Recently we had to take the 5+ hour drive to the big city for a specialist appointment. By the time Mikail was a year old he had many trips under his belt. Olivia has had no really long trips under hers yet so we didn’t know how it would go. But, it went surprisingly well. I had the kids each pick a few toys and books they would like to take along and then I secretly made a bin of fun activities to pull out after we were tired of those and ‘The Wheels on the Bus’, ‘The Itsy Bitsy Spider’ and ‘Jesus Loves Me’ got old. We stopped about every two hours for a bathroom break and a quick run around the vehicle or a few minutes on a play structure if we could find one. Mikail did AMAZING with the bathroom stuff. Absolutely no accidents. Absolutely no pull ups (he hasn’t used those in months). Absolutely no accidents. So proud of him.

Here are a few things that kept us busy:

Milk jug caps into a slit in a sour cream container.

Who needs toys with construction vehicles outside your window?

Of course there was a nap or two.

Stickers are always fun!

And when Mama has just had enough? Technology comes to the rescue.

I got the kids each a cookie sheet at the dollar store to use as a table. It has edges to keep stuff from rolling off and is magnetic which is perfect for holding down paper and books with a magnetic clip.

Other things that were included in my bin of activities were:
Mini Mr. Potato Heads (the dollar store had them so I got four)
Sensory bottles
Colouring book and twistable crayons
Wooden Chunky Puzzles (so as not to lose pieces)
Invisible ink activity books (I got these at the dollar store too)
A bag if items to open and shut (Olivia loves this. Mikail is kind of too old for this now)
Lacing cards

Once we got to Edmonton Olivia had had enough, so we pulled into a neighbourhood and Jason took her for a walk while Mikail slept and I just breathed. ha.

Next road trip will include a ball and bubbles for the stops so we have something else to do besides chase Mama around the truck.

Putting together this bin was a lifesaver for me.