For those of you who read our summer "must do's" in last week's newsletter, you might remember #7: Find the perfect combination of travel activities for our boys to occupy them during the seven hour car ride to our vacation destination.

Well, the search is on as we leave for Branson, Missouri, in just over a week. That's seven-plus hours in the car with two high-energy little guys. But, as moms often do, I've got a couple tricks up my sleeve. Now I want to share my top picks for travel activities in the hopes that they might bring you, too, some sanity on your next road trip.

Pick #1: Travel Activity Tray

I've seen variations of this project on several sites and thought I would try my hand at crafting a "busy board" for my boys to use during our travels. It took less than an hour to create but will hopefully keep little hands and minds occupied for much longer than that!

Here's how you can make one:

• Start with a cookie sheet and white contact paper. 
• Measure, cut and adhere the contact paper to the cookie sheet. Now your surface is ready for both magnets and dry erase markers. I bought a set of dry erase markers that were already magnetic, but it would be easy to add a magnet strip to the back of one or two.
• Next, I added magnet strips to the back of some large buttons. I'm thinking these can either be used to hold coloring or puzzle sheets (as seen in the picture) or as markers for tic-tac-toe or Bingo. 
• Finally, I adhered a plastic zipper pouch to the back of each of the cookie sheets. Before we leave, I'll make sure these are filled with coloring sheets, puzzles and games (by the way, one of my favorite sites for free printables is Family Fun) as well as a few crayons and a small cloth to erase the dry erase board.

I'm excited to try these out and see what imaginative uses my boys' come up for them!

Pick #2: Pipecleaners

They're colorful. They're clean. They're easy to store. They're inexpensive. I purchased 100 brightly colored pipecleaners for under $2 that will be added to our travel bag. With these, the boys can use them to model letters, shapes, animals ... really anything they want! And when they're done, they can retwist and use them again!

Pick #3: Beach Ball

For those stops that I know we'll have to make, I purchased a couple blow up beach balls from the dollar store. Once we stop, we can blow one up and start a quick game of catch or ball tag. Then, when we're ready to go, we can let our the air and pack them away for the next stop. As an added bonus, we'll have them for the pool when we reach our destination. And, at only $1 each, if one gets lost or popped, we're not out a fortune!

Pick #4: Tales2Go

I discovered Tales2Go about a year ago and knew without a doubt that it would need to be in my arsenal of travel tools this summer. Tales2Go is a subscription service/app that streams kids' audio stories (currently numbering over 1,500) directly to my iPhone (or your iPod or iPad) making it a convenient way to take entertainment and education on the road. Subscriptions are available for one month, three months or a full year.

We're looking forward to spending some time in the car listing to some of our favorites (Curious George and Clifford for our 4-year-old) as well as checking out some of the new titles (my 7-year-old was thrilled to learn that Diary of a Wimpy Kid is now a part of the library)!

The app allows you to search titles by age (three through pre-teen), character (like Junie B. Jones, American Girl, Encyclopedia Brown) or popularity and make a library of all your favorites to return to over and over again. And the storytellers are engaging enough for even my little guy to forget that there are no pictures.

And speaking of engaging storytellers, I am so excited to listen to the collection of stories by Mrs. P, otherwise know as Kathy Kinney from The Drew Carey Show! What a fun way for kids (and adults!) to enjoy classic stories!

We'll be sure to keep track of our list so we can share our "must listens" with you!

And for those of you getting ready to hit the road this summer, we'd love for you to have the opportunity to experience Tales2Go, too!

The Giveaway: A 3-month subscription to Tales2Go so you can hear all the great stories from Mrs. P and others all summer long!

Want to win? Leave a comment below letting me know! 

Good luck and happy travels!

The rules: The winner must be a subscriber of Peoria Macaroni Kid. Please use the same email address you subscribe with for your comment. All comments must be entered by 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 21. We'll choose the winner using random.org and announce the winner in the newsletter on Wednesday, June 22.