fallen toys...but also a very deadly weapon when tempers flare!We have the two older kids in the back row of seats in the van on trips and passing items back and forth between us and them is difficult.
Well it was until we discovered the Grabber-nabber!!!
This mavel has saved us numerous times from having to pull the van over to pass snacks back or retrieve a fallen toy. If you have one take it along, if you don't have one, buy one!
