Staying Sane While Traveling

We have family who live seven hours away from us, so the drive can get pretty long, especially with two children under the age of three.  On our last trip, I wanted to have a pleasant seven hour ride, so I planned ahead and came up with several activities to keep the boys busy, hoping they would enjoy them.  Some of them are my own ideas, and some came from the Activity Mom (located in her travel section), and some came from Little Family Fun.  Most of the activities went over really well, and we ended up having a great and happy fourteen hour round trip.

I-spy jar.  I filled a glass jar with rice and different objects that the boys had to look for.  This activity didn't interest them.  They handed the jar back to me rather quickly.  Micaiah threw it on the floor. 

Clothes pins, rocks and pom poms for my baby to take out and put back.

Micaiah liked the colors and softness of the pom poms and the smoothness of the rocks.

Buttons and pipe cleaners.  When I saw this activity I thought this would be difficult.  I was wrong.  Abishai played with this for a really long time.

For this activity you're supposed to match alphabet stickers to the letters on the paper roll.  This activity would have gone over really well if I had larger stickers for his tiny hands.  We ended up having to abandon it. 

This activity, "match the pipe cleaner with the identically colored hole", was intended for just Abishai, but Micaiah didn't seem to have any trouble getting the pipe cleaner in the hole.  It became a baby activity as well as a toddler activity.

Abisahi matching the colors.

Snack time is very important for keeping my little ones happy.  We had a range of healthy snacks; raisins, juice, banana chips, bananas, and these crackers.  I normally don't buy crackers of any kind because the ingredients aren't healthy- even the supposedly "healthy" ones.  However, this box was new to the store shelf and didn't have anything in it that sounded like a chemical, so all you ingredient readers out there, my boys gobbled these up.

I-spy book.

A folder of Poo puzzles.

Lots and lots of books.

Matching letters again.  We were missing the E.

I had a few more activities planned like memory and a parking cars game, but we didn't have the time.  Next trip, I guess.