Travel Book and a Pencil Roll

Last Friday night before our beach trip, I had a brief moment of panic. I usually run by a store and pick up lots of those dollar items for a cartrip. A yo-yo, a new pen, a pack of cards, a box of goldfish. And then I will hand them out bit by bit to keep the kids happy and entertained throughout a road trip. Well, it was almost bedtime on Friday, we were leaving first thing in the morning, and I had nothing. Or so I thought.

Did you know you can make your own little notebook by sewing some paper together? Simple take about a dozen pieces of paper and one slightly more sturdy piece of paper: I used the thick piece of cardstock that came with this paper, or you could use cardstock, or probably even thin cardboard. If you want to get fancy, you can print some coloring pages like these, simply by adjusting your printer settings to printing two pages to one sheet.

Now crease all of your paper down the middle (this will be your sewing guide). Sew along the crease. For those, like me, who had never sewn paper, this seems like it wouldn't work, but it truly does. Just go for it. Then bend quite firmly along the crease, and you're done!

If you want, you can then draw some simple figures (Lily requested each member of the family. Can you guess who this is?) for the kiddos to color in. Or, you could bring some stickers along and use it as a sticker book. Because everything in this house needs to be differentiated, I put an initial on each book to make ownership clear.

Next up, the pencil roll. Simply take two pieces of felt (I used green I had on hand from our halloween costumes).
Take two pieces, one slightly taller than the other, sew around the edges, and then sew a little pocket for several colored pencils (or crayons, or markers) just by sewing a line along the two pieces of felt. Use the size of the pencil as a guide. Sew two strips of felt (or two pieces of ribbon) onto one side, and you're done. You've seen these, right?

Just roll up the pencils (I sharpened old colored pencils that were lying around the house, and the new delivery system made the girls think they were brand new), tie it with the two strings, and you have a perfect travel pack! These are brilliant, because otherwise (at least in our house), the pencils get lost or end up all over the car.

It felt a bit silly to be doing a craft project right before a big trip, but it worked! For our 3 and a half hour drive, we had two girls happily coloring in the backseat. Even Ben was won over by the end of the drive, and I was quite thrilled to be able to use up things that were already around the house.

What are your go-to activities for road trips? Any good games out there?