Road Trip Shenanigans!

Last week we took our family vacation to the beach...Gulf Shores, AL to be exact.  We had a 6+ hour car trip (one way) with a 6-year-old and a 21-month-old.  I was so happy when I came across some "traveling with kids" ideas at just the right time to get some activities ready for our trip!  Plus, it was also a way for me to get some crafting in, even if it wasn't making cards!

I made these for the 6-year-old, thinking I'd get some other activities together for the "baby."  Well, that never happened.  So he kind of got the leftovers from Sissy's things.

Ready to road trip!

The first idea I came across that I loved was this Road Trip Activity Countdown by Small + Friendly's blog.

I made a countdown for the way there and the way back!

Next, I needed to come up with some activities to put on each link (8 links for each countdown).

Luckily, I came across Kids Activities Blog who had some great ideas for me in THIS blog post.  I'll just highlight some of the more successful activities.

These lacing cards were a hit.  Olivia loves to sew, so I knew she'd really enjoys these.

I printed out the cards and glued them to some card stock to make them more sturdy.  I used my hole piercer to make the holes and had blunt needles already threaded and ready to go for each color.

Hard at work!

Next up was a travel memory game.   

 This was a little too easy for her, but fun nonetheless.

She was pretty excited at finding the matches.

Next up was a Magnetic Tangram Puzzel at Delia Creates. 

She had a little trouble with this one because the printout of the puzzles to recreate was so small.  So she just made up her own designs.

Next up was a Travel Bingo game from Simple As That!  This was great because it had pictures instead of words.  Helpful since she isn't reading just yet. 

I made 2 cards; one for her and one for me!

Here's a super fun favorite...Build a Monster from Simple as That! 

This was her end result. 

And for the grand finale, the one that I think she (and I) enjoyed the most...shadow puppets! 

I printed out the princess fairy set and glued them to card stock before gluing to a Popsicle stick.  Her and I took turns making up stories using the shadow puppets. 

As for the little guy, we liked it when he was like this (i.e., quiet and content)...

but mostly when he was like this...

Which didn't happen nearly enough!

But in the end, it was a great trip!

Go get your craft on!
--Cheryl