Friday, October 15, 2010

Moving

I have been missing a lot lately.  It might have to do with the fact that I'm preparing my little family of 5 to move across the country next week.  I'm extremely busy and feeling very overwhelmed with it all.  I promise to be back...I'm just not sure when that will be.  We don't even have a place to live yet!  Pretty typical for us.  Although, each time we add another child, so it makes it a little more difficult.  I'm sure things will be okay.  If you have any suggestions for activities for our four day car ride, I would really appreciate it.  My husband and I are both driving a car, so there will not be an extra set of hands to help.  Our children are ages 5,3, and 1.  Please help!

8 comments:

whitneyingram said...

We used to do a lot of car trips to Northern California when I was a little. And my mom would drive us 6 girls all by herself. Crazy.

Anyways, she used to do mileage packages. Like every 100 or so miles, we would get a new package. In the package would be things like new paper and crayons, some kind of treat we never got to have (like Cheetos) or toys from the dollar store. We LOVED it. And I am sure it kept my mom sane. She also did a lot of books on tape.

With my little kids, we drive to Southern California often. We have made the drive dozens of times, so we know where the parks are along the way so our littles can get out and stretch their legs.

I have found that if I keep a schedule in the car like I do at home, then we aren't trying too hard to kill each other.

larainydays said...

Good luck with your move. I'll look forward to more good recipes when you get settled. I have no suggestions for handling your long car trip other than gritting your teeth or Benadryl. ;)

Jenna said...

I like the idea of keeping a schedule in the car...and little surprises are along the way are always fun! I wish you lots of luck, I don't know how you're doing it!!!

Unknown said...

do the simplest things first: nothing, looking at books, coloring, music and THEN movies (but never before you have three hours left).
i just moved and my BFF gave me a treat bag and it saved the trip. color wonder books, a mini bop it toy, a CD from they might be giants (their kids music is awesome), each kids got a new book of a movie that they liked. i had a friend who'd let her kids play with playdough in the car but i've never been that brave. she swears it just dries and vacuums up perfect. i've never tried it. also getting them new toys that they've always wanted and keeping secret until the last minute before they freak out is always good. :)

Mikaela said...

Hi Candace-

I've lurked around your blog many times but have never commented! Thanks for all of your fabulous recipes. I wish you the best of luck on your trip. I have just a couple suggestions to add. The first is redbox. Since u can return them anywhere u can rent some movies the kiddos have never seen for when it's time to watch a movie. Also, my mom used to spend hours singing with us In the car and teaching us new songs when we were kids. We would also do the Read along books, which I've done for my own kid and they have at wal-mart. Oh and another thing, my mom would always play games with us. Like we would rhyme things or do opposites. She'd give us a word and we would tell the opposite. Not sure that would fit all your age groups, but maybe!

Good luck. Traveling with a baby is tough. It will be worth it though, when you reach the promised land or Zion as I like to call it!

Mikaela (knight)

Btw, I know and absolutely adore your AMAZING Aunt Thomasene! Tell her hello the next time you see her.

Anonymous said...

Benydryl, movies and lots of prayer!

Alyssa Griffeth said...

It looks like this suggestion has already sort of been made, but we like to do "roadtrip presents." We just got back from a drive to Dallas last night and it worked perfectly. I bought lots of little things, mostly from the dollar section in Target, and wrapped them all up in fun wrapping paper. Then, AS NEEDED, I pulled one out at a time. It totally saved the day. I even wrapped up all of the snacks (and even a few toys/games that we already had, but hadn't played with recently.

Two of the favorite gifts were window markers (by Crayola...I got them at Khol's but I bet they're at Target too) and Halloween window gel cling stickers ($1 section). My three year old had a blast coloring on/decorating her car window!

Good luck!

Lacey said...

I was actually online today printing off mazes, dot to dots and crossword puzzles for my kids to do on road trips. Just google kids puzzle pages, or maze pages and lots will come up to print off for free. That keeps my older boys entertained for awhile.