Traveling with kids is never easy. Traveling with five kids, most people would rather eat glass. But I'm pretty much an expert at traveling with many kids. I've flown on airplanes, post 9/11, with 7 children, including a baby. I've traveled to Florida and back, by automobile, with 6 boys. I cannot tell you the countless other road trips my kids have taken. This is our 2nd trip to Kansas City since November.
As you can see by my profile, one of my children lives in KS with my mom. Last weekend he graduated from high school. Proud Mama (and Grandma) moment!! I would not miss it for anything! So glad we were able to go and spend a couple days with him. Besides Mike and I and James' four brothers, we also brought James' best friend from home with us. Five kids under 17 in a vehicle for 8 hours, there and back.
I typically try to pack our lunches, drinks and snacks for trips. This prevents spending gobs of dough at gas stations, fast food joints and vending machines. It also means less junk. This was important before, but our travel fare did include junk foods, cookies, etc. This trip meant more prep on my part. Instead of going to the store and buying cookies, chips and snack cakes; I went to the store for fruit, nuts and veggies.
I made a double batch of chunky monkey muffins. I also made two batches of paleo crunch, one nut-free. In the cooler, I packed water bottles, and the boys' traditional lunch grub: Boar's Head meat, cheese and lettuce. This would be our travel lunch. I also packed a variety of nuts, apples, pears, bananas, cucumbers, and baby carrots. I grabbed some of our boxed snacks that we use for lunches, fruit leather, raisins, etc.
We had plenty of things to snack on and a good lunch to keep everyone on track. Some other things you could pack are: jerky, celery and nut butter, pre-made salads, broccoli, cauliflower, blueberries, strawberries, pineapple. Just about any fruit cut up, any veggies you can cut up and eat raw. You could also bring cooked chicken breasts or pork chops or sliders. Any meat that you can eat cold.
A lot of people would be overwhelmed with this task but it didn't really phase me. I did make a small grocery store run for fresh fruit. But other than that, everything was in reach in my kitchen. Prepping veggies ahead of time and storing in Lock 'n Lock containers helps a lot. Keeping foods we use a lot stocked in the kitchen also helps.
We survived our four day trip. We had plenty of food and snacks. Everyone was happy!!
More to come on the rest of our travels and our wonderful hosts!!
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