As a mom, I keep a list.
A list of the places my kids have thrown up.
Sacrament meeting (twice), church hallway, the car (blerg, that's the worst!!), BYU basketball game...
After our trip to TN, I've got a new one to add, courtesy of Juno: airplane. Oh, and 'on me' makes it to the list as well.
We were just landing in Denver for our layover. Juno is under two, so I didn't have her in her own seat, which means she had been wiggling on my lap in the middle seat for the last hour. All of a sudden, she was very still; she pulled her pacifier out of her mouth.
"Please don't throw up," I said. The words weren't even out of my mouth when she emptied the entire contents of her stomach all over everything. Her pajamas (yes, my kids travel almost exclusively in their pajamas), Tiny Teddy, my jeans, the seat and the floor. I used every single wipe I had packed in my carry-on cleaning her up. The pajamas were a total loss, so I tossed them and the gross wipes in a plastic bag that the gentleman in front of us gave me. By the time most of the passengers had gotten off, Juno was clean (albeit dressed only in a diaper).
My sister Kelsey had my big girls and they both had to go to the bathroom, and I wanted to give Juno a wet-paper-towel bath in the bathroom before our other flight.
Which was boarding.
Before we even got off the plane.
We rushed.
I may have broken down in the bathroom, completely overwhelmed and exhausted.
I may have even wept for 15 minutes on the plane.
Yes. I did.
Now that it's been almost 2 weeks, it's kind of funny...
Kind of.
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Thursday, June 7, 2012
the happiest place on earth
So we got back from Disneyland last Friday and I think I am mostly recovered now.
Traveling with three kids is hard. How do you people with larger families do it?? We had a great time--here are some pictures and favorites!
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
101 ways to keep kids happy in the car
Activities
1. Fingerplays: Itsy Bitsy Spider, My Little Kitty, Where is Thumbkin, etc.
2. Blow bubbles: the little wedding favor bubbles are great in the car!
3. Bubble machine: we got ours at Wal-Mart for $6 and it is awesome.
4. Sing silly songs
5. Small toys that they haven't seen before--try wrapping "presents" for baby to open every so often.
6. Peek a boo
7. Bubble wrap: you can get a 1 ft x 6 ft length of bubble wrap from the dollar store and cut it into smaller pieces to entertain baby.
8. Magnets: find an old magnetic cookie tray from a thrift store and add a set of alphabet
9. Pipe cleaner jar: use an old spice large holes, like a parsley container, and cut pipe cleaners to length. Baby can practice putting pipe cleaners through the holes. Great for fine motor!
10. Pipe cleaner magnet bottle: Fill a plastic bottle (like a soda bottle) with small pieces of pipe cleaners. Glue a super magnet to a string and tie the string around the neck of the jar. Then have fun manipulating the pipe cleaners through the jar with the magnet!
11. Glitter jar: fill a clean, empty baby food jar with water and lots of glitter. Glue the lid on securely and have fun shaking the glitter and then watching it settle down.
magnets.
12. Those trays of nails that you can press your face or hand into.
13. I-Spy bottle: Fill a clean, empty soda bottle with rice and a dozen or so small trinkets (dice, jacks, sequins, miniatures, etc). Take a picture of the items laid on a table and laminate it; give it to your child with a washable marker so they can mark off the items as they find them.
14. Play with small toys (my girls love the little Disney Princess dolls that come with rubber dresses).
15. Magnetic paper dolls or other magnetic toys on an old cookie sheet.
16. Create a tinker kit: fill a small bag or container with a mini screwdriver, pliers, magnifying glass, old calculator, and other small broken gadgets for your kid to tinker with.
17. If you're brave, give your kids some playdough. You can use old towels to protect the seats and old cookie sheets make a good lap tray.
18. A sheet of tin foil can keep kids occupied for a long time!
19. Finger puppets.
20. Fill a balloon with flour and let your kids squeeze it.
21. If you're super brave, small musical instruments from the Dollar Store.
22. Hand out glow sticks after dark.
23. Give each child a map and let them follow your route.
24. Make a car tracker: Cut a car out of heavy paper and string on a ribbon divided into increments for how long your trip will be; move forward after each hour.
