Spring Break 2013....WOOOOO!

Okay, so it's not Cancun or anything, but the Brown-David clan is hitting the road for spring break.  We are loading up and driving to Virginia to visit our family and to meet the newest member.  The girls are very excited about meeting their new baby cousin.  On the way, we plan to stop overnight in Asheville, NC.  Hopefully, Asheville will be the next locale for our little tribe.
At this point, we are road trip pros.  The girls are excellent travelers and they look forward to every trip we take, no matter how long or short.  I have to say that the main thing that keeps us all sane on road trips is preparation.  Lots of preparation.  I make packing lists for each on of the children.  It includes all of the clothes, pajamas, underwear, toiletries, and accessories they will need for the duration of the trip.  I make a travel menu.  It's expensive to feed kids out on the road, so we pack food to take with us.  Got this idea from Pinterest for the girls to use for food in the car.  This is ingenious and I wish I'd found it sooner AND the dollar store always has a ton of these containers.  It was $4 well spent!  I also like to make sure that the girls have plenty of things to do while they are in the car.  Those things are always things that they don't already have at home and they can not use/play with them until we are in the car.  That means a few purchases from the dollar store.  For this trip, I made each of the girls their own travel journals.  I bought four spiral bound 4x6 index card books for a dollar each.  Then I covered them with adhesive craft foam that I always seem to have a ton of in the house.  (We color code everything for the girls that leaves the city limits.  It cuts down on the bickering in the car.) They will also have a glue stick, pencil, eraser, tape and a package of markers (all color coded, except the markers).  They will be able to collect things from the trip and them to their book, write about things that they've done and draw pictures.

While the older girls will have books to read on the road, I still have one little that can not read yet.  So she gets a couple of activities that don't require reading skills.  I love having self contained activities in the car, so I had the idea to make Zion a set of magnetic paper dolls.  Originally, I was going to get some adhesive magnet sheets and make a set of dolls for her.  Then, I found this set of magnetic paper dolls for a dollar (a dollar seems to be my spending limit) at Dollar General.

 I was not really a fan of the girls, but for a dollar each, I figured I could make it work.  I traced the shape of the dolls on regular white paper and drew my own dolls.  A quick coat of Mod Podge and voila!  A new, much cuter set of magnetic paper dolls. I also found a plain metal lunch box to store them in for (gasp) a dollar!

I will add a few more odds and ends to the travel gear, but for now, we are all excited to hit the road!