Shannon says everyone’s doing giveaways and maybe she’s right…
Since moving to Seattle we’ve put thousands of miles on Vinny, driving back and forth to visit stubborn family all over the country who refuse to pick up stakes and move in next door.
I was even insane enough to travel alone with 2 kids, 14 hours each way to visit my parents this spring. Very seldom do I come across breakthroughs in travel with offspring. This 4th of July week, I came across two.
1. Wash the Car — Every time we stop for gas, the kids want to get out and run around. This usually involves yelling at calling loudly with love and logic to them as they dodge semi trucks in the parking lot, wrenching away the candy that they are loudly clutching to their bosoms in the convenience store and helping them collect cigarette butts in the “field” behind the trash bin.
No more!
We now play a new game entitled “Wash the Car” in which the children, in fact, cleanse the family vehicle. While Mommy’s pumping gas and daddy’s powdering his nose, the kids each get their own squeegee and are instructed to clean the car as well as they can until the car wash timer clicks. (It sounds a lot like the handle on a gas pump releasing.)
They love it, especially when the washing fluid is pink, and I feel a bit better paying $10/gallon for gas if they throw in a couple of gallons of fun for free.
2. Toobs of Joy — Until this trip, I had yet to find a toy that would keep my toddler busy for more than 30 seconds while he was strapped into our mobile torture chamber.
At the drugstore in our little town, the drugstore where the pharmacists have a baby swing and a pak-n-play behind the counter to keep their kids close at hand, I purchased a toob of joy.
Magoo sat with the Farm Toob on his lap and joyfully emptied out each animal, identified it loudly and then shoved it back in again. He continued like this for at least an hour. As far as I can remember, Magoo has never done anything for an hour since he spent that long keeping himself plugged in my nether-regions during child birth. Apart from one minor incident with a rooster wedged under his butt for a couple of hours, the Farm Toob experience was one of bliss and joy. They’re detailed, well-made and perfectly pudgy-fist-sized.
The Farm Toob is my favorite all time road trip toy and now I want to collect them all.
Even more than that, I want you to have them. So I called the manufacturer Safari LTD and they very kindly sent me two gift packs with three toobs each and some other fun stuff to give away to my readers.
Sadly they included no gift for me, but then I already have the Farm Toob and the memory of an hour of joy on the road.
Leave a comment to be put in a random drawing for the gift packs. I’ll draw 2 winners Friday July 20th at midnight PST.
I’d love to hear your road trip ideas, but you can just say, “Hi,” or, “Give me plastic,” and you’ll still be entered.
If you don’t win, you can buy them here, here, here and here. I’ll be buying them from ye olde tiny drugstore down the street.
***Update – The winners are comment #91 and #99, April C. and Seabird. Congratulations and thanks for all the great tips!***
Oh, my son would love those!!
food. lots of food. and drink boxes are a big novelty.
The photos of the kids ‘washing’ the car cracked me up! That’s such a great idea. I’m going to try that with the husband…ha!
I have major roadtrips coming up! I would love to give my daughter this and have an hour of peace time!
Sad…my odds of winning are decreasing daily. Look at all these comments. But hey, I’ll still enter for my boys…Spaghetti and Meatball would enjoy them I am sure.
For long road trips their GrMa usually packs them a bag with new and old books/toys (some wrapped and some not). We try not to get more out of the bag until he has completely lost interest in what he already has out.
My oldest loves sticker books and puppets. My youngest likes puppets, books and things that make noise. We don’t have a portable DVD player, but it would be nice I’m sure; If you ever give one of those away, let us know.
plaaaastic tubes of looooove. sign me up! seriously, this boy is going to need entertaining when he emerges, ummm… five months from now. what great suggestions other people have had. thanks for asking them! i’m gonna get me a laminator!
Sign me up and if I win I’ll give them to a grandchild! We did a lot of listening to Wee Sing recordings and singing games and when they got older, the alphabet game and I Spy and looking for license plates from all the states and when traveling on less busy country roads, guessing how many cars we’d pass going the other way before the next highway crossing. I was just led to a helpful website with kids ideas and home organization tips: w etc. meckmom dot com. She suggested keeping a crystal light tube stuffed with grocery bags under the seat in the car to have handy for trash pickups. Keeps the bags contained in a small space. I thought that was a good idea.
Those would be handy on my 12 hour car trip with 4 children!! Did I say I was going to be the only adult??
Wow….wicked cool tubes. I could bloody well use those on our trip to Lake Tahoe. Happy Harry potter weekend!!!
We just went on a LONG road trip to my brother’s wedding. Two things that made it bearable: the Snack and Play Travel Tray (Shannon blogged about it at Rocks In My Dryer Reviews) and four little Tonka trucks. The boy was in heaven for about 80% of our time in the car, and I tell you, that ain’t half bad. 🙂
In any case, I’d love to win a new travel toy for our next trip, so do enter me in the drawing! Thanks!
Wow… so many comments I probably have no chance of winning those for my little boy. But it’s worth a shot!
I have a 18 mo old and a 2 mo old… busy! I was nodding my head when you said he likes to take them all out and put them all in again, I always have her “car” purse with us filled with lots of fun nick nacks. anyway, I love your blog and it makes me laugh! thanks!
We’re ALWAYS driving somewhere to do something! We try to plan coming or going around nap time so our toddler will sleep at least part of the way. I need more options…Please send some plastic my way!
Hey, I want one too! If I don’t win, maybe I’ll buy the other “toobs” so we can play sometime! I think they’d make good Christmas presents, eh? Enter me, please. And we had a great thing in the church nursery at one time that entertained the kids for long stretches. It was the old film tubes with lids, and there were little tiny things in them and we’d distract the crying ones with having them guess which item was in the tube we were holding and opening. 🙂
The traveling DVD player is the greatest invention ever, but when they invent limo glass for SUV’s I want credit.
Last year I went and got different colored sticky notes, the small ones. First, I drew a picture on a sticky note for every hour we were going to be in the car and stuck them to the headliner (really should have put them on the windows) and the kids got to take turns peeling one off every hour. Really helped with the “ARE WE THERE YET?”‘s then they drew their own pictures and stuck them all over the place.
Clean up was fun. Give me some plastic sister!
Well, I’m terrified of long car trips with my kids. So the furthest place we’ve gone with them is 2 1/2 hours away. Lots of kids’ music helps, as well as 2 big handfuls of toys they haven’t seen in a while because they’ve been living at the bottom of the toy box. It seems to help our daughter (who’s 3) by talking about where we’re going and who we’re going to see. It makes her more excited and less grouchy which makes me more excited and less grouchy.
You know, I think some toobs of joy would also make us more excited and less grouchy.
At least one pair of noise-canceling headphones for the adults in the vehicle. Nothing says my children are content like not being able to hear them.
(I don’t want the toob, if one more toy makes its way into our house my husband will hit the roof.)
Our favorite road trip ideas are these: squirt gun water fights at rest stops and glow sticks for late night trips. Oh, and a DVD player, of course!
I would love to have another hands-on activity for my active son–
we live 9+ hours from any family, so long trips are inevitable.
Glad it’s worked so well for you!
Oh wise Daring one. Please enter me into your drawing.
What a fantastic tidbit of info! We will be attempting the 10 hour drive to my in-laws in November with my 22 month old twin daughters. I’m desperately searching for any and every tip there is on how to make the trip managable. 🙂