Books and Stories
25. Let your kids write a story of their own--younger kids can dictate to you.
26. Read the scriptures.
27. Read the Friend.
28. Read or listen to a talk from the conference issue of the Ensign.
29. Look at a children's magazine like Family Fun or Highlights.
30. Touch and feel books.
31. Sturdy board books or crinkly books made for infants32. Tell stories about your childhood.
33. Choose your own adventure books.
34. Tell a choose your own adventure story--my kids love this! I just tell a story and let my kids make choices about what the characters will do.
35. Listen to a chapter book on tape.
36. Tell stories about when your kids were babies.
37. Look at photo albums of far away relatives.
38. Listen to picture books on tape and look at the pictures as you listen.
39. Read a chapter book aloud.
40. I-Spy book or a Do You See What I See? book by Walter Wick.
41. Graeme Base has written a few mystery picture books, complete with hidden clues and secret codes you have to crack. They can take a while to solve!
42. Tell a Terribly Wrong story (a mystery/riddle that your kids have to solve, like the old stabbed-by-an-icicle story).
43. Where's Waldo? We got the travel book that has all five books bound together, including all five characters in every picture plus hundreds of extra things to find!
44. Write a letter to a far-away family member, a missionary, or a member of the armed services.
45. Write limericks together.
46. Mad-Libs.
47. Continually learn with simple workbooks from Target.
48. Write in your journal.
Media
49. Make a playlist of your favorite songs and introduce your kids to them!
50. Upper body dance party.
51. Sing along to a cheesy soundtrack, like the Newsies!
52. Watch a movie.
53. Choose a new tv series to watch as a family.
54. Watch old family videos that have been converted to DVD.
55. Watch slideshows of family pictures (my kids love watching the slideshow that played at our wedding reception!)
56. Take silly pictures with a digital camera and laugh at them.
57. Videotape each other doing celebrity impressions.
58. Play games on a VTech camera, phone, Ipad, or Leapfrog.
59. Think up new blog posts.
60. Look at family picture albums.
Games
61. Do a crossword puzzle.
62. Do a wordsearch.
63. Play Sudoku.64. Play the alphabet game.
65. Play I'm Going on a Picnic.
66. Play Ghost.
67. Play Road Trip Bingo--you can find tons of Bingo cards online with pictures of things like trucks, trains, bridges, etc.
68. Count how many different states you can find license plates from.
69. Play tic-tac-toe.
70. Play Cat is My Favorite Meat (this is what my family calls it, I don't know what it's really called): Each person starts with a blank piece of paper. Everyone writes a sentence and then passes the paper to the person on their left. That person draws a picture to illustrate the sentence and then folds the paper so that only the picture shows. Pass, and then write a sentence about the picture; fold so only the sentence shows and so on and so forth. Pretty hilarious!
71. Play 20 Questions.
72. The Quiet Game (parents like this one!)
73. Yahtzee is an easy game to play in the car.
74. Magnetic travel board games.
75. Play I-Spy
Art Activities
76. Practice a new skill like embroidery or crotchet.
77. Make your own comic book.
78. Do a connect-the-dots picture.
79. Color by number picture.
80. Color on the windows with washable markers
81. Make paper bag puppets.
82. Coloring books.
83. Aquadoodle.
84. Magnadoodle.
85. Etch-a-sketch
86. Fill a gallon size ziplock bag with paint; seal and securely duct tape closed. Your kids can "paint" through the bag without making a mess.
87. Color with crayons--coloring books or clipboards are good for holding paper to color on.
88. Sticker book and a small notebook to decorate.
89. Let your kids go crazy and make weird creatures with pipe cleaners.
90. String beads on ribbon or elastic (or pipe cleaners for little hands!)
91. Color plastic "stained glass" with markers.
92. Make button bracelets by stringing buttons onto elastic.
Snacks
93. Make edible necklaces with Fruit Loops or Cheerios--then eat them!
94. Squeezable applesauce.
95. Apples or easy-to-peel clementines.
96. Mix your own trail mix--hand out ziplock baggies with chocolate chips, craisins, pretzels, peanuts, and marshmallows, and shake shake shake!
97. String cheese.
98. Roasted chickpeas.
99. Pistachios--shelling them is an activity in and of itself!
100.Something special that you don't normally buy (for us it's fruit snacks!)
