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!***
Hmm road trip ideas. I like going to the local library to pick new and fresh obnoxious children’s music to listen to on the drive. My kids love it.
While traveling across country with our 18 month old we purchased toys from Salvation Army, bleached and scrubbed them down, they entertained her for the trip and I didn’t feel the least bit bad when she no longer had any interest in them as we paid next to nothing for them.
Anything that can entertain a toddler for an hour (that does not involve a furry red monster living on Sesame Street) must be a miracle. My twin toddlers love sticker sheets for road trips. Peeling and sticking is a time consuming hobby!
Oooh, I’d love to have plastic! 😉
Go to the library and pick up books on tape. I was completely thrown off when mu 4 yo actually requested to listen to The Wizard of Oz. I got chapter books at a slightly higner level and was suprised ast how much she understiood. We even use them at home instead of videos. When we moved 12 hours away from our old home (that’s lke 20 hours with kids) I had a friend give me a bag of fun for my oldest. It was a fun bag that had all new stuff in it. It had a special snack, cookies, notebooks, new crayons, beads & string, notecards & envelops, small toys, small books, candy,, etc. Whenever she would get bored my husband would say, well lets look in the bag and see what else is in the bag. He said it was the best thing anyone could have given us. Worked like a charm. And I always keep snacks and water close at hand.
oh, and give me plastic!
I have one little one and she mostly entertains herself or sleeps on trips. As she gets older though, I will be looking for all the tips I can find. Enter us!
Toob me!
Good road trip ideas. We’re about to take two of our own this summer. With four kiddos. I just spent a bunch of money to get things to keep them occupied, and yet I totally missed the toobs of joy. Shoot!
What slawebb said about a bag of fun makes me giggle remembering how me and my sisters used to make our own “bag ‘o fun” for the many, many road trips we made growing up. But then, that was back before seatbelts were really part of the law and they were more of a “suggestion”. So we were able to move around more freely. I totally support the kid safety thing, but I feel bad for the kids now having to be strapped down for hours and hours at a time.
Come on, internets, Momma needs a tube job!
What a great post–& a great find! I’m actually still on the road since our marathon road trip started back on July 5th. Can’t wait to see what all the other Mommies suggest. We’ve been listening to the Harry Potter books on CD. (Our Public Library has them all.) We’re trying to get through all six of the current ones so that when we finally get home @ the end of July, we’ll be all ready for the new seventh book, which should be waiting for us. We’re currently working our way through book four. I’m glad we found something that we can all enjoy together as a family . . . as opposed to something that only the kids like . . . after all, we’re the ones that have to do all that driving!
Books and little “guys”, or in other words farm animals or any other little toy characters, have worked the best for us!
Toobs rock!
Love the ideas and your blog….oh ya, please sign me up for the “Toob” give away. ;0)
Matchbox car sized Construction Equipment have been wonderful for both our boys…the toddler likes them because they have moveable parts (the dump truck back part goes up and down! etc.) The other son likes them because he actually plays with them. And they’re small, great for laps!
I got one of those toobs full of sea creatures and divied them up between goody bags for my son’s pirate b-day party a few weeks ago. But I’d love me some more toobs o’ joy!
DVD player. That’s all I’ve got. That, and a constant barrage of snack foods.
P.S. Give me plastic?
woo hoo! right now i entertain the little one with my boobs of joy, but for when she outgrows them, a toob of joy sounds great!
Hi, and give me plastic!
Road trip ideas… for Laylee, Disney DVD Bingo. My daughter just got it and loves it. She can play it by herself if I’m busy and it keeps her occupied for quite awhile.
Give me some Toob! Thanks for the car washing tip. That is awesome.
Last year I packed a whole tub of road trip activities for the 20 hr. drive to Florida. After sampling each of my meticulously planned selections in a mere hour and a half, they declared themselves “bored”.
I have, however, recently gotten quite a bit of mileage out of the Colorwonder coloring books. My 3 yr. old, who can’t really draw much yet, loves the ones that already have the outlines of figures, and more things appear as you color the pictures in with the no-mess markers.
Both my 3yr old and 5 yr. old love to listen to books on CD. There favorites, especially for the older one, are the Magic Tree House stories. They will likely begin to drive you and your husband crazy after awhile though.
I love this idea! I have three boys 5 and under and it is so hard to keep them occupied….even with DVDs! If that could keep them quiet long enough for my hubby and I to regain our thoughts it would be a miracle! 🙂 I think the only thing that works for us (so far) is a clipboard with lots of paper and a crayon attached with a string.
GIVE ME PLASTIC!!
The dollar stores usually have little boy or little girl grab bags. Grab a couple or each kid and dole them out over the road trip.
Borrow a dvd player from a freind (or buy one). Those metal tray tables and a bunch of magnets work well.
At Christmas time, we go to the dollar store and buy stuff and then we wrap it. All through the drive, they get to open little “presents”. I suppose, of course, you could just wrap their regular stuff, too.
Bring on the joy!
Oh yeah, and hold off on the DVD player until you ABSOLUTELY NEED IT. Otherwise, it doesn’t work when you do need it.
Do i get entered twice?
TOOB! Love it.
I’m collecting these ideas for our trip later this year.
Well, my nephew would love that, so “give me plastic!”
🙂
p.s. I love your site!
