a road trip with aluminum foil

Last weekend, my family (and my sweet friend Cortney!) went to Atlanta to be a part of this...

It was definitely worth the drive to see Matt Chandler and Shane & Shane! My parents drove up to join us, so it's always worth a trip to spend time with them. We took home our own {signed!} copy of The Explicit Gospel and I'm adding it to my stack of books to read! On the drive down to Atlanta, I was a little apprehensive about how the kiddos would do.  My kids are seasoned travelers and usually do great on road trips.  But...I have no shame in admitting that on long drives, we let them watch movies one after another! No judging - any parent that has driven more than 6 hours with little ones understands that there is a point when you switch from "logical parent mode" to "survival mode."  It usually happens somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd hour and that's when you start dishing out candy and bottles of glitter and glue to help them find contentment! {Maybe not glitter - that stuff is just evil!}

This trip was a little different because we were embarking on our 6 hour drive with no DVD player!! 

They actually did great and here's a glimpse at a few of the things from my bag of tricks that kept them entertained...

We played several games of "Car Bingo."  I printed off different cards from a few websites and put them in gallon size zip lock bags.  They used dry-erase markers on the outside of the bags to mark the cards so they could keep reusing the cards.    

This is a picture of one of the "Felt Button Snakes" I made for them.  These are apparently good for younger children {like Sam's age} to help with their fine motor skills.  You give them a ribbon that has a button sewn on the top and then a whole bag of felt squares that have button holes cut out in them.  The kiddos work to string the squares onto the ribbon.  {The very bottom piece of felt is sewn in place to keep the others from slipping off.}  Although they're for younger kids, I had the girls race to see who could make their snake the quickest.  They also made different patterns with the squares.

Each girl got a bag with silly putty and several different "textured" things in it.  They had fun making impressions with the silly putty using all the items.  They really liked seeing how newspaper print is copied on silly putty!

Surprisingly, this is what kept them occupied the longest - aluminum foil!!  Each girl got their own roll that I had cut into sheets.  I gave them a few ideas to get their wheels turing (a bracelet, a crown) and they turned into little creators in the back seat!  If you're needing something to occupy kiddos on a road trip - I highly recommend aluminum foil!  Added bonus - easy to clean up!!

And just in case you were wondering what Sam was doing while the girls were playing and crafting...

He seemed content with a bucket! :)