Okay, I'm sorry, but no one is a SuperMom when they are moving. NO ONE. So this is the one and only fancy-shmancy SuperMom thing we did in May. Do I feel guilty? Not at all. Why should I? I was single-handedly packing up our house and preparing to move 3,000 miles away! Plus, I fed them. And with everything I had to do, that in and of itself was quite the accomplishment. :)
Hand and Feet Prints
Alright, so in lieu of the whole SuperMom kick, I thought I'd list all the things we brought/did on our nearly 70-hour cross country trip in May. Just in case you want ideas for any upcoming drives you have. (A couple of them have links to the product in case you don't know what I'm talking about.)
Travel Tips
cheap cookie sheets (to act as a flat surface for drawing - and the lip keeps stuff in!)
colored chalk and black paper
coloring books
stickers
crayons, markers, etc. and colored paper
window markers
movies
cds of kid songs (my kids *love* the Little People cds from Walmart)
children's books
the Friend magazine
picture booklets (with pictures of themselves, grandparents, cousins, etc.)
nail polish
pipe cleaners
rolls of tape
bubble wrap
koosh balls
sun glasses
slinky bracelets
letter and number magnets (which work perfectly on the cookie sheets!)
cheap watches
band-aids (are mine the only kids who think they are fun?!)
movie character figurines (we got the ones from Cars, Toy Story, and Wall-E)
sidewalk chalk (for rest stops)
foam brushes and plastic cups (to paint with water at rest stops, then you chuck it all because they were cheap)
we ended up having to drive on Sunday :( - hence the fancy clothes
17 comments:
Just a question...aren't you turning around a lot more when you have all that stuff for them to do??? Like taking care of changing projects, catching falling things, taking marker lids off, etc??? You're a patient woman!
hello my perfect cousin, janae. i admire your hardcore skills as a mother. p.s. your kids are so beautiful. elijah looks like a model in the picture with the hand and feet prints.
Roberta - Yes, I did end up turning around a lot. But it was more to change projects than to stop fights, so it was definitely an improvement. :) As for dropped things, we established really quickly on day 1 that if they drop it, they are done with it. It seemed mean at first, but you'd be amazed at how quickly they learned not to drop things!
Natalie - Yeah, Elijah the boy model who is wearing girl underwear and a bracelet. Bet ya didn't notice that, did ya? :) In my defense, I was exhausted from packing and didn't have the energy to fight with him (he wanted to wear both). He'll never remember, anyway. Unless he sees the picture ...
Good list. I'm interested to know which ones worked the best (lasted longest with the least amount of supervision). And which ones you wouldn't do next time you move across the country. :) Definitely a good bunch of fun ideas.
Perfect! I'm needing some ideas for next month. I'll have to steal some of these. Thanks for sharing!
You gave them nail polish in the car? Seriously?
You are a goddess!
And obviously, I got a kick out of the water painting thing, too. :)
Cara - the movie figurines with the biggest hit. The water painting was also huge (and gave Sam and I some time to sit and eat). They really loved the chalk and black paper. Otherwise they were all about equal. If they were older some of them might have been bigger hits (they liked the tape, but didn't really do anything but pull it out and ball it up). Pipe cleaners were the biggest downer, but once again because of their age. They just didn't get how to make things our of them.
Rachel - You're funny. NO. That was for me to do. Seara doesn't like to hold still, and the car seat pretty much ensured that she did. :)
by 'our' I meant 'out
awesome. i want to be in the backseat of your van next time you travel...TOO MUCH FUN!!
I love your super mommy posts. They give me so many fun ideas!
You are a very creative mom. The handprint/footprint thing is super cute!
Definitely going to come back to this post for reference! Thanks for posting this, Janae!
Look at the adorable smiley Enoch! What a cutie with his two bottom teeth!
Wow- was that a big sigh of relief when you made it there? Those were some really good ideas- I will definitely make notesfor future reference. We also like balloons. We bat them around and it's pretty entertaining- and doesn't distract too much from the driver.
My kids love the little people songs too. And actually they are not too terrible to listen to like a lot of other children's cds.
I'm a fan of the painting at the rest stops. Good thinking!
I wondered about the nail polish, too. Thanks for clearing that up!
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