Road tripped

Well, our little vacation is over. We actually got back about a month ago. I LOVE the Oregon coast. The whole Pacific Northwest, really. Just so beautiful. So green. Foxgloves as prolific as weeds. Sigh. I do love it here (UT), though. Just not a whole lot during the summer. Too hot. It was an especially nasty shock coming back from 60-70 degree weather to the hottest week Utah's had so far, the high over 100 for several days straight. I must sound like such a whiner to all the people who live in New Mexico and Arizona. Whelp, sounding like a whiner isn't going to stop this train.

Anyway, before we left for our 15 hour drive, I finished a few other things. One was this:

Magnetic paper dolls! I saw them HERE and just loved it. So much so that I got the exact same paper doll book (that was just coincidence, really- it's at Hobby Lobby if you were wondering). I wanted a big set with lots of options, so I used two 1'x 2' magnetic sheet rolls. Also from Hobby Lobby. I also got all this stuff in 3 different trips to the HobLob (oh yeah. I just slanged it) so I could use the 40% off coupon all times. Because of that, my total was less than $15.

Here are my doll clothes, all popped out of the book and crowded as closely as I could manage onto the sticky side of the magnet roll.

I seriously love playing with these. So does my daughter, of course. And all her little girl cousins (it was such a crowd pleaser- all the girls from age 3 to 10 crowded around the cookie sheet at the beach house).

It wasn't as great of a car toy as I had envisioned- there were two many little bits and not enough room to spread them all out. Great kitchen table toy, though.

As it turned out, we weren't really hurting for car entertainment. My girls were both little troopers for 95% of the drive, which was SO much better than I had dared hope. I think I deserve some credit, too. I was prepared out my ear balls with stuff for both of them, and I want to share. So, without further ado, here's my

TOP TODDLER ROAD TRIP TRICKS!

1. MAGNA DOODLE. Get the giant one. 

2. Straws and pipecleaners. Mim made bracelets, rings, swords, people...I handed them back a few at a time.

3.  A blank notebook. Maybe this wouldn't work as well for some kids, but Mim loves just drawing. We did secret messages for awhile, too.

4. Stickers. I spent like 15 bucks on stickers at the dollar store. Probably more. I let her put them on herself, on her car seat (she can only reach fabric parts, where they were easy enough to peel off), in her notebook, where ever. I also made matching games with them for her to do.

5. Water bottles filled with glitter and water. After you have glitter and water in them, GLUE THE LIDS SHUT.  These were for my little 10 month old. She was pretty fascinated by them.

6. Don't give them something to do until they ask. After every stop, I made sure I didn't just automatically hand something back. Sometimes Mim would go for close to an hour just looking out the window or talking before she wanted something else to do.

7. Snacks. Of course. I did things like fruit leather, popcorn, grapes, carrots, string cheese, nuts, and Pringles. And water. No juice for us. Mim will drink 10x more juice than she will water, which would have meant a LOT more potty stops.

So that's what worked for us. I've seen a ton more lists out there, some with 100+ activities and ideas, but Mim has a pretty long attention span for one so little, so we didn't need that many more things. Not that I'll ever, EVER assume that for road trips in the future. 

Hope your vacations have been awesome! Thanks for reading.