Snacks for the Road

In 3 days, we leave for NY. We are driving 16 hours, through the night/morning and arriving in NY around 11am on Saturday. We have been planning this trip for well over 9 months and the fact that almost a year's worth of planning will come to a head in 3 days is stressing me out big time. 

Hands down, my biggest worry/stress is the long long journey that awaits us. Sure, both Josie and Toby are excellent travelers BUT that does not diminish the fact that we are going to be trapped in a car for 16 hours. Knowing that 10 hours in a car is a long long longggg time....then add another 6 hours on to that. Yea, that sounds dreadful.

One the verge of a pre-road trip breakdown this afternoon I had a moment of clarity: Snacks!! Snacks make everything better, right? Now, we were already planning on packing a bag full of food to take with us (even though we're driving through the night). Mainly it's just to keep us awake. 

Hopefully, Josie will sleep through the nighttime part of our journey (which is very questionable since she still does not sleep soundly for any more than 4 hours at a time) but even if she doesn't wake up until 7am...she'll still be trapped in her car seat for another 4-5 hours. My brilliant idea: pack goody bags filled with tasty treats for her. 

We went to Target this afternoon to buy all our goodies. I stuck with brands I know and love; like Annie's, Larabar, and Kashi. I also stuck with foods that I knew wouldn't be too difficult to clean off of a car seat.

I knew going into this trip that I absolutely did not want to make or bake anything to bring with us; so all our road food would be pre made stuff. I just don't have the extra time or energy to make anything this week, and that is a-ok by me. Also, by using individually wrapped items, that's one more "thing" that Josie can do while we're in the car to entertain herself. Open up snacks! 

I noticed some small gift bags were on sale too, so I bought some pretty green ones (I was just going to use brown paper lunch bags....but these bags brought my "goody bag" idea together a bit more). 

. 

 When we got home, I pulled out some various sized plastic containers, sandwich bags, and my stash of reusable snack bags. I opened all the boxes and distributed the snacks evenly between the 5 green bags

From Left to Right: Annie's Bunny Grahams, Annie's Cheddar Party Mix, Kashi Berry Blossoms Cereal,  Revolution Foods "Jammy Sammy", Annie's Peanutty Granola Bar, Happy Baby Fruit and Veggie Puree, and Mini Larabar

 All the "leftovers" were put into a small reusable bag that I'll keep in the car to "refill" any of the items that get eaten up quickly.

Once the bags were full, I grabbed some tissue paper that has been sitting on my kitchen table for the past 4 weeks (might as well use it up...that way I don't have to find a home for it somewhere else). The tissue paper makes the bags look more like gifts (and what kid doesn't love opening up gifts?!). I'm hoping the tissue paper will also end up being something fun to play with in the car seat (or something funny to cover the dog with). Either way, it'll keep my little traveler happy.

 Once all the bags were packed and wrapped, I put them inside an empty diaper box, and hid the box in the pantry. This way I know she won't get into it between now and Friday. Also, by putting the bags in a larger box, it'll be easier to keep them from spilling in the car. 

Now, I'm hoping these treat bags last for the trip out to NY and the trip back to WI. I'm guess we'll go through 2 (at most) per trip. 

I am loving this idea. I think we'll make this a family vacation tradition.