101. If all else fails, give your kids a Melatonin and hope they fall asleep (just joking--mostly!)
1. Fingerplays: Itsy Bitsy Spider, My Little Kitty, Where is Thumbkin, etc.
2. Blow bubbles: the little wedding favor bubbles are great in the car!
3. Bubble machine: we got ours at Wal-Mart for $6 and it is awesome.
4. Sing silly songs
5. Small toys that they haven't seen before--try wrapping "presents" for baby to open every so often.
6. Peek a boo
7. Bubble wrap: you can get a 1 ft x 6 ft length of bubble wrap from the dollar store and cut it into smaller pieces to entertain baby.
8. Magnets: find an old magnetic cookie tray from a thrift store and add a set of alphabet
9. Pipe cleaner jar: use an old spice large holes, like a parsley container, and cut pipe cleaners to length. Baby can practice putting pipe cleaners through the holes. Great for fine motor!
10. Pipe cleaner magnet bottle: Fill a plastic bottle (like a soda bottle) with small pieces of pipe cleaners. Glue a super magnet to a string and tie the string around the neck of the jar. Then have fun manipulating the pipe cleaners through the jar with the magnet!
11. Glitter jar: fill a clean, empty baby food jar with water and lots of glitter. Glue the lid on securely and have fun shaking the glitter and then watching it settle down.
magnets.
12. Those trays of nails that you can press your face or hand into.
13. I-Spy bottle: Fill a clean, empty soda bottle with rice and a dozen or so small trinkets (dice, jacks, sequins, miniatures, etc). Take a picture of the items laid on a table and laminate it; give it to your child with a washable marker so they can mark off the items as they find them.
14. Play with small toys (my girls love the little Disney Princess dolls that come with rubber dresses).
15. Magnetic paper dolls or other magnetic toys on an old cookie sheet.
16. Create a tinker kit: fill a small bag or container with a mini screwdriver, pliers, magnifying glass, old calculator, and other small broken gadgets for your kid to tinker with.
17. If you're brave, give your kids some playdough. You can use old towels to protect the seats and old cookie sheets make a good lap tray.
18. A sheet of tin foil can keep kids occupied for a long time!
19. Finger puppets.
20. Fill a balloon with flour and let your kids squeeze it.
21. If you're super brave, small musical instruments from the Dollar Store.
22. Hand out glow sticks after dark.
23. Give each child a map and let them follow your route.
24. Make a car tracker: Cut a car out of heavy paper and string on a ribbon divided into increments for how long your trip will be; move forward after each hour.
Books and Stories
25. Let your kids write a story of their own--younger kids can dictate to you.
26. Read the scriptures.
27. Read the Friend.
28. Read or listen to a talk from the conference issue of the Ensign.
29. Look at a children's magazine like Family Fun or Highlights.
30. Touch and feel books.
31. Sturdy board books or crinkly books made for infants32. Tell stories about your childhood.
33. Choose your own adventure books.
34. Tell a choose your own adventure story--my kids love this! I just tell a story and let my kids make choices about what the characters will do.
35. Listen to a chapter book on tape.
36. Tell stories about when your kids were babies.
37. Look at photo albums of far away relatives.
38. Listen to picture books on tape and look at the pictures as you listen.
39. Read a chapter book aloud.
40. I-Spy book or a Do You See What I See? book by Walter Wick.
41. Graeme Base has written a few mystery picture books, complete with hidden clues and secret codes you have to crack. They can take a while to solve!
42. Tell a Terribly Wrong story (a mystery/riddle that your kids have to solve, like the old stabbed-by-an-icicle story).
43. Where's Waldo? We got the travel book that has all five books bound together, including all five characters in every picture plus hundreds of extra things to find!
44. Write a letter to a far-away family member, a missionary, or a member of the armed services.
45. Write limericks together.
46. Mad-Libs.
47. Continually learn with simple workbooks from Target.
48. Write in your journal.
Media
49. Make a playlist of your favorite songs and introduce your kids to them!
50. Upper body dance party.
51. Sing along to a cheesy soundtrack, like the Newsies!
52. Watch a movie.
53. Choose a new tv series to watch as a family.
54. Watch old family videos that have been converted to DVD.
55. Watch slideshows of family pictures (my kids love watching the slideshow that played at our wedding reception!)
56. Take silly pictures with a digital camera and laugh at them.
57. Videotape each other doing celebrity impressions.
58. Play games on a VTech camera, phone, Ipad, or Leapfrog.
59. Think up new blog posts.
60. Look at family picture albums.
Games
61. Do a crossword puzzle.
62. Do a wordsearch.
63. Play Sudoku.64. Play the alphabet game.
65. Play I'm Going on a Picnic.
66. Play Ghost.
67. Play Road Trip Bingo--you can find tons of Bingo cards online with pictures of things like trucks, trains, bridges, etc.
