Activities for the Plane

I’ve just about finished packing the kids’ goodie bags full of fun activities and treats for the plane.  The dollar shop is a great place to find small toys and games.  A travel version of Trouble and a spiralgraph set should keep the girls busy for a bit.  The boys will like the squishy balls and toy helicopter.  The bags are filled with coloring books and crayons, story books, colorful pens and snacks.  For the girls I made homemade activity books.  I printed some coloring pages I found online.

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Activities for the Plane

Activities for the Plane

I’ve just about finished packing the kids’ goodie bags full of fun activities and treats for the plane.  The dollar shop is a great place to find small toys and games.  A travel version of Trouble and a spiralgraph set should keep the girls busy for a bit.  The boys will like the squishy balls and toy helicopter.  The bags are filled with coloring books and crayons, story books, colorful pens and snacks.  For the girls I made homemade activity books.  I printed some coloring pages I found online. I made tic-tac-toe, make-a-square and hangman game pages.  There are color photos of some of their favorite rides in Disney, wordsearches and math worksheets (yes, they actually choose to do these on vacation!).  The girls are interesting in learning more about the atmosphere and weather.  I think an airplane is a great place to study these - when you’re out there IN it!  I included pages about the atmosphere and clouds in their books.  Hopefully the weather will be good and the girls will be able to spot many different types of clouds on the way to Florida. Finally, I’ve packed up supplies for my favorite airplane activity - painting!  I find that painting keeps the kids’ attention longer than coloring.  Back before 9/11, I would just bring a small, child-sized water bottle with us.  Now I have to bring the water bottles empty and fill it in the restroom just before we board.  Huggies disposable changing pads are the perfect surface for painting - the back is waterproof and the top surface is absorbant.  Small children do well with ‘paint with water’ books like the one I’ve packed for Zee.  In addition to those, the girls will also get a few watercolors and several small sheets of paper to create their own mini-masterpieces.

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Activities for the Plane

Goodie Bags

I have fond memories of visiting my grandmother as a child.  One of my favorite things she’d do for us was to pack us each a goodie bag for our long car trip home.  There was snacks and drinks (all the sugary, expensive packaged stuff parents avoid buying), magic ink books, special pens and pencils, coloring books, new packages of crayons and small toys - all in a small gift bag with our names on them.  I LOVED it! We rarely take such long car trips with our kids.  The flight to Disney World is the longest trip we attempt and the only real opportunity I have to pass along Grandma’s goodie bag tradition to my kids.

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Goodie Bags

Disney Preparations

Preparations for our upcoming Disney World trip are moving along quite nicely. I’ve finished making luggage and child ID tags.  I use dark t-shirt iron on transfers for these.  They produce soft, flexible, completely weather-proof, practically indestructible tags.   We pin the ID tags to the boys in case they get lost.  I also made tags for our wheelchair and stroller and personalized t-shirts for the kids. I’ve updated our ‘Ultimate Disney Guidebook’.  I created this book a few years ago.  It contains maps of all the parks, restaurant menus, park hours, our general plan of action and the reservation info.   Besides being very helpful while in the parks, we have a lot of fun looking through it at home.  I’ve even used it for school work in the past.  This year I’ll also be adding screen shots of pages from Adrian’s device so he can communicate what he’d like to do.

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Disney Preparations

I’m back.

Went for a week to visit my sister who’s days away from delivering her first child.  It was fun.  It was relaxing. But I’m really glad to be back home.  No place like it Before I left the kids made a paper chain counting down the days till our Disney trip.  It’s the only way to give Adrian and Zee a way to ’see’ how long till we go.  The chain is getting smaller and my list of preparations to make is long

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I’m back.