to keep them occupied, most occupied indeed

We are leaving later this week on an epic road trip to Utah. We're looking at 33+ hours in the car, each way, so when I say "epic," what I really mean is "daunting." How are we ever going to survive this long in the car without killing each other?! I mean, it's not like we're unfamiliar with living literally on top of each other, but the car, well, the car is even more cramped and crowded.

But thanks to all the bogging mommies on the internet, as well as a lot of brainstorming help from my friends via Facebook, I have managed to compile a mountain of activities to keep the boys busy and therefore hopefully also happy. I thought I'd break down here what I've prepared in case any of you are as crazy as we are to attempt such a road trip with small children. Most of the things you'll see below we already had on hand. I only made a few small purchases, and most of those were at the 99 cent store.

Audio picture books. During our childhood, my mom collected picture books on tape for my siblings and I to enjoy. A few years ago she and my dad compiled them all onto CD and gave each of us a copy for Christmas. We don't own all the books we now have audio recordings of, but we have quite a few, which we will be bringing with us in the car.

Chapter book. The boys have started to enjoy listening to me read chapter books out loud to them. So far we've devoured the My Father's Dragon trilogy, and we're almost finished with Charlotte's Web. Garrett was given a copy of Mr. Popper's Penguins for his birthday, and both boys are anxious for me to read it to them.

Reusable sticker pad. This set I found at a local toy store comes with five different habitat scenes and animal stickers to go with them.

Clipboards to use as lap trays/desks.

Felt boards with cut out shapes. I had an old piece of mat board and a stack of flannel, so this was pretty easy to put together.

Notebooks to doodle in.

Squiggle drawings to complete and color.

Twistable crayons & mechanical pencils in a pencil case. (I found the crayons at the 99 cent for just that -- only 99 cents!)

Aluminum foil to build small sculptures.

Pipe cleaners & wooden beads. They can twist the pipe cleaners into different shapes, or string beads on them.

Marshmallows & pretzels. Another construction project (think junior high-era bridges made out of toothpicks). This also doubles nicely as a snack.

Pokemon cards. Garrett recently discovered these and fell in love with their awesomeness. At two packs for a dollar, I thought they might make a good diversion.

Animal figurines. The boys love using their "maninations" while playing with these kinds of toys.

Small flashlights for entertainment when we're driving in the dark.

Road Trip Bingo. I found free printables on this site, but I'm thinking that I'll want to pick up some of these for the drive home during our field trip to Orson Gygi.

Paper bags to make paper bag puppets.

Post-It Notes. Because they're just fun to doodle on and then stick everywhere!


We also have snacks, music they enjoy, and a DVD player built into the car, so I think we have our bases covered. (Well, except possibly where Matthew is concerned, but he's a pretty mellow fellow -- or so I keep telling myself. But seriously, just give that kid a white cloth diaper, and he'll quickly find his thumb and go to his happy place.)

When I showed Blake all that I'd come up with for them to do in the car, he was pretty impressed. I just hope that none of it backfires too badly. I know these preparations won't cure all the inevitable whines, but they'll definitely help in the battle against them, and when survival is your main goal, that's really the most you can hope for.