A NEW TRAVEL TRADITION!!!
We are headed to San Francisco in a few days and we are taking our "new-to-us" 2004 Ford Taurus sedan. Yep. All six of us, together, in a barely-six-seater for a 13 hour car trip!
*gulp*
Space will be very limited and so I worried about how we were going to transport our snacks and not end up with mashed boxes and crumb chips. Not to mention, of course, the inconvenience of mom being the hander-outer non-stop in a tight space... and it all ending up at mom's feet to boot! LOL
I was at the Dollar Store picking up a few of our cheap favorite snacks when I passed by these tall plastic containers...
...and it hit me!
Everyone gets their own box to hold/keep track of!
BRILLIANT!!
I snagged the boxes, some sandwich baggies, the rest of the snacks and headed for home to share my excitement with the kids. :)
They were all THRILLED with the idea!
Everyone got to choose what he/she loved!!
We broke out the label maker and gathered all the snacks I had been buying on sale for the last 3 months for this trip.
Cam and Code loving theirs!
Cubs can't contain his excitement!!
TEE HEE HEE
Even Mom and Dad were going to be in charge of their own snacking pleasures on this trip.
Everyone kept their box down by their feet and we tossed all the extra space taking boxes and bags the treats came in! YAY!
Food is ready to go!!
Here's a variety pic so you can kind of see what each box had in it...
We are ready to go!!!!!!!!!!!!
** Post trip notes **
** Instead of sugar laden drinks, each child took a water bottle and we took our 5 gal water cooler with us in the trunk and refilled at each bathroom break. It worked out perfectly! (all we ever bought was ice to refill it - the heat of the day melted it as needed!)
** We also filled a gallon size baggie with celery & carrots and if the kids wanted they had the single serve peanut butter cups in their own boxes to eat with them (Mom & Cody's fav!)
** We also had another gallon baggie with peeled and wedged oranges and 2 different kinds of apples (cut into wedges) - Em juiced one fresh lemon all over the top of the fruit and shook the bag to coat the oranges and bananas... it kept the apples fresh and crunchy with very minimal browning for almost a week! (have used bottled lemon juice before it is not as effective)
** The previously mentioned baggies of fresh food we kept in a small ice chest in the trunk, along with some lunch meats, cheese, mayo/mustard and tortillas - we made wraps for the big meals on the trip. There also were some frozen applesauce pkgs (the kind you suck out) for when we needed something refreshing. When we stopped for potty breaks along the way we would rotate the fresh bags when we got water refills. It was lovely!
** note: Don't divvy up beef jerky into sandwich bags for this - it is too strong smelling and some of our crackers took on the flavor of jerky. Jerky will just have to stay a pass around treat LOL (meat flavored Nilla Waffers was weird LOL)
** The kids did not eat all their snack items, and often gathered some of their baggies of snacks for their day-packs while were in SF. (each child had their own string day pack to carry their water bottle, snacks, camera, and sovenier $ - that was a back saver for mom and dad! And saved the begging for expensive drinks and treats along the way!) A quick stop at the grocery store and the boxes were refreshed for the trip home as well! This was a real life saver!!
Hope to use this new tradition from now on! It was a great way to teach the kids moderation and responsibility as well: There were no boxes/bags to refill from... they had to ration smartly to make it last the whole trip and they all did beautifully with snacks to spare!! :)
