Momma Mondays... road trip secrets revealed

Now that Friday Top Tens are off to a good start, I'll be starting a little thing called Momma Mondays.

My hopes are that every Monday I will share tips, tricks & secrets to the world of mommies! Things you never knew before... things you might not have wanted to know! :)

This week, I am revealing my road trip secrets!

If you follow me, you know we just took all five of our kids (ages 6 & under) on a 17 hour road trip to Florida last week. I was TERRIFIED! So, I went a little over the top, BUT IT WORKED!

*that's our jam-packed trunk... there was also a car top carrier. 

First of all, I strategically planned stops. We knew that with a 5 month old, we would be stopping every 2-3 hours to change a diaper or nurse. So, I went onto mapquest & found a good stopping point about every 2-3 hours.

I also got onto Google & found any fun kid-friendly stops (world's largest stuff, you know). We only did 2 of those, because the rest took us too far out of the way. We went to Metropolis, IL and saw all the fun Superman stuff. That was a BIG HIT! Also stopped in Georgia at the world's largest peanut! Haha! Little Miss 5 year old thought it was just great! :)

Once I knew how many stops we'd have (there were of course a few extra potty breaks taken :) ), I then made a goodie bag for each stop. In each medium sized gift bag (some of them are shoved in the trunk in the pic above) was a car-friendly craft, some sort of activity, a small toy for each child & in a couple bags there was a new movie for that 3 hour time slot. We have a DVD player in our van, but I refused to let our family road trip turn into nothing but movies & LeapPads.

Now, when I say I went over the top, this is what I mean... each bag had a theme. Yes, I'm serious. Haha! Theme #1 was superheroes, #2 was jungle animals, #3 was puppies, #4 was music, #5 was the beach (since we WERE going to Florida).

Crafts were easy... things like those wood shapes you can color, simple foam sticker kits, one was putting sticky jewels onto old CDs (really pretty)... stuff like that.

Activities were things like the license plate game (not a hit), coloring pages stapled together to make a book, sticker books, etc.

Toys had to be individual, cheap, & not annoying. Ha! Thank you Target Dollar Spot! I found animal finger puppets, animal masks, rockstar sunglasses, those foam ice cream cones that pop out with a string (hilarious) & bunches of other fun things. Some of them were even cheaper because they were dollar items that were on sale! I love Target!


So... I found these really fun road trip printables here that I used for each landmark/stopping point. I printed off the little cards & wrote in the locations. Then I pinned them on visors & stuff throughout the car. When we got to each location, I would pull off the card & the kids would cheer! Haha! I'd whip out another cute goodie bag & give them each a new snack.

It was definitely THE MOST fun I've ever had on a family road trip. I look forward to doing fun car games as they get older, but they are just not at good ages for that. This year was all about survival.

The key was to keep everything exciting & fresh! We don't allow the word "bored" at our house... or in our car. AND we had already told the big kids that they weren't allowed to ask "are we there yet" or "how close are we". Haha! I worked really hard to keep that car ride going smoothly! :)

NOW, I will admit...

I was so ready to be home, that on the way back we DID use LeapPads & DVDs more. But I'm cool with that! We had a great trip!


I have pinned a whole bunch of really great road trip on pinterest... you can follow me HERE!

Hope you all have a great week... more good stuff coming your way later in the week! :)

Vacation Top 10

Well, I'm a day late... but better late than never.

We are home from vacation & as much as I love the beach, I am SO GLAD to be home! We had a great drive down, a relaxing time there, & a speedy trip home! So, in honor of a successful vacation, here are my top 10 moments of our vacation:

1. The REMARKABLE drive down to Florida!
Our children were AMAZING! I will be revealing my road trip secrets in a future blog post, but all you should know is that not once did I need to raise my voice, threaten to "pull this car over", or need earplugs. haha! It was miraculous, I tell you!

2. My 4 year old's face when he first saw the ocean. :D

3. My 2 year old's face when she first put her bare toes in wet sand. :(

4. My 5 months old's face as he is enjoying the sand between his toes & the cold ocean water washed up to his legs. I've never seen an expression change so quick! Haha! Priceless.

5. I loved how the kids really didn't fight on vacation. They were all having so much fun & getting so much rest... there were very few time outs!

6. We didn't eat out at all. Normally I would hate that, but it just made our trip so much more relaxing! We just made dinner in our condo & hung out together. So, it was cheaper AND we were really able to enjoy one another's company.

7. How FREE my 4 year old was. He has some ADD tendencies & really struggles with anxiety... AT HOME, but apparently not on vacation! It was just amazing to see him so carefree. He didn't scream. He didn't hit the other kids. He didn't freak out. I told my husband, it makes me want to MOVE to Florida to see my child so happy!

8. The excitement every night when we picked who would get to lay with the 2 year old. We kept her in the same bed/room each night & rotated big kids. She thought it was THE most wonderful thing!

9. Teaching the kids how to play UNO one night. They cried, they cheered, they laughed with glee when they yelled out UNO! , they mocked daddy when he drew 10 cards to get a blue... there were so many emotions (in particular from the 5 & 6 year olds, lol), but definitely such a fun night!

10. Watching my husband get buried in the sand by our 4 kids. He kept getting sand flung in his face (he eventually had to put his hat over his eyes). They thought it was just hilarious. So did I! :)