Travelling with Doggie Tags

TRIP PLANNING  |  TRAVELS WITH KID

While planning for a trip, I like to come up with possible nightmares. Well, 'like' isn't exactly what I would call it but ... you know ... it's what I do. Nightmare 1: We are wandering through the souq in Fes and Spud suddenly gets lost in the crowd. 

Now I know this isn't going to happen; he has never been lost, in all his almost 7 years, for more than about 45 seconds. It's not in his nature. But when I run through all the 'what if' scenarios about travelling with kids, this one comes up for me time and time again. So this is what we've done as a back up plan to just never having him leave our sight ...

Dog tags. Weird? Kinda creepy? But I feel better knowing that he has all the information he could need to help someone find us if the worst should happen. It includes our names and an email address we created just for emergencies; if anyone emails to it, it will automatically get forwarded to family at home.

OK, wait, it gets better. In the back of the bottom one you can see that it's white. That's paper covered with some acetate for protection. I made a whole bunch of little paper tags where we will put our hotel information as we go along.

There. I feel better now. Back to happy-fun-travel thoughts.

Making a List and Checking it Twice

TRIP PLANNING  |  TRAVELS WITH KID
So things may be heating up in Morocco. But we are not letting that stop us from preparing for this trip. Yesterday the family was chatting about what would happen if we couldn't go there ... and Spud piped up "We need a plan B! I think plan B should be Pennsylvania!". We could not stop laughing at the apparent randomness of this choice. "Why!?" I asked. "Well, I think Pennsylvania has a really cool name and it's in America and America has some cool stuff so I think if we went there and we looked for cool stuff we would find it!". Very well said, I thought. I know he's right. But with Morocco being plan A, Pennsylvania has some pretty big shoes to fill.

Anyway, the other day I spent some quality time on our packing list. On google docs of course. I stumbled across this fun site where you answer a bunch of questions about your trip and then it generates a list for you. Of course it won't have everything you specifically want to take but it turned out to be an excellent starting point for us. It even knew I wanted to bring a sketchbook!

Guyot Squishy Bowl and Cup Set

TRAVELS WITH KID  |  STUFF TO BRING

Found these at our local MEC yesterday: silicone cup and bowl set that will pretty much fit anywhere. Even your pocket. We think these are going to come in mighty handy on our upcoming pack-extremely-light trip. I can see these working well for many on-the-move, impromptu, kid-snacking scenarios in grungy train stations and the like.

Apple Millet Cereal in the Slow Cooker

I was tidying our cupboards last night and thought I should use up some of our grains by making an overnight cereal in the slow cooker.

1 C. millet
1 C. brown rice, short grain
7 C. water (you can add more in the morning if it gets too thick)
1 C. apple sauce (helps to sweeten it)
2 apples, large, peeled, cored, and chopped
1/2 t. salt

Eight hours on low and it's done! If you had time to snazz it up a bit this would also be yummy with warm toasted nuts on top.

Also love how well it freezes: about one evening a week I pull one out of the freezer, in the morning I put it in a glass bowl, add a bit of water, cover it and toss it in the microwave. Once warm, I add berries if we have them, some milk, and brown sugar. Of course.

Happy Valentine Hand Out Day

Sharing a little love from a lolly-wielding robot.

Armed with Audiobooks

TRAVELS WITH KID   |   STUFF TO BRING

With some long travel days ahead of us, we want to make sure we are equipped well with high impact, low bulk activities. The latter consideration is due to our attempt of having carry-on luggage only! Crazy? Maybe. Or genius? We'll see.

Airport waiting room, Cuba 2008.

Of course we will have other activities up our sleeves but in the meantime here is our collected audiobook reading list for our 6 year old Spud.

• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Ian Flemming
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory + James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
• Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things, Lenore Look
• Nim's Island, Danielle Denega
• Stuart Little, E. B. White
• Flat Stanley, Jeff Brown
• Various Magic Tree House stories, Mary Pope Osbourne (These are an old favourite. I've bought a few new ones to freshen things up a bit)

Our inspiration for this list came from the following:
1. Our local library (I heart libraries)
2. iTunes
3. Travel Savvy Mom
4. Common Sense Media (It's a great place for reviews, including appropriate age ranges etc.)

So, I'd love to know ... what do you think we are missing in the audiobook world?

String of Hearts

SIMPLE VALENTINE'S DAY CRAFT AT OHDEEