Typically, Pinterest serves to make me feel like a delinquent mom rather than serves to give me awesome ideas. But, every once in a while, I get inspired and reach some creative epiphany. That’s sorta what happened as I was prepping for our 7 hour road trip to VA. I suddenly found myself road-trip-activity crazy complete with loaded swag bags. Fortunately, the kiddos totally got into it which is good since I may just have had a Pinterest Pity Party had they not (which may or may have included calling them by their first and middle names and making them stay silent for 10 minutes or more).

So, in the Pinterest spirit, here’s my road-trip toolbox. Take what I did, improve it, add your own tricks to the mix, and then have a kickin’ road trip for your crew. Come back and tell me what you did to make it better too—we’ve got a few more trips coming up. And, apparently, I’ve raised the bar for family road trips now.

Swag bag contents:

• a couple single-serving snacks (100 calorie packs of things like pretzels, a fruit roll up, etc.)
• orange flavored tictacs which they could eat one of every hour just for fun
• their own bag of goldfish crackers they could eat alone on the duration of the trip
• single package of tissues
• small bottle of Sprite
• juice box
• package of glow sticks from the dollar store
• A roll of scotch tape (can’t ever have enough)
• A binder with a pencil case stocked with a few pencils, colored pencils, a pen, and an eraser; a roadtrip map with our route highlighted (printed out from bing); some blank paper; and some blank lined paper.

I had a binder for myself stocked with copies of all the planned activities separated with dividers and labeled. I used the activities sparingly, only giving them out on the hour so that the kids had something new to look forward to and would pace themselves with each activity. Even had a few leftover when we arrived which allowed us some for the ride home which was much more low key than the ride there.

• First activity: Cover Page – On beginning the road trip, the kids found their swag bags awaiting them at their seats, and they were presented with their Road trip binder cover printed on card stock and told to decorate them using their colored pencils (or crayons for the Lyddy Little).
• Second activity: Name Art – I printed their names on three different pages using three different free fonts I found on www.dafont.com that were funky and fun and allowed for decoration (bad_mofo, wideawake, and bubblegums). Each child decorated his or her name and whole page. When we arrived at our destination, they hung these above their beds unprompted. Super cute.
• Third activity: License Plate Hunt – I found this License Plate Hunt online at www.thedatingdivas.com. Even though each state seems to have an endless number of designs on license plates, the kids used this page to check off the states we found on plates and then they colored in those states on this US map from www.mrprintables.com (educational, right? I always have sucked at geography. My mom should’ve made me do this on all those VW van road trips).

• Fourth activity: License Plate Game – Inspired by the hunt and all the fun designs, I gave the kids this license plate game that I created so that they could design their own license plates. Some of them were from galaxies far, far away and uber creative.
• Fifth activity: Scavenger Hunt – I created this scavenger hunt myself. It was a big hit and kept us all on our toes as someone would randomly yell out throughout the ride when they spotted something like a bike carrier or school bus. It also resulted in us teaching our kids how to get a trucker to blow his horn for them which is really a childhood rite of passage.
• Sixth activity: Hangman – Hangman is self-explanatory and always fun (even when children are self-centered and think no one will ever guess that the word is their own name).
• Seventh activity: Alphabet Game – Not so great for the younger kids, but this alphabet game I made up was really fun for my older two had were thinking of new words for the categories and the hard letters even after we arrived.
• Eighth activity: Questionnaire – This original game of 20 Questions was a lot of fun. The kids answered for themselves and then guessed how 2 other people in the car would answer.
• Ninth activity: Coloring Pages – I also threw in some random free coloring pages I found online like this owl coloring page. Even the boys liked this one since it was detailed.
• Tenth activity: Madlibs – I googled “printable madlibs” and found some goodones on www.classroomjr.com that were simple and were eye catching with some color accents on the page.

Apparently, Lydia didn’t find it all as compelling as the rest of us. 7 hours after we pulled out of our driveway, we arrived in VA unscathed, actually quite cheerful where they actually told us that they had forgotten all about DS games and iPad screens.

Road trip win.

We are a family that loves tradition. We take very seriously God’s call to remember, and traditions help us do just that. They are a sort of Sabbath for us, providing an opportunity to step back from our normal busy lives and celebrate what God has done for His people and for us specifically.

When our oldest was nearing a very significant birthday that would take him from one digit to two, we decided that we’d start a tradition of a little surprise getaway alone with Mom or Dad when each child turned 10. My husband took our son Evan, a big chocolate lover, to Hershey for his man weekend. Two years later, when our daughter Ashlyn turned 10, I decided to use the time to study God’s word together, choosing Esther as the perfect book to invite conversation about standing up for what is right, having courage despite fear, living wisely, and choosing to be a part of God’s Kingdom work.

I found a great book by Pam Gibbs, Esther: The Role of a Lifetime, published by Lifeway Press. But, it was written for older girls and included content way too grown up for my daughter. So, I put this six-lesson study together, basing it very closely on Gibbs’ well-organized and well-written text, but making it a workbook to be used by a mother or leader discipling a girl in the 9-14 age range.

While it could be completed various ways, I used it with my daughter over three days, completing one lesson together at every meal using the following schedule:

Day 1 dinner: Lesson 1
Day 2 breakfast: Lesson 2
Day 2 lunch: Lesson 3
Day 2 dinner: Lesson 4
Day 3 breakfast: Lesson 5
Day 3 lunch: Lesson 6

We retreated to a resort where we could sweeten our time with some pampering at a spa during the afternoon on Day 2. Not only was that super fun, but we were able to talk together about what it would have been like for Esther and the other young girls to have beauty treatments for a whole year. I also brought special matching necklaces made by my friend Rebekah at Compelled Designs that had the reference Esther 4:14 etched onto the back. I gave Ashlyn her necklace at the end of Lesson 6 when we talked about ebenezers and mementos to remember what God has done.

Since my daughter is currently Insta-obsessed, I jumped right in there with her, posting lots of pictures to Instagram during our time away. That led to a few requests for the study I used. So, here it is, available by clicking that little orange button below all these words, edited a little after our “trial run” for other moms to use with their daughters. Print out two copies, and take them to your local copy center and have them spiral bound (a fun and cheap way to make it look really good for your time together). Review it yourself before you guide your daughter through it, but save writing in your copy until you can do it together.

May God use this small thing in mighty ways, binding your hearts together as you press on to bring Him glory, as I just learned in Esther He is more than able to do.