Putting Together a Winter Road Trip Kit

This post is brought to you by Target.

 In a few weeks time we will be heading out on a little road trip. Winter road trips are my favourite, the car is nice and cozy warm, the air outside is crisp and the landscape is green and lush. It also helps if we have happy kiddos in the back seats! So I always make sure to take a bunch of stuff with us to help keep them occupied while on the drive.

For our next trip I decided to make them up their own little Winter Road Trip Kits!

I started out with some plain calico bags and made a cute little design to iron on to them. 

 I then had so much fun at Target finding fun bits and pieces to include in their kits!

First of all some rain jackets! It's that time of year where you will most likely need these at least once. I wanted them to be easily accessible in the car for when we stop for a stretch or some lunch, so having them packed in our bags in the boot was not going to work. I bought them each a very light rain jacket from Target so that they would fold down very small and not take up a lot of room in their road trip bags.

We always pack books and usually bring along 1 or 2 favourites, but I find it's always a good idea to have some new books on any trip! Where's Wally Books are great especially for slightly older kiddos as they spend ages and ages looking for Wally and all the other hidden characters. There are lots of I-Spy books that are similar and some designed for younger kids too! Keeps them busy! 

The Charlie and Lola Holiday book scanned at $5 when I picked it up from my local Target the other day - can't beat that!

 I also bring along coloured pencils, plain pencils and a dry erase marker for wipeable flash cards. My kids also love having a plain papered A5 art book for all their creative 'work' they like to do in the car. They are not huge on colouring-in books but they would also be a great addition to any Road Trip Kit if your kiddo loves them!

I could have packed crayons as it's winter and they won't melt in the car however I plan to have these kept in the car indefinitely after our road trip {for pulling out at the doctors during long wait times or having on hand when at a cafe or restaurant} and could just see me forgetting to take crayons out when summer hit and we'd have melted crayon everywhere thanks to our super hot Aussie heat!

These see-through mesh bags from Target are awesome because the kids can quickly see into them and find what they're looking for. I've included some flash cards for fun as well as a travel pack of Uno.

The pouches, books and art diaries fit in the Road Trip Kits along with the rain jackets and have plenty of room for anything else I might feel like popping in during the next couple of weeks as well as room for a lunchbox filled with snacks - another important thing to have with you on a road trip!

I make sure my kids have a bottle of water and pre-portioned healthy snacks available through the trip. Fruit, crackers, sultanas, home made muffin and even a sandwich. Hungry kids = cranky kids = unpleasant road trip! So I keep mine fed haha! 

In case you're wondering what the clip boards are for - I have some fun Road Trip printables to share with you! Coming very soon :o}

We usually also bring the iPad especially if it's a long drive. We don't often remember to charge it fully before we leave though so I am thinking one of these car USB chargers would be helpful to have!

What are your favourite Road Trip hints and tips to keep kiddos happy??

xx





disclosure: I was compensated for this post as part of the Target Bloggers Hub. All opinions and ideas expressed as well as photos are my own.

{activity} autumn playdough trees

Well it finally feels like autmun here in Perth - I know! It's nearly winter now, but the trees around us have only just started to change colours and show off their gorgeous reds and oranges and yellows in the last two weeks. The air is crisper in the evenings and the mornings are cold! It seems it took it's time, but finally autumn is here! 
{Yes, we are all sick too haha, change of season seems to do that to us, but I still love this weather!}
My kids love play dough - all the time. It keeps them busy for AGES. It's great for imaginative play as well as fine motor skill development so it really is a great all around activity for them to enjoy. 
Yesterday I decided to dye some leaf shaped pasta orange and red for some autumn crafting, and one of the first things we did with them was make some autumn playdough trees! Dying pasta is very easy! Check out how here. 

You really could use any kind of small pasta - little macaroni shells would work really well too!

I set the kids craft table up and when they sat down I asked them to use some brown to make a tree trunk and some green to make the top of their tree.

And then I just said they could pop the leaves on anywhere they liked. It was fun to see how they both took a different approach to their leaves :o}

And the reason I really love play dough and my kids playing with it is because they will use their imagination, sing and make noises and make up stories while playing, and do their own thing. I didn't even think about trying a 3D tree like this, but that's exactly what Noah wanted to make with his play dough and pasta leaves next.