68. Count how many different states you can find license plates from.
69. Play tic-tac-toe.
70. Play Cat is My Favorite Meat (this is what my family calls it, I don't know what it's really called): Each person starts with a blank piece of paper. Everyone writes a sentence and then passes the paper to the person on their left. That person draws a picture to illustrate the sentence and then folds the paper so that only the picture shows. Pass, and then write a sentence about the picture; fold so only the sentence shows and so on and so forth. Pretty hilarious!
71. Play 20 Questions.
72. The Quiet Game (parents like this one!)
73. Yahtzee is an easy game to play in the car.
74. Magnetic travel board games.
75. Play I-Spy
Art Activities
76. Practice a new skill like embroidery or crotchet.
77. Make your own comic book.
78. Do a connect-the-dots picture.
79. Color by number picture.
80. Color on the windows with washable markers
81. Make paper bag puppets.
82. Coloring books.
83. Aquadoodle.
84. Magnadoodle.
85. Etch-a-sketch
86. Fill a gallon size ziplock bag with paint; seal and securely duct tape closed. Your kids can "paint" through the bag without making a mess.
87. Color with crayons--coloring books or clipboards are good for holding paper to color on.
88. Sticker book and a small notebook to decorate.
89. Let your kids go crazy and make weird creatures with pipe cleaners.
90. String beads on ribbon or elastic (or pipe cleaners for little hands!)
91. Color plastic "stained glass" with markers.
92. Make button bracelets by stringing buttons onto elastic.
Snacks
93. Make edible necklaces with Fruit Loops or Cheerios--then eat them!
94. Squeezable applesauce.
95. Apples or easy-to-peel clementines.
96. Mix your own trail mix--hand out ziplock baggies with chocolate chips, craisins, pretzels, peanuts, and marshmallows, and shake shake shake!
97. String cheese.
98. Roasted chickpeas.
99. Pistachios--shelling them is an activity in and of itself!
100.Something special that you don't normally buy (for us it's fruit snacks!)
101. If all else fails, give your kids a Melatonin and hope they fall asleep (just joking--mostly!)
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Car trip treasure box
Our long-anticipated trip to Disneyland is coming right up--we leave in 10 days! And that means it's time to get down to planning and packing business for this momma.
We've done the driving long distances with kids thing multiple times, but honestly, it hasn't gotten any easier. People always ask if we have a DVD player in the van. The answer is yes. We do. With Monsters Inc stuck in it. And no sound.
Anyway, to combat the worst of the "Are we there yet?"s, I spent the last week putting together a ton of activities for my kids in the car. Look for my full list of 100 activities to keep kids occupied in the car in the next week or so!
First up, a hanging book rack between Tempe and Helena's car seats. It has three large pockets, one divided in half for smaller books, and is within easy reach of both girls. For our long drive, I'm going to stock it with I-Spy, Where's Waldo, and Graeme Base mystery books, all of which keep my girls (Tempe, especially) occupied for--well, not hours, but a long time!
Books are great, but they won't keep even the most avid reader occupied for 10+ hours. Enter the car trip treasure box.
Why did I put all of our activities in a treasure box? Because they are more precious than gold when traveling with three preschoolers.
Anyway, to combat the worst of the "Are we there yet?"s, I spent the last week putting together a ton of activities for my kids in the car. Look for my full list of 100 activities to keep kids occupied in the car in the next week or so!
Books are great, but they won't keep even the most avid reader occupied for 10+ hours. Enter the car trip treasure box.
Ours has an art kit (pipe cleaners, crayons, beads and elastic, and washable markers for coloring on the windows), a viewfinder, a set of plastic Bingo boards, the girls' collection of those little Disney Princesses and rubber dresses, bubble wrap (a lot of bubble wrap), bubbles, and a magnetic cookie sheet with alphabet magnets and a magnetic paper doll set.
I bought clipboards for the girls to color on and we have a full pack of printer paper, so we should be good!
We're also bringing a few books on CD (Peter Pan and Ramona), a special mix of all the girls' favorite songs (it includes Johnny Cash, Elvis, MGMT, and Adele), and their kid camera, which has a few simple video games on it.
Now I am headed to the grocery store to stock up on car-friendly snacks!
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