Are we there yet?

Traveling for 5 hours in a minivan with 3 young children and one dog sounds like a kicking good time, doesn't it? Since my parents live a little over 5 hrs from us, we've gotten quite adjusted to the trip. And surprisingly, it isn't that bad. We've had our bad trips (like the time my son got the stomach flu the morning we were heading back home and puked every 30 min the entire way home), but overall we've found the key to happiness is letting the kids entertain themselves.

On our last trip my kids amused themselves in a variety of ways.

Dancing! Crank up the radio and let everyone, dance, dance, dance!!!

I Spy (Preschool Version: someone says, I spy a bus or I spy a green sign and everyone else shouts when they find it).

Race Car Races: My son and my husband pretend to be driving race cars (complete with the sound effects)

FYI: my son won, b/c Daddy backed in (aka parking upside down) making my son closest to the front door.

More Pretend Play: Here's my daughter wiping her baby doll's bottom b/c her diaper was yucky.

When it gets dark, I give them light sticks (you can find them at the dollar store) They have a blast waving them in the air.

We have found that at this age our kids don't sleep reliably well during car rides, so leaving at bedtime and driving through the night so the kids will sleep, doesn't work for us. We tend to plan our treks so that we leave after they are well rested. Then we pack snacks, toys, fun music, and we engage with our kids in pretend play and the car rides are actually quite enjoyable. "Are we there yet" is not a phrase we here all that much on our car rides. It Works for Me! To find other boredom fighting tricks, check out Rocks in My Dryer this week.