Project: Road Trip-Pop-O-Matic I Spy

Today's Project: Road Trip comes from an idea I saw a long time ago, forgot about, and then thanks to the world of pinterest, found again. Bet you guys didn't know I like that site, huh???


Ohdeedoh is a delightfully addicting site. This idea came from over there and you can find the original post HERE.

My Little Men love bubble wrap...what kid doesn't! That is why I knew this would be a perfect idea for our long car trip. I just knew I had to make my own version of this travel game. I call mine Pop-O-Matic I Spy.

There are two hard parts of making this game. ONE-thinking up that many things to spy. Two-drawing said things tiny enough to fit behind each bubble and also lining it up. Oohhh I had such a brain cramp trying to come up with enough things to spy. Then actually drawing them...eh-hem...the horse/dog/coyote creature I drew which Oldest was quick to point out did not look like the intended horse it was supposed to be.

After drawing one sheet, I decided I was going to copy it so that each boy could have their own. I also made a much easier Alphabet I Spy.


Once you have your picture sheets, all you need is a sheet of large bubble wrap cut to fit your picture sheet. Attach the bubble wrap with double stick tape.

Then start the fun. They will pop away any time they see any picture on their sheet. Super fun!

Since I am so nice and I now know how much time making one of these sheets takes, I am making the ones I made available to you to download. I only ask one thing...

...NO COMMENTS snidely referring to the ineptitude of my drawing...especially directed at my horse/dog/coyote creation...i mean he has feelings too...

download here

Download here

Enjoy!

Project: Road Trip-Homemade Snacks

I decided to morph Recipe Thursdays with Project: Road Trip this week. 

One of the best things to aid in a successful road trip is FOOD...okay so one of the best things to aid in the success of anything (well, except maybe a diet) is food...

Since food/snacks/treats/bribes are so important in maintaining peace in the vehicle, I wanted to prepare a couple of fun snacks.

So today for Project: Road Trip...

I am sharing this recipe for Homemade Cheez-Its. Making homemade crackers is kind of a cool thing to do. I felt all accomplished. The Little Men loved the idea of homemade crackers too.

Homemade Cheez-Its
In Katrina's Kitchen

Ingredients
8 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1 Tablespoon vegetable shortening (or add another T of butter if you don't like using shortening)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
2 Tablespoons ice water
coarse salt for sprinkling

Combine cheese, butter, shortening, and salt in the bowl of your mixer with the paddle attachment. Mixture will be crumbly.

Slowly add the flour, then add the ice water.

Pat the dough into 2 disks and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

When the dough has been refrigerated long enough, preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Roll each disc to 1/8". Then cut using a pizza roller. Cut them in columns and rows, making tons of small squares. In the middle of each square, poke a hole using a toothpick. Transfer onto a cookie sheet.

Repeat with other disc of dough.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until puffed and browning around the edges.

Move crackers to a cooling rack.

Once cool, pack in an air tight container until ready to serve.

I wonder how long it will take my boys to inhale these???

Project: Road Trip-Word Searches

Still on the road, in the middle of the country, in the middle of our cross-country move. Hopefully as you are reading this my Little Men have spent some quiet time diving into these word searches.

Both of the older two really like word searches. Oldest really does well at them. Middle is just learning his letters and what some words look like.

I really wanted to make them their own word searches...and in true brainless fashion at first I thought I was going to have to come up with them on my own. Then something clicked reminding me that there is this grand thing called the internet, and most likely there was some kind of online tool that would put them together for me. 

You better believe it, there was. 

I went between using two sites. 

The first one I used was from a site called SuperKids. The instructions are pretty clear and the unique feature they had was that you could click to make it easy, making sure none of the words were backwards. In this format I did the 16x16 for Oldest and a 10x10 for Middle.

The next site, which I ended up using more, was Discovery Education. I thought that this site dispersed the words better. HOWEVER, they did not give me the option to not have the words go backwards. I did 15x15 for Oldest and 10x10 for Middle.

Now, I need my puzzles a certain size to go with my Travel Game Folios. So instead of printing them right off the site, which you can do...I did some reformatting in Word. Reformatting it allowed me to make the puzzles bigger. PLUS, it allowed me to bold the first letter of each word for Middle (this is a great trick to help them find the word if they know their letters but still are learning to read).

Making your own word searches are fun. It gives you the creative license to play to your kids' interests. After this trip I plan to make some for learning purposes and for church.

If you have any questions, you can leave them in the comments OR email me. It might be a couple of days until I can get back to you, but I PROMISE, I will.

Project: Road Trip-Travel Folio Games

Okay, so right now we should be somewhere in the middle of our journey. Who knows were we will be at this point. Who knows how much sanity the parents will have left. Who knows how much exactly how much fun the Little Men are having. BUT hopefully we have filled all the bored moments with some fun activities.

Today in Project Road Trip I am sharing these Travel Game Folios. I got this idea from stitch/craft and immediately put it on my to do list. I changed it up just a bit. When I finished them, my boys were already super excited to be able to use them.

They are easy to carry. Easy to use. I used her idea of putting plastic in to make the games reusable. I printed off games and I printed off writing practice sheets.

I am going to run through how I made these just in case you have a trip coming up.

I used school folders for the base of my folios. It is a great time to find fun ones since back to school sales are going on. I found these at Target...where else!

I decided how wide I wanted my folios and drew up a pattern with rounded corners. The straight edge matches up with the fold in your folder. Tracing with a pencil will leave an indent that you can follow with you scissors when you cut it out.

They will look like this:

I also cute a small strip for each folder out of the scraps...that will be for the pen holder.

For the clear sleeve I used a page protector.

I cut the sleeve in half and then cut it to fit the inside of the open folder. Then I sewed it on either edge and then in the middle. The openings are on the sides.

After the plastic in in place, sew on the velcro on the same edges you sewed the plastic in place.

Next you attach the pen holder. Fold the small strip in a "w" type shape.

Now here is where you live you learn...my first time through I attached the pen holder on the outside. Temporarily attached the small piece to the outside front with scotch tape. Then I sewed in place. Talk about a PAIN, and it didn't look that pretty.

So here is attempt 1:

Then I decided to sew the strip into the fold at one of the sides. This was a lot easier to sew in place AND the stitches on the printed side do not show as much as they did on the white inside. You don't even have to add a pen holder.

I googled and printed of pen and paper travel games and writing paper. I found the ones I like, cut them to size and slipped them into the plastic sleeves. Add a dry erase marker or a washable marker, cut a piece of felt for an eraser and you are set.

Hopefully hours of FUN.

Here are some of the links I used for the games.

number tracing worksheets HERE
tracing paper HERE
connect the dot HERE
hangman and tic-tac-toe HERE

Food Contributor: Strawberry Julius

Today I am over at Somewhat Simple for my Monthly Recipe post. This is a delightfully yummy and refreshing drink. Perfect for any Summer day. Okay perfect for any day.

So head on over.