Again, I had 9 hours to cover. I had prepared all of the gifts for both legs of the drive before the trip, and had them in a plastic crate on the extra seat in the van. With their initials and number of gifts written on the outside, they were able to watch the clock themselves, and hand out the gifts each time.
#1: New coloring books
We started out the drive home with a good old stand-by - new coloring books. My girls love coloring, so it was an obvious choice. They were able to use their trays under as a solid surface for coloring.
#2: Puzzles
I found 3 cute little puzzles at Dollar Tree in these little tins. I purposely chose ones that only have 24 pieces, knowing the pieces would be larger and harder to lose. Then I cut little magnet strips and stuck them on the back of all the pieces, and on the back of the tins. They were able to do their puzzles on their trays and not lose any pieces! They also took turns with each of the 3 puzzles and shared with each other.
A hint: I found it was super quick to attach all the magnets by doing the puzzle on a piece of cardboard, flipping it over, and then sticking all the magnets on while it was assembled.
#3: New magnetic notepads
Knowing my girls, I knew the notepad that they got on the way up would be LONG GONE by the drive home. They used them on the drive, and to "take orders" at Grandma's house for their playdoh restaurant. So a new notepad was a safe bet. Again, I found these at Dollar Tree. They already have magnets on the back, so they could just stick them on their trays, and draw and write notes.
#4: Baby Bottle Pops - AGAIN
There's no explaining it - they just love these.
#5: Little Farm/Circus Toys!
I have to admit - these were my favorite find as I browsed for toys I could use for this. These little tiny boxes are easy to miss - they were in the aisle at Walmart with all the little "blind box toys" like Shopkins, etc. And it's no joke - there are seriously over 30 pieces in there! And they all fit inside a cute little circus tent or barn! I wish they had more little sets than just the two - but that seems to be all they have. I think they were about 3 dollars each.
I put strips of magnet on the bottom of the tent/barn - so it would stick to the tray. The rest of the animals and toys in it are super tiny, and could get lost or stolen (or eaten by smaller kids) - so keep that in mind. But my girls LOVED them. In fact, after our trip, they all used their own savings money to buy the opposite set than the one I had chosen for them. So now we have 3 farms and 3 circuses.
#6: New journals
My youngest is still mostly too little to write much without help spelling. But these cute little journals at Dollar Tree were perfect. They have some pages with little prompts like "Describe your favorite day of summer so far," etc. Little J mostly just drew pictures, but her sisters helped her write a few things. It was a nice time for them to sit and reflect mainly on the week we had just had in Montana with family and at Glacier National Park.
#7: Card games
G is obsessed with Marvel movies lately, and M and J both were in the back, and love to play Go Fish. So I found some decks of cards with some favorite characters on it. They were somewhat limited in what games they could play - but they also started to try making up magic tricks, which ended up being hilarious and so much fun for them.
#8: Disney Doorables
I had these in a stash I keep of little rewards/toys they like that I find on great deals. A few months back, we noticed Walmart had these sets on clearance for $5 each. They normally were as much as $12-$14. So we scooped up a bunch of them to have on hand for birthday gifts for friends, rewards, bribes, whatever.
If you haven't seen them before - they're cute little big-eyed Disney characters that come in a box full of little "doors." So each toy (and sometimes 2) comes in each little door box. Opening them is half the fun - and then their little "guys" joined their circuses and farms and they played happily.
#9: Light-up Pineapples
This was the weirdest, most random prize in the bunch. I saved it for last, thinking it might be dark outside by the time we were getting home. (However, driving to and from Montana in the summer, I hadn't factored in the fact that darkness doesn't come until 9 or 10 at night). The idea was that they could magnet it to their tray and still be able to see the stuff they were playing with. But they never really needed them for light on this trip.
But my girls love pineapples, and all things pineapple-themed. These cute little LED lights turn on with a switch. These were also at Dollar Tree.
In retrospect, I thought the whole thing went as good as I could have imagined. No one asked how much longer it was until we were there - having a goal for the next hour on the clock seemed to be enough anticipation for them at a time. My husband and I were able to actually sit and talk for most of the drive, we only watched 1 movie on the DVD player the entire time, and they had new toys/activities to use while we were at Grandma's house, too.
In the future, I plan to have them repack the tray in the little backpack bags for trips. And, while I probably won't do something for every single hour of the trip (most of our drives are less than 5 hours long), I may get one or two more things to add to their "tray set" as we go on future adventures.
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