And then this. An owl! I loved it so much I wanted to keep it as is, but Noah enjoyed squishing him! Haha :o}

Do your kiddos like play dough as much as mine? 

xx

{activity} silly slime!

As a kid we used to make this at summer camp. For us it was called Oobleck, based on some green slime in a Dr. Seuss story. It was a favourite at camp, also because we would get to bring some home with us. Once you make it up, it can act like a solid substance when you put force on it - punch down or squeeze it in your hands and it will feel solid, but let go and it will just 'melt' and ooze like a liquid.

It's super easy but can be a little messy - so take advantage of the gorgeous autumn weather and head outside and set the kids up at a table and let them go nuts! 
It was all easily cleaned up though - the silly slime dries up quite quickly and I brushed the stuff on the table back into the bowl and everything else just got a quick hose off. We started on the grass and moved under cover because of a little rain.

You will need: cornstarch water food colouring a bowl and spoon

I used one box of cornstarch and put just under half in a bowl each for the kids. {Keep a little bit aside or have another box handy in case too much water is added, that way you can add a little more cornstarch to get the consistency wanted}

The general rule is 1 part water to 1.5 - 2 parts cornstarch to get fun sliminess.

Colour some water any colour you like. My kids chose blue and purple so I gave them their own bottle of coloured water each.

Allow them to pour some water in, and let them mix it through, then add more water and mix again until you've got some nice goopiness going on. 

What you want is for the silly slime to be a little resistant or a bit 'hard' when you 'punch down' on it but if you pick some up it drips and dribbles back into the bowl.

It's a fun sensory sensation and my kids played for ages and ages. 

You can store it in an airtight container {and add more water or cornstarch if needed next time} and reuse it a few times.

So fun!

xx

Life starts at THREE

I feel like Chloe has been waiting for forever to turn the big THREE. She just couldn't wait until that day and talked about it for months and months and finally last week she had that magic day and now that she has reached that amazing age, she is very proud of herself :o}
We didn't have a party this year and instead planned to go to the zoo as her special birthday outing. Being the nearly three year old she is, she changed her mind about a dozen times before the big day! In the end she asked to go to a cupcake shop to eat a cupcake. And said that she'd like a purple fairy cake. 

We took her out to this very cute little cafe called Sherbert Cafe and Bake Shop in Maylands.  It's very cute and old fashioned inside, with retro tables, New York City posters and art work and the cutest bay windows to sit in and enjoy a cupcake and coffee. We arrived at the perfect time, ordered straight away (after eyeing off all the gorgeous cakes and cupcakes and making our choice) and sat down. While we were there, the place got packed! Heaps of people waiting for cupcakes and coffees and sandwiches - you can tell it's a favourite place to visit for a lot of people!

The cupcakes are delicious. And gorgeous. And did I say delicious? We went for Vanilla with vanilla icing (I know - maybe a bit boring but there was so much choice and these were very pretty!) and it was seriously a very good vanilla cupcake, each one was polished off. 

Hubby had a coffee and said it was very good, and the kids and I shared a couple of milkshakes which were gone in about .5 seconds flat. 

Afterwards we walked around, it's a lovely area with some very cute shops to browse in.
And then we headed out to Kings Park for some running around and lots of playing the afternoon away. It was a gorgeous and chilled out day and our sweet Chloe loved every minute of it so we were happy!
The next day was her actual birthday, and she woke up to a little party table with fairy wings, purple and teal tissue paper decorations.

I didn't quite make a 'purple fairy cake' - but it was cake, and it was purple, and it had edible glitter and coloured sugar thanks to some cheeky fairies. ;o}

In our family it is tradition that the birthday girl/boy gets to choose what they'd like for dinner - and Chloe chose pancakes! So we had breakfast for dinner which the kids thought was amazingly fun. I think we'll have to do it more often :o} Who would complain about pancakes for dinner - or bacon and eggs? Yum!
Happy Third Birthday dear Chloe! You are such an amazing little girl and you make us proud everyday! We love you!
xxx