OK, not yet - but we will be!  We are planning our first long family vacation since 1996! (that was 6 kids ago!!)  We've gone on 3 day trips - fairly local - but this is a big'n!  So how are we preparing to take 8 kids on a roadtrip?

I've been scouting the food sales for travel snacks and stocking up on granola bars and trail mix ingredients for weeks now.  Snagged generic poptarts for 50c a box! 

We bought several 32gal totes for $4 each.  One is for clothes (matching/coordinating T's), one for food, one for goodie bags, one for media...

I made goodie bags for each of the kids.  Travel games, coloring books, sticker books, craft supplies, stuffies, cars, toys...  I got most of them during after holiday clearance sales for well under a dollar each!  Some are homemade games (license plate lotto, travel bingo, etc).  I'll be passing things out one at a time every 200 mi or so.

The media tote is full of books on tape and CD from the library.  They also have these new "Playaway" things - self contained books you plug earphones into.  They even give you earbuds to keep when you borrow the books!  I got a few personal CD & tape players on ebay so everyone will have something.  Plus, when we were blessed with this van, it came with a DVD and VCR so we've got movies to watch.

I have tried to carefully plan our itinerary to account for bored teens and squirmy toddlers.  And everyone in between!  It is pretty detailed and I printed out a LOT of "to" and "from" maps.  But we know enough to be flexible and won't be slaves to The Plan.  I've mixed museums with playgrounds and indoor sites with hikes. 

We're dressing the kids before bed on the eve of our departure and leaving in the quiet stillness of the morning.  The hope is that most of them will fall back to sleep for the bulk of that first day's travelling.  Not sure how it will work, so I have a couple of nice stops planned that we could skip if they are sleeping.

Good thing it's still a while away, though.  I have a TON left to do!  Make a grocery list & shop, prepare the frozen meals, pack the totes, buy more goodies for the Twinkies' bags, wash clothes, buy DIAPERS...

Anyone have any Travel-With-Children tips that I missed?

Peace,

Katie

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Posted by 4sweetums

Wow! YOu sound super organized to me. We sang alot of songs and played a adapted version of eye spy on our last trip. I look forward to hearing all about your trip.
Blessings,
Dawn

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Posted by MuckFootMom

I think you're more organized than I am

Two things that help us is - staying in one of those hotels with kitchenettes (that is, if you're going somewhere and *staying* in one place for the trip) - and bringing 3-4 days of laundry (a little more for the youngest ones for leaks/spills) and doing laundry every few days, rather than trying to pack for the whole trip.

We did buy a few of the hand-held electronic games to entertain kids. They also make small "aqua doodle" things where you write with water, and after it dries you can re-use it and re-use it ... the littler ones like those and you can't spill/stain ...

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Posted by MuckFootMom

by 'hand held electronic games' I'm talking the $10-$20 ones, not the fancier game machines. In between trips they live in a special 'trip box' so they're still special when the next trip comes up.

Or ... that's the plan, anyway.

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Posted by crysnrod

I dont think you missed a thing!!!
Blessings from another mom of 8!
Crystal

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