Those are really neat. My 1yr old and 3yr old would love them. I recently found a foam tray wtih a rim that attaches to the kids car seats and allows them to snack, color, play, without things rolling to the floor. A great invention for those long car trips. You can check them out at http://www.familytravelgear.com
Please enter me in the toob contest. Thanks!
Oooh. I’d love some TOOB-y goodness!
I’m all for anything that entertains in the car.
Ideas are pretty slim to none for me. The oldest now can read on his on and the middle one entertains himself and his brothers. I think the tube toys will be perfect for my youngest as he’s really into playing with cars and little people.
Plastic me!
I am all for a Toobalicious fun, as we have several upcoming roadtrips!
show me the plastic … and the image of Dan powdering his nose while you pump the gas? priceless.
I have pudgy little hands that would love this (and they are not my hands!). I also have family who also has decided to live hours away from me so I definitely need items to keep a little man still for an hour! A miracle product in deed!!
This last trip to CA, I packed a backpack a head of time for each kid. The back pack consisted on their very own gallon sized ziplock bag full of food (so I didn’t have to hand back food- they could snack at will). Then I put in some books and they each got their favorite car (Lightning McQueen & Sally).
They LOVED having their own stuff and they loved being responsible for it. All of that plus the DVD player were how I kept my sanity on the drive to CA.
We have the dino-toob, the frogs-toob, the jungle-toob, the lizards-toob, and the snake-toob. Endless enjoyment.
Thanks for the road-trip tips. I’m needing them for our drive to Denver this week without the man (who will be defending the dissertation on Friday, so send good vibes).
The toob of fun sounds great! My children either scream at eachother or throw things during our trips. Drives me nuts!!! The one thing that keeps them quiet for a good 30 min. is lollipops. I feel a bad to admit it but candy is what works.
Love road trips with little ones….otherwise known as how to lose your sanity in a few short hours! The best you can hope for is for the portable DVD player to keep working and to not completely lose it after hearing Bob the Builder play for the 85th time!
And I’d love free plastic!
Heather
http://www.pagesbyheather.com
Those animal toobs look like fun!! Harry just whines no matter what I do on road trips. Evan is amazingly well behaved and loves to just look at the cars and trucks on the road.
ooooooh TOOBS.
greatest day of my life was when I heard these blessed words on last road trip…”c’mon Maya, lets play the QUIET GAME”
thank you Lord
We hit iTunes before every trip – books and music are downloaded, burned to discs and thrown in the car. I also have a book called “Fun on the Run!” It has game ideas for the car, doctor’s offices, resturants… all kinds of places where you are sitting doing nothing…
Oh, and do they come in recycled plastic toobs? Cause that would just make it the ultimate prize … or so the experts say…
I love your car wash idea, though I suspect my four might find a way to make a miserable, sopping wet fight out of it, causing me to call loudly and end the fun. Good for you for calling loudly with love and logic, as opposed to without!
I just recently found your blog. You’re too funny!
I drove up to a friends house yesterday (an hour away). When I stopped for gas at a full service place on the way the guy pumping was DRUNK! He wandered off before he was done filling my tank. When the “car wash timer” clicked I got out and grabbed my receipt/credit card, closed up the tank and was on my way.
Dimetapp… “Did I hear you cough, sweetie??” It is not beneath my parental prowess to give my kids some sleepy-sauce, especially since my PEDIATRICIAN RECOMMENDED IT for long trips ~ I was half expecting her to give me a brochure for a drug-rehab facility for when they are teenagers, too.
Gimme some Toobs… I have always secretly wanted THREE toobs, even though I’ve never had triplets.
~Heather the weirdo
Years ago we lived in Virginia and our family all lived in Minnesota. IF we drove straight through, it was 24 hours of actually driving to the CLOSEST relative. Now with 5 kids you can imagine the torture of going to visit because no one will come visit US. (thankfully we live in MN again and this is a trip of the past!)
We made an investment 10 years ago, that we still have! And it was the best traveling investment we’ve ever made. We’ve had to upgrade with attachments through the years, but its been well worth it.
We bought a tv with a vcr in it that had a plug adapter for vehicles. And yes, we watched videos constantly, and I was thankful for every single minute of them, and I am not ashamed! As the kids got older we bought an adapter so we could plug in video games and the tv, so they alternated between being complete slugs and active slugs. Just to shake it up a bit, you know.
The tv probably made its last trip last summer to Florida and back, but it has earned every penny we paid for it and then some! It no longer has a power button, channel changing button, and only has one volume button, which thankfully is lower, lol.
We will certainly buy another one if we travel again.
We rarely bring it for our 3 hour trips that we make now, so these tubes of joy would be great for our 3yo and her little brother who will soon need occupying in the car.
Oh, and like Heather, Dimetap is my friend! Especially for plane rides!
I like to say that my kids travel well (and they do thanks to Mr. DVD), but these ideas are fabulous!
I want to win, now!
Warning: Some kids get WIRED on Dimetapp –the opposite effect that is expected.
Gimme plastic!
My two daughters would love them. Please enter us into the contest.
Give me plastic!!
Road trip in our future. Gimme.
Oooo…do you ship to Canada? =P
Best thing for our roadtripping life, excepting the portable DVD player, is pillowcases. We shut them into the windows so they drape down, and it makes a nice dark environment for the kids to nap.