In another installment of the "I'm just a little crazy" episodes, we leave Friday to go to North Carolina. MapQuest tells us that it's about a 22 hour drive from here to there, and then we get to do that all over again when we come back next week.
SO, I need HELP. I have never traveled that far with the pumpkins, and need input on how to keep us all from losing our minds while we're driving. Keep in mind that our car does not have a DVD player... Any suggestions?
17 comments:
I'm interested to hear what everyone has to say so that I can get some suggestions for the future! The longest we've driven is 12 hours with E. We've done that a few times, but she is still a lot younger & is just entertained with books & her toys. Do you have a laptop computer that you can play DVDs on? If you do, then you can get a converter that plugs into your cigarette lighter & you plug your computer into the converter. It's AWESOME! Also, when I was litle I remember playing travel bingo, etc... in the car. Maybe you can have Katie earn points for all of the blue trucks (or whatever)she finds on the road & she can earn a prize or something. Anyhow- just a thought. Good luck! Love, Sue
22 hrs w/ no dvd player....yikes! how about playing the quiet game?! :)
hope it goes well.
the quiet game with my two little chatty pattys...now that would be amazing! maybe i'll stock up on benadryl.
sue, love the idea about getting an adapter for the computer - i think we'll have to do that!
i say leave at bedtime...as much time as possible with eyes shut seems best to me...we do have a dvd player but nothing soothes littles on long trips as far as i can tell...our longest were the el paso to shreveport and elpaso to baton rouge...just plan to stop as many times as you can handle...i found that banks are good places to stop...they usually have great wide open grassy areas to run and not a lot of people hanging out like at rest stops...bonus clean bathrooms and tellers love to see littles (and usually give suckers)...we will pray for you all...if you can get in the back with the girls i would and save things that you don't usually do for those break down moments (like tearing tissue paper into little pieces and making snow, or colored tissue for confetti-seriously it takes a while to make a good cupfull to throw and the paper snowstorm is so quick and fun they will want to do it again and again-and it is easily vacuumed up at a car wash)...also since they are pinned to their seats this is a good time to let them use washable markers-skin and all-make puppets and do puppet show or color faces on fingers and sing all the songs you know in different voices-or after the snow storm let them glue (glue sticks) all the confetti to big white pieces of paper and make cards for whoever you are going to see-or send them to a nursing home or hospital-
i think any of the above activities would just about drive stephen insane but as far as i can tell chris is a big kid at heart...who knows you may even get to drive and he can direct all the activities!!!
happy driving...love you
rae, thank you! excellent ideas. they will LOVE making snow, and writing on themselves for sure! i never would think to stop at a bank. what a great idea! you're a pro, sister! love you!
My goodness, Rachel's suggestions are amazing. Not the voice of experience, but I was just going to say "go buy a DVD player" :)
But Rachel's creativity reminds me of what we did on long car trips (by "long" I mean 6 hours across Texas to my grandmother's, so not too bad, but my dad hated to stop, so it felt like 22 hours). My sister and I were stuck in the back of our Oldsmobile Cutlass for the youngest of those trips. Makes me feel car sick just thinking of it.
Anyway, here's what my mom always did: she always bought us something new for the trip. Not extravagant, but something that would make us excited and at least occupy us to Tyler. Like a new pack of crayons and coloring book, a new Mad Libs, a magnetic-hair-on-face-pad thing, a new Wee Sing tape.
One year she got us these small metal trays with legs--it would sit on the carseat and was tall enough to cover our laps so we had a flat surface to do stuff on, with a lip so crayons and such wouldn't roll off (notably, it was also a defined "my" space too so that my sister and I didn't get in each other's way).
Of course, we could play the alphabet game until my parents were so sick of it that they begged us to quit.
But one year, Mom hit jackpot: she found a travel bingo game that we loved. It was a set of cubes that had varying levels of difficulty--my "comment" is too long already or I'd explain it. Maybe something like that would be too old for the pumpkins, though?
We've done similar trips of that length when Nate was 2 and 3 yrs...having Granny along in the back of the van helped immensely one time! I would say that
1. borrowing someone's portable DVD player is a great idea. We did it once and it helped.
2. Pack a "busy bag" full of books, toys, doodle drawing boards, etc...whatever makes your girls happy. Loved Rachel's creative ideas, too.
3. Make a schedule for driving, so Chris gets to help entertain too! The passenger seat parent works harder than the driver, I swear.
4. Snacks and sippy cups, galore. We always prepare and pack a gallon jug of juice (apple/white grape), cut in half with water, so we can refill on the go.
5. Pillows and loveys and blankies help make them more comfortable.
6. I agree with the suggestion to drive overnight. Leave at dinner time, stop an hour or two later for a quick snack. This will fill their tummies and distract them after a short drive. Then it should be bedtime for them and prime drive-time for y'all. IF you do this, and IF you like them--chocolate covered espresso beans are excellent energy booster snacks for the driver :).
Wish I were going...we usually make a summer trip to NC/SC, but not this year. Take pictures of the beautiful Smokies for us all!
shannon we flew 18+ hours to South Africa (Denver to London then London to SA) then took the kids to Costa Rica this past April. With these trips, as well as road trips--b/c all our family is 1500+ miles away from us--- we always talk it up bigtime. What I have done, even when Jadon was a tee-tiny baby, I pack a goodie bag.
Now, they get to pick out their goodie bag--usually from one of the many gift bags I have. I have stocked up on things I find on sale i.e. cool market thingys that I normally don't buy, those wonder paints from crayola and wonder paper, even small things of playdough (crazy maybe but it dries hard and vaccuums easily at a gas station b/c the car will need it anyway from all the snacks), we pack books, and they each can bring three favorite toys.
Now last Christmas my parents, along with us, purchased a dvd player early so we could take it to South Africa--boy was that a life saver as we had some major car trips in country to drive, along with the uber-long plane trip that ironically they both slept the ENTIRE way, only taking benadryl once. The DVD player was a good investment, even for us, b/c we would watch movies when they were asleep, not driving, but after we got to our destination. prior to having one of our own, we borrowed one from our friends at church. ASK THEM!!!!!! seriously if you know someone who has one. I would ship you mine, other than we are leaving Sunday for MT, so we sort of need it:):):)
I just bought these travel tables from a website called Family on Board, they were 19 bucks a piece and I have heard great things. For us, since we do massive amounts of roadtrips, both for fun, for ministry, etc. it was a good investment and will be helpful not only for play but for eating in the car.
Our kids are VERY active, but have always done well on roadtrips. Yes, of course, we have 'those' moments, but they sleep a lot in the car, too. Sadly, not usually at the same time though.
When we do stop, we run them HARD!!!!!!!!!! I take bubbles an we blow bubbles at rest stops, we have relays--Jon is so very good about this too.
Last time this year, Jadon was potty training so we stopped an insane number of times just for him to 'go potty'. This year we are in the same situation with Jamison, so....that could make our 18 hour trip about 22 hours:):):)
Oh back to the goodie bags, I pack special food item too. We don't eat a ton of stuff like that, but I save it for times like this, or such. Every hour of so, especially when they are getting squirrelly I say 'it is treat time' and they get to pick a super-cool treat from the bag. As well, every hour, not at the same time, I pull out one of their toy treats, usually a new playdough, a marker set, a toy car or something like that. Nothing uber-expensive, and honestly probably won't make it home but it does the trick for the ride.
Jon is good about playing "I Spy" with the kids, too. We look for EVERYTHING under the sun---our family favorite is STARBUCKS in the middle of no where. Yes, even our kids are addicts....
Oh, Oh, I also take the kids to the library a couple of days before we go an we pick out books and videos to take along with us and they can't watch them until we start our trip. Pace them out, too.
I have also been known to 'hide' some of their favorite toys for a few weeks before a trip, so that they are REALLY excited to see them on the trip and be like 'look they wanted to come along with us, they are back'
oh and we have the 'old' leap frog book-like thingys. (I am so not a hip mom), but I got these off of Ebay and we have several books and cartridges that came with, so we take those as well.
Okay, may or may not help. I hope you have a great trip:)
Take care,
Jada
Ladies, excellent suggestions all. I think we're gonna make it! ;o)
oh i meant to add that a training potty is great for emergency stops...mine hate pull ups once theyve learned to use the potty so i keep a little potty in the back seat...line the bowl with a wal mart bag then fill it with kitty litter...it absorbs smell and liquid!...also i'd use garbage bags and a towel over their car seats just in case!
another cheap activity is froot loop necklaces...you'll need to make one for ALL the people you are going to visit...that takes a while...those are always fun and you can eat em!
yea! we made it. had to take the girls to the doc on friday before we left, and i went to one of those urgent care centers today to get antibiotics (couldn't get rid of this nasty sore throat!). but we're here, and we didn't cry too much!
praise the lord...how you do that-post from afar...you got skills girlie!
thanks, rae! it's actually easy. there's a wireless connection here at our place, and there are about 12 laptop computers lying around. i can't get over how COLD the ocean is. I'll try to get some pics of the pumpkins up tomorrow. ;o)
can't wait! love you
hey shan check out denny's page...i think we are due for a road trip...i new the prodigal son would return home (or something like that)...and i am so jealous, member when we used to get prerelease contraband...
hey shan!
hope the girls are feeling better. can't wait to see pics.
Rae, that's fun. Those were the days, huh? I don't know where it falls chronologically, but I love the Caedmon's "worship" CD, "In the Company of Angels." It's been SO very long since I've listened to anything new they've done, I'm completely out of the loop. I think they've always been pretty thoughtful about what they sing... Now a road trip with all our kiddos...that would be a riot. Maybe we could coerce some grandmas into coming to keep the little ones for us while we play. ;o)
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