Road Trip with Kids

We are planning our big trip out to Michigan to see my husband's family.  It's 17 hours of driving for just a quick adult trip.  Many more hours with kids who need frequent breaks and time out of the car.

I've gathered several ideas through Pinterest and put them all together here.

My first idea came from The Road Trip Traveling Game.  This blogger made a ticket exchange for your youngster.  Giving them colored tickets to exchange for toys.

After finding some great printables for the license plate game, truck graphing, and some other scavenger hunt check sheets and coloring pages I bought clipboards for each kid.

To start the trip each kid will get a clipboard with scavenger hunt sheets, coloring sheets, their tickets for the first day and a snack bag.

I visited The Dating Divas "Road Trip Date".  Here is where I combined ideas.  For our road trip I used The Divas printable countdown as my tickets for the Road Trip Traveling Game.  Since my kids are too small to reach a clothesline and take down the markers as we travel, but big enough to read signs and look forward to the next marker, I have rewards for each mile-marker.  Each mile-marker is placed on colored cardstock.  The reward/surprise is wrapped in the same color as the ticket.

As we drive along they can exchange their colored ticket for a colored prize.  I have new books, new coloring sheets, word finds, scavenger hunts, new movies, and snack-packs pre-made and ready to go.

I even made snack bags for my husband (the constant snacker) using The Diva's snack bag printout.

It took a few hours to gather all the materials at the store, wrap the gifts, make the tickets and organize the mile-markers but my hope is that I won't hear a single "ARE WE THERE YET?!?!" because they have the answer in their hands...waiting for each mile-marker ticket and as their pile gets less and less, they'll know we are getting closer and closer!

Orange-Cranberry Scones

Moist light scones with a wonderful crusty outside, fresh from the oven!  

Preheat oven to 400F  place rack in the center of the oven.

For 12 medium fruit scones -

In a large bowl whisk together:
2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
(reduce to 2 c if using butter)
1/4 c sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda

Grated orange peel.  I look for the darkest naval orange in the grocery store.  Using the finest grate on my kitchen grater I take off the deep color on the entire orange.  Don't grate too deep or you'll get the bitter part of the rind.

Whisk together in a separate bowl:
1 large egg
1 cup vanilla soy milk (or buttermilk or milk)
3 TBS vegetable oil (3.5 TBS melted butter -- reduce flour to 2 cups)
1 c dried cranberries

Pour wet ingredients over the dry ingredients.  Using a rubber spatula gently fold the ingredients slowly until moistened.  Don't over stir, press or fold.  Stir until BARELY incorporated.  This will keep the scones light and fluffy.  Over-stirring can result in hockey pucks with fruit.

Using a soup spoon place batter mounds 1" apart on a greased baking sheet.  Sprinkle tops with sugar.  Bake for 13-15 minutes.

Remove from pan and cool on rack.  Serve warm or cool completely before storing.