Simple Ideas for Travelling With Kids

 A couple weeks ago, our family went on a little holiday around our gorgeous province of Alberta and even went a little bit into Montana. Over about a week we drove 2070 kilometres (or 1286 miles). 

In the weeks before, I tried to think of some simple ways to make the time in our vehicle a bit more fun for the kids.... and easier for the Mr. and me!

We have a portable dvd player with dual screens, so the kids each got a new dvd and a toy set from the Disneystore right before we left. (Our 2 year old has had issues with bad car sickness in the past year so the dvd players have been a must ever since anytime we travel in the vehicle.)

At Dollarama I picked up these containers for $2 each......

I filled one for both of my kids with various snacks & a few treats that they both like......

I used my glue gun to add a chipboard letter onto each lid to personalize them a bit.....

I also added some scrapbook paper onto one side, where the sticker label had been. It made them cuter and made it so I didn't have to bother removing all the sticker residue! Win win!

Since we were going to be seeing lots of lakes in the mountains and spending lots of time outside, I thought a new bottle of bubbles would be something good to have on hand!

And I was super stoked to find Angry Birds gummies at London Drugs, so I bought one of each character and saved them for our trip.

I also like having some extra activity stuff to pull out during those moments when kids need some extra distractions. I bought a bag for both of them from the party section at Walmart for 97 cents. Character stuff is always a hit with my kids!

I filled each bag with some goodies from either the dollar store or Michael's to keep them happy.

They each got:

-a colouring book & a bag of cool shaped crayons

-a notebook & a little story book

-one of those magnetic drawing toys

-a water marker colouring mat set (they were $2 at the dollar store and were their fave things by far!)

Hopefully that gives some ideas for the next time you travel with your little kids! 

Cute Crayons

Using up broken crayons by melting them into new shapes is nothing new. But I`m going to share these anyways, cause they are just really cute!

My kids are colouring fanatics, especially my daughter who is 2. And she breaks a LOT of crayons!

 I have a cute little bucket that I keep in the kitchen for us to save the broken crayons & when it`s full, we make some new ones!

We just made up a few batches....

My son got to help me peel the paper off the crayon pieces and we used a muffin tin to sort them by colour. I cut them up & then we stuck them in the oven to melt.

My son has new fish-shaped crayons now...

And my daughter has these little flower-shaped crayons...

My favourite part is that I put some away in little baggies that I stashed away for when we are in the vehicle during our trips this summer. I like having things like that to bring out when needed!

I also want to make up some more to put into my bag for church on Sundays. Thankfully I have a collection of ice cube trays to choose from. 

;)

puzzle piece-shaped crayons

The other day, I put all my kids' broken crayons to use & made these crayons that are shaped like puzzle pieces...

I had been collecting all the broken ones for a while in a container...

I cut them all into smaller pieces yet, then let my son help me fill of this ice cube tray (from Ikea) with the broken pieces...

I placed the thing of crayons on a cookie sheet in the oven, then put them in at 250 degrees until they were all good & melted. Then I let them sit & harden again.

Once I took them all out (the 2 batches I made), we had these super-cute & colourful crayons that my son has loved colouring with all week!

They fit perfectly in this little pail I picked up at Michael's...

This would also make a really cool gift for any child, when given with a few colouring books!

{This was featured at Laugh, Love, and Craft.}

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