On The Road Again: 5 Ways to Make Traveling Fun

Traveling with children is always an exciting experience,  but it can also be a stressful time if you aren't armed with necessities of the road! Here are some things we never leave home without when heading on vacation! 

Snack Tubs

Our family of 6, soon to be 7, are spread out over three rows in our SUV and while I'm very thankful for all the leg room this vehicle provides, it makes it very hard to pass items around or get items back to the kids in the 3rd row. In an effort to minimize the amount of times people have to unbuckle, climb over seats, or spill items on people behind them, we now use snack tubs on trips.

Each child has their own tub, customized to their own personal likes with snacks, drinks, and sometimes even special treats just for our time on the road. We don't snack a lot at home, so this is a super special occasion for all of us! 

I have run the gamut on what I have filled them with on different trips. From things like apples, granola bars, bottled water, and cheese sticks to cookies, gummy bears, juice boxes, and mini donuts. :) No matter what is in them, it really makes our trips go more smoothly when each person has their own tub to pull from right next to their seat. 

I personally love these tubs with the latches on both ends as they keeps everything snug and sound even if the tub gets dropped or we make a sharp turn and they slip onto the floor.

Audio Books & Dramas

There is nothing like a quiet vehicle when traveling down the road and nothing grabs my kid's attention more than a fun story on CD. Some of our favorites are:

• Adventures in Odyssey's Truth Chronicles
• Adventures in Odyssey's Bible Eyewitness Set
• Adventures in Odyssey's For God and Country History Set
• Your Story Hour CDs
• Lamplighter Series
• Audio Classics on LibriVox
•  Books on CD:
• Beginner's Bible on CD
• Madeline
• Curious George
• Blueberries for Sal
• If you Give a Mouse a Cookie
• Jonah and the Big Whale

Games

There's nothing like a heated game of I Spy, Twenty Questions, or The Alphabet Game to make time fly by while in the car. We also have Travel Bingo cards and dry erase crayons or markers in the car, that are a family favorite.

The license plate game is always fun and we also have magnetic tic-tac-toe and a fun Melissa and Doug wooden matching game that the kids enjoy.

Reading Material & Activity Books
I know that this may not be an option for all as reading in the car makes some people sick; however, my kids don't have this problem, so we love to bring along books, magazines, circle the words, sticker and coloring books.

My daughter can color for hours and can't get enough of stickers so time just flies when she is in her own little world. One of my boys loves anything WW2 or Nascar, so he will obsessively read a race program or a tank book for hours on end. My rambunctious fellow loves hidden pictures hunts, knock knock jokes, and to read Bible stories so his go to is his Clubhouse Jr Magazine. Invest in what your kids enjoy and you will have a peaceful car trip.

Videos and Movies

This last one is always one I'm on the fence about. I grew up in a time where you kept yourself busy in the car with some of the above items or looked out the window and enjoyed the scenery and happily lived to tell about it, so I hesitantly add this last one. This is one we rarely pull out but on longer trips I have to admit it has been a nice perk.

We have a double screen set of DVD players that attach to our headrests and can reach all the way back to the 3rd row so no one misses out on the fun! It's nice to pop in a Veggie Tale movie, let the zombie stares ensue, and hubs and I get our own quiet date in the front row!

There are many ways to make a car trip more fun, what are your family's favorites?

No, I'm not.

I saw a post on FB the other day to blog post asking, "Are you a fun mom?" I didn't need to click on the link to know the answer to this question. Every once in a while? Yes. Regularly? No.

It's such a shame too, because I used to be a really fun gal, but after I got sick, I turned into the "lets-get-things-checked-off-and-if-at-6pm-mom-isn't-dead-on-the-couch-I-will-let-you-get-something-out-that-doesn't-make-a-mess-I-will-have-to-clean-up-and-I-will-WATCH-you-have-fun" mom. Disappointing I know. 

We even got our school work done ahead this week, due to a co-op snow day, and still the thought of the effort and time it would take to have that extra fun, seemed overwhelming. My hubby said yesterday, "We will get everything cleaned up and our school work finished for the week and tomorrow you will be free to have fun with mom!" They looked at me and I looked at them. I think we were both aware of the disappointment that phrase held.

It's easy to get sidelined with the "have to do's" and not be able to get to the "need to do's". Sometimes we just need to stop our work, enjoy life, love our kids in a tangible, hands on way, and have fun! Good clean fun, and if you are really brave, maybe some dirty fun too!!!

I highly encourage you to stop today and be the FUN MOM!!!

Here's what is happening at the Howard House today!!!! 

What are you doing today to enjoy, love, and have fun with your children?

