My family leaves for vacation, soon! We didn’t go anywhere last summer, so we’ve been looking forward to this since our Disney vacation two summers ago. It was our children’s AND my husband’s very first trip to the parks and we had an absolute blast. Our kids were 6 and 4 at the time… the highlight for Caleb was being at Hollywood Studios for an official Star Wars weekend and getting to fight Darth Vadar. Hannah was too shy to talk to any of her favorite princesses until after she’d left their presence and if you ask her what her favorite part was, she’ll enthusiastically say Aquatica (Sea World’s amazing water park) over Disney.
This year we are driving and spending the first weekend with our good friends the Baker’s in Atlanta, Georgia. From there, we head to the Royal Caribbe (a steal on MouseSavers.com) as our home base. Then we’re off on our whirl-wind adventures as we’ll be heading back to Magic Kingdom and Epcot; to Universal Studios specifically for Harry Potter World (Caleb has read through book four, and Tom and I had read the entire series before the kids even came along); and the entire Sea World experience, culminating with a day at their Discovery Cove where we’ll interact and snorkel with all sorts of marine life, including a dolphin. Our kiddos are nuts about the animated PBS show Wild Kratts and Caleb regularly makes animal friends, including an unforgettable incident on a family mission trip a couple of years ago where this little goat took to him like one of his own and they ended up “butting” heads/horns (just playing, Caleb didn’t get hurt) for a belly-laugh inducing long time. So, as Caleb says, we’re going to Florida so that he can make a dolphin friend.
I’m pretty adamant on family road trips to pack all our food for the car. It’s so much more convenient (and healthier) to nosh on snacks and meals I’ve already packed and then we only have to worry about pit-stops for fuel and potty breaks. Trader Joe’s generally provides a good portion of my packing stash. We love their hummus (for crackers and cut vegetables), string cheese, peanut butter filled pretzels, strawberry applesauce squeeze pouches and white cheddar popcorn puffs. I also pack sandwiches: standard p b & j; lunch meat; and egg salad (which is simply hard boiled eggs mixed with the Trader Joe’s Hummus). Each family member has his/her own water bottle and I pack a huge cooler full of ice water.
I also try to make at least one home-baked treat and that is the recipe I am sharing with you today, along with some other helpful road trip stuff I’ve found. I was intrigued by these blueberry Greek yogurt cookies at the Spoon Fork Bacon blog. I decided I would like to make them for our trip but wasn’t sure how well they’d pack with the fresh blueberries in them. So these are the ingredients I used instead…
They are really delicious and the mango puree from the yogurt smelled so tart and yummy as I mixed the batter and then baked the cookies. The blueberries and coconut as you can see are from Trader Joe’s. The yogurt I find at my local Kroger… it’s my latest favorite. The sprinkles were a fun treat for the kids (since the cookies are healthier than the average). I think Tom and I will eat ours as little cookie sandwiches spread with almond butter in-between. I’ll share the recipe for these at the end of the post.
As for most events in our lives these days, I found myself searching Pinterest again for helpful road trip ideas and thought I’d share a few with all of you.
This amazing travel lap tray from Prudent Baby is so functional and cute. She provides a detailed tutorial on how to make one (including carrying straps – it folds up for storage!) on her blog so click on the picture to check it out. The cookie sheet catches crumbs for eating, provides a flat surface for coloring and a magnetic surface for car bingo.
This i-spy travel game from Jill Dubien’s blog is super-cute and simple. Upcycle a clear bottle, fill with rice and various small, colorful objects. Super-glue the lid shut (insuring one less car mess to clean-up) and make a key so the kids know what they are looking for. Make duplicates for siblings and make it a competition to see who can find all their items faster. Also, if you’ve never visited Jill’s blog, be sure to check out her super-creative collection of bento-box lunches!
These Surprise! Bags at the Such Pretty Things blog really are pretty. Click the link to see the collection of small toys and candies she found to fill a few bags for a trip with her daughters. I used this trick on our last trip to Florida and it was a huge help in keeping the 6 and 4 year old happy.
This Car Bingo {free} printable was the best one I found. Beautifully illustrated and challenging enough to keep my children engaged. I’ll be using round magnets as their Bingo markers to stick on the cookie sheet they’ll each have for the trip. Find the Car Bingo at A Little Bird.
And finally from Finley and Oliver comes this super-cool Lego Travel Box {complete with lots of photos and instructions in the post}. This is an absolute must-have in the car for my son. The only issue will be him choosing which legos to take and which to leave behind.
Blueberry Coconut Mango Yogurt Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 c. white whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 t. baking powder
- 1/2 t. baking soda
- 1/4 t. kosher salt
- scant 1 c. sugar
- 2 pkg. Koru mango yogurt
- 1 egg
- 1 t. vanilla
- 8 oz. pkg. Trader Joe's Dried Wild Blueberries
- 2 oz. pkg. Trader Joe's Roasted Coconut Chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and adjust racks to upper and lower third positions.
- In large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar, yogurt, egg and vanilla.
- Dump the wet ingredients into the bowl with the flour mixture. Add the blueberries and coconut chips. Fold together with a wooden spoon or spatula until ingredients are well combined.
- Scoop about 1 tablespoon of rounded dough balls onto cookies sheets lined with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Top raw dough with sprinkles, if desired.
- Bake for about 10 minutes, or until edges of cookies are just beginning to brown. They won't spread a lot and will look pretty "cakey" when finished.
Notes
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