Schultz Party of Four

Tomorrow we begin our big adventure eastward, 18+ hours eastwardly to be exact. And to keep the girls distracted I have been planning an epic road trip bag... behold the finished product.

I ordered them each a Thirty-One Bag with their names for school this year, perfect to hold markers, colored pencils and wipes for the road. Then I bought large binders and personalized the cover with a map of our trip and their names (and doodles, what little girl doesn't love doodles?)

Inside the bag is Hair-do Harriet, a small note pad, a pencil pouch with glue stick and scissors, and several pocket dividers with blank paper and coloring sheets.

Rather than pack all of the fun into the notebook, I decided to put various activities in sealed magazine envelopes numbered 1-10. This way they get a "surprise" when they open each envelope, and we will space out the opening throughout the two day drive. Otherwise I was worried they would quickly blow through each activity in the first hour and I would be in big trouble.

1. The first envelope is simply blank sheets with red garage sale dots randomly placed. I am going to challenge them to come up with a neat drawing that incorporates the dots.

2. Magazine scavenger hunt to find items like the letters B, K, C and J, a smile and something the color red.

3. I bought a book of hidden picture sheets (don't you remember these from Highlights, loved them as a kid!) and tore them out of the book so each girl could have a handful.

4. A ton of stickers from U.S. Toy and a packet of blank notecards can magically become postcards to send friends, I hope.

5. Road Trip Bingo printed from THIS great blog.

6. Color-by-number coloring sheets I found for free on google.

7. I printed the girls' names and their cousins and friends very large in fun fonts for them to decorate and hopefully send to each kiddo in a "miss you so much" package.

8. Fun magazine pictures should hopefully inspire something similar to THIS art project we did a while back.

9. My friend Teresa suggested a game of "Guess the Flavor" with jellybeans - brilliant, even the parents can play this one!

10. A funprints book by Ed Emberley in which you use a (washable) stamp pan and your fingers to create cute drawings.

Do you notice my multiple uses of the word "fun", ya let's hope this works...