Blessing Bags

While participating in new and unknown activities throughout the year can be fun, there is nothing like a family tradition to bring joy, happiness, and memories into the lives of our loved ones. Not only is it fun to see our children remember these special times from the past, but it's such a blessing to hear their little voices share the wonderment with younger siblings who have yet to participate in the experience!

One of our family's most loved traditions started about 5 years ago. I don't even know how it officially began, but it was a mix of our family's interest in the reaching out to the "urban outdoors-man" and our love of helping and serving others. For a long time, we had talked about the best way to help homeless people we saw out on the street and allow our children, at a young age, to help others, and to give in a way that didn't enable the homeless to use our gift on negative influences in their lives.

And through this discussion Blessing Bags were born!

 They have changed and grown over the years. Some years many family members have participated in purchasing, assembling and distributing the bags, other years it has only been our immediate family, while other times family has sent money or items to stock the bags. Some years the bags were the size of a gallon ziptop bag, sometimes a huge laundry bag, and sometimes somewhere in between. The beauty of the bag is that it is the heart of giving that determines what the bags look like each year!

After 24+ days of hectic Christmas preparation, filled with shopping, sewing, baking, and cleaning,  our attention is brought back to our amazing Savior and the awesome gift He came to give! It pulls us away from the distractions and the secular things, and focuses us on spreading His love to those who need Him most. It is also a wonderful time for our children to step away from the toys and goodies they've received that day and see how truly blessed they are....there's nothing like the realization that these special people are living on the street to make their "needs" turn into wants and even over abundance!

The fun begins with a shopping trip!! Most of what we need can be found at Dollar Tree (man I like that store! ;).  We start off by picking the bag we want to fill and deciding on how many we want to fill that year. This year we decided on 12 bags. I recommend packing bags in multiples of 6, 12, 18, etc., because most things at Dollar Tree come in multiples of 3 and 4's making it easy to pack bags without leftovers. Once we have the bag, we purchase things that will fit inside them.  Here is our list from this year:

• Christmas card and candy cane
• Bible/Christian literature
• Gloves
• Socks
• Hand warmers
• 3 in 1 shampoo, conditioner, body wash
• Deodorant
• Shaving cream
• Razor
• Lotion
• Toothpaste
• Toothbrush and holder
• Comb
• Band aids
• Q-tips
• Wet wipes
• Washrag
• Travel mug
• Hot chocolate packets
• Instant coffee packages(1 cup size)
• Lemonade packages(1 bottle size)
• A water bottle
• Hard candy
• Gum
• Raisins
• Granola bars
• Crackers and chicken salad
• Honey bun
• Cookies
• Popcorn
• Food in a cup
• Mac and Cheese
• Oatmeal
• Noodles

The Kiddos assembling the bags!

The wonderful part about the bags is that they can be given out any time of the year as well. Our goal is not just to teach our children about giving God's love at Christmas time, but through the entire year, throughout their entire life! We make smaller versions of these bags in 2 gallon ziplock bags that we keep in our car all the time. Anytime we run into someone holding a sign on the side of the road that needs help, we have a real, tangible expression of God's free gift that our kiddos can hand out the window with a "God bless you!" to close the deal!

Family traditions are a wonderful way to instill great memories into the lives of our children, but most importantly they are a fantastic way of instilling the love of God into their hearts. Make sure that during this busy season, you are focusing on what is important, what will last.....Jesus, the TRUE Reason for this Season(and every season)!

10 Days of Separation!

Our daddy left 10 days ago to head north to take a load of stuff, to start training and to work 4 shifts at his new job! We've never been separated this long as a couple and the kids have obviously never spent this much time away from daddy. 

Most people aren't aware, but part of my mystery "disease" is memory loss. I'm trying to document more of our daily lives in an effort to remember more in the future. I don't remember most of my wedding, honeymoon, trips we've taken, and even entire years of my life. Someday I probably wont remember being apart, being hugely pregnant, or moving from Sapulpa to Vicksburg, so it will be nice to have some pictures and documentation to show me all the fun and excitement that occurred during this time!

While being apart wasn't our first choice, I've tried to keep us busy doing some fun things and while we've had a blast, I'm not sure how people do this all the time. Our usual schedule entails heading to church, the library, and maybe the pool twice a week and these last 10 days, we've only had ONE day where we didn't leave the house!!

 

We've completed the summer reading program and gotten our awards!! You know this mama loves free stuff and free food is right up our alley!!

Of course free fun while eating free food is a must!!!!

We've made fun mail for our daddy! Shhhhhhh

 The mall play place is always a nice cool option where a 36 week pregnant mama can sit while the littles burn off some energy!!!

On the FOURTH Papa and Nana came over, grilled out with us, bought us tons of fun poppers to explode, and we sat and watched "AMERICAN CELEBRATES AMERICA" fireworks from our yard!!

We even had a do nothing day, where we played outside, watched movies, ran through the sprinkler, and played in our "new to us" playhouse......it was so NICE!!

I hope we never have to spend this much time apart again, but we've had our fun and I'm sure daddy has had a nice break that he deserves for all his hard work!!

Making Cards for Nana!!!

 When a birthday rolls around in our family, Grant always insists that we make homemade cards for the birthday person! Paige LOVES to color and Morgan LOVES to put stickers on things, so EVERYONE was on board!!

 We got out all the crafting supplies and got to work!!!

 Paige is FOCUSED!!

And as a surprise Nana brought "End of the school year" gifts to her surprise party! We played games, ate grilled cheese sandwiches and cupcakes, and watched movies!! Fun times!

Family Fun!!!

3 Weeks!!

I can't believe our new little lady is almost 3 weeks old!!! She has grown so much in these short weeks and has really been a blessing to our family!

Thank you Lord for sending this little bundle of joy our way, she is truly a blessing!!

Spring is in the Air, Spring is Everywhere!

It was truly a beautiful day and with Tom being post call, it was an even better day to get things done!!! When we started the day, everyone was in pants, but as the day went on, it was definitely time to change into shorts!!

What a cute crew!!

Those are some BORING beds!!

But after a little TLC, voila!!!

Atwoods had 3 pack plants for $0.69 which made it a great time to add a punch with just a little dough! I love my yard guys!!!!

Staycation

February was an amazing month for our family! So much family and bonding time, it was truly a blessing from the Lord. If we had known what this month would have been like, we would have tried to move it to June when our new baby was due!

Feeding the turtles at the aquarium is something Grant had always wanted to do, so we splurged! I'm thinking we should have packed our own carrot strips!

Woogy loved the turtles too!!

Grant had to have a picture with the sharks and this is the one he wanted me to post, "Shiny" he said!!

Playdough is always fun, but with Dad making wonderful "abstract" creations, the boys thought it was fabulous!

We made cupcakes and ate all but 2 that same day!! Those last two were eaten by little Monsters for breakfast the next morning.....thanks for letting me sleep in honey! :)'

Sewing with Daddy!!

We also made a trip to the zoo on a beautiful day, visited Chuck E. Cheese, played at the mall, had picnics, went to the park, library, and had tons of fun while still staying under our normal family fun budget of $60!!! A staycation can be a super way to do some wonderfully fun things as a family but not spend a lot of money.

February's Fabulous Fabric Festivities

Well the festivities have drawn to a close and I just realized I had forgotten to post our last creation! I think it is officially my favorite! Between the fabric and the shape, its a true beauty!

I love this wrap style because I can size it on her and then place the snaps accordingly and then as she grows, I can move the snaps and add some sweet leggings and it will last for a while!!

I love to sew and I was so blessed to have February with my Bunny home during the day! I got tons of things finished and really got a chance to rest as well. We made 6 dresses, two pairs of shoes, many little flowers for hair, hats, bags, and dresses, a diaper bag, changing pad, 5 burp cloths, 2 bibs, an ironing board cover, recovered our headboard, and some other odds and ends.

I do hope to finish a blanket, lovey, sew some tops and a couple other dresses, and make some additional pillows with the left overs from the headboard. Now I just have to find some time!!

Lent Challenge!

So I found this great blog and I loved her idea of purging for Lent. Her goal, 40 bags in 40 days!! It could be donations, things to sell, or just trash and junk. I have been in a nesting mood for a while now and already have piles of things to donate and give away, not to mention tons of trash!! Lent starts on March 9th, so you have plenty of time to gear up with trash bags and boxes! :)

Every day for 40 days my goal will be to lighten our load in order to have an easier place to clean, a happier place to live, and encourage a heart for giving in our family. We have so many things that we could bless others with and now is a perfect time to focus on Jesus' gift and sacrifice for us. This is a really good hands on way to let go of some things that may be weighting us down, share with others, and focus our attention on not being materialistic!!

I would love for you to join too!! Don't forget to take before and after pictures to share! Check out Clover Lane, she has some great ideas!!!

Zoo Day, Beautiful Zoo Day!

The weather was so lovely last week, we just couldn't pass up a trip to the zoo! I acutally got hot in my capri pants and t-shirt!

The petting zoo was the hit of our day!!
My sweet monkeys!!

It was a little chimp's birthday and the boys were really mezmerized by all the crazy monkeys playing with the party decor'! They were crazy!!

Even though he was scared at first, Morgan loved the goats and even planted some kisses on some lucky nannies!

This is how I felt by the end of the day, but I was so happy to spend the day with my lovely family!