Grandma's Travel Tricks

I spent approximately 17 hours in long-distance travel this past week - over half of them with young children.  We played the typical travel games:  20 Questions, finding the ABCs on billboards, and finding NUMBERS on signs and license plates (This was kind of fun, too!  For instance, we found "17" in a phone number on the side of a truck - 3xx-217-4130...).  The "retired" cell phone that retained its camera function also provided hours of fun both on and off the highway.  Of course, the boys discovered its annoying ring tones and residual alarm clock features.

We met three cousins at a McDonalds and got some of the wiggles out on the indoor playground.

Another trick involved using a wooden table leaf as a desk.  It sat across the boys' car seats and they played some card games, worked in some workbooks, and created some pictures, etc. using crayons, scissors and glue that I'd put in a basket to try to contain all the pieces with minimal success.

When we arrived an hour early at one destination, I quickly compiled a scavenger hunt list for WalMart:  Granny Smith apple, box of shredded wheat, tennis shoes, hot pad, Pepsi, a Hot Wheels car, and a football were some of the items.  One child had the list and the other a pencil to mark them off as we found them! I tried to let the boys figure out where the items would be found by reading the directory signs.  They did pretty well.  All-in-all, it was a brilliant success!

While on the way home in an empty and quiet car, I spied a sign announcing a Church Rummage Sale (Grandma therapy at its finest)!  I stopped and found some goodies.  Here are a couple of my purchases--Christmas postcards sitting in a fish-shaped wooden bowl.  The rest can be viewed on my Thrifty Style blog.