Saturday, February 26, 2011

Taking a Long Trip-What Can you Not Do Without?

We are planning a long trip next month. Driving in a car with 5 kids over 1,000 miles. I have been getting myself prepared for this trip for months now-lol! Im excited, but nervous. Five kids and two adults from OK to CA, straight through, is going to be one heck of a journey!

So, in order to prepare, I started making somewhat of a menu plan. What can we eat without hitting every fast food place from hither to yonder? What snacks will be good, so we won't be buying junky stuff while we stop to get gas. What can I make sure if packed as far as drinks so we are not just shoving nasty soda down our throats?

I was able to get quite a few ideas. Before we leave out, I will heat up some breakfast burritoes-already made and sitting in the freezer. I have lunches planned and we will try to eat out only for dinner. Snacks are going to include raisins, apples, little lunch packs of fruit, string cheese, crackers, and I even plan to make my own snack mix.

But, beyond food, I had to think about entertainment. We got a dvd player for the kids. In our Suburban, the kids who have to sit in the very back seat get the opportunity to watch dvds :) I purchased card games at good prices for the kids to play-Mad Gab, Whack A Mole, and a couple others. I also have made travel journals for each child-used pocket folders with tabs and printed off coloring pages, information pages about states, and some puzzle pages -like crosswords, word searches, etc. I also put some notebook paper in each journal so the kids could write about things they saw on the trip. And, I will place blank paper for drawing as well. I purchased stickers, and some other things that were on clearance after Valentine's Day. I plan to package these up in bags to hand out along the way. In each bag will there will also be one of the above snacks so perhaps when any frustrating arguing starts, this will break up the monotony and allow the kids (and the parents) a little peace :)

When you are planning a trip, what sort of things are you sure to bring? How do you try to keep things frugal? What can you not do without? Feel free to share. Im still making sure I have all sorts of ideas, making sure I don't run into something I wish I would have brought, but didn't, and wanting to make this trip the best one ever!

2 comments:

April said...

Hi Debbie! What a great blog...hope to see you soon at homeschool group.
We took the kids to Florida and had the same goals. The trip was awesome and the things the kids loved the most were the contests I did. I brought a roll of foil and gave each person a sheet of foil. They had to create a piece of jewelry they could wear with their foil. We also had a bubble blowing contest, with that really cheap gum. It was hysterical. We did a bunch more...but from here to Florida, the kids only watched one movie. We've done the goodie bag like you were talking about and that was awesome, too. We gave ours out every 150 miles. Have fun on your trip!!

OkieDebbie said...

Thank you April. I love the foil idea and I bet the kids would have a blast with the bubble blowing contest :) I need to get some lunch bags for the goodie bag handouts and get busy putting things together in those bags :) Thanks for the ideas-will be agging bubblegum and foil to my list ;)