WFMW: Bags for the Road Trip

As I mentioned last week, we will be heading to North Carolina via car (shudder) next month. This trip has been planned for quite a while now, and I've been making mental notes of different things to buy in order to make the road trip a little less hellacious.

One of my ideas was to give each boy a small book bag to hang on their arm rests to hold their loot (a.k.a. books, crayons, paper, and small toys). This is to prevent me from getting whiplash from all the neck-craning involved with pleasing 3 boys on the road.

If you've taken a road trip with young kids, you know what I'm talking about. "Mommy, I need such and such." (5 minutes later) "Mommy, I'm done with such and such."

In my non-crafty mind, I imagined that I would need my mom's help in sewing simple bags. But when I mentioned this to her last week, she suggested I check Hobby Lobby for cheap, already-made bags. She's a genius, I tell you!

A trip to Hobby Lobby proved her right. I found these canvas bags complete with handles and outside pockets for around $3 each.
I found fabric markers on the same aisle for something like $7.
The boys have enjoyed decorating their bags a little each day.
And my idea of hanging them on the boys' arm rests...voila!
I had hoped to show you a picture of the boys each smiling in their seats and proudly displaying their bags. Unfortunately, their stinky attitudes showed me that they needed an early bedtime. Anywho....

When we hit the road in a few weeks, my neck will be able to rest a little longer between the requests for "such and such".

What else might make this road trip bearable? I would love to hear your ideas! (I'm also planning to hit the dollar store for cheap toys so they can have something new every couple of hours. Of course, we have movies and music.)

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday over at We Are That Family.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Make your own "car bingo" cards, and the winner gets to choose a gift from the bag! Wrap the the dollar store gifts...adds to the excitement.

Car bingo is nothing more than a nine square grid on a piece of paper. Cut out pics from magazines or the computer of different objects for the kids to find: red truck, black cow, brown dog, etc. the older the child, the more difficult the sheet. Do NOT make two sheets the same! You want them looking for different things!

Jennifer said...

Hey..they have magnetic car Bingo at Cracker Barrel. It is fun...if I owned it, I would share. Also, another neat idea that my friend did for us last year was that she made gift bags for each of our kids. There was a gift for them for every state border that we crossed! From marker sets to packs of gum, it was really neat to cross a state line and get excited about our next gift! We also play the ABC Game where you look for letters while you are driving, you can make it through the alphabet REAL fast on 377, but not when you are out on the open road!!!! I always buy them some new small toy like an action figure or something mini that they can hold in their hand. We also buy special candy and gum just to pass the time. Let me know if there are movies that you would like to borrow...and take LOTS of pictures!!!!!

Jen Mall said...

You can also use cookie sheets for them to use as little desks. It keeps things (crayons, pencils, etc) from rolling onto the floor and they are magnetic.

Good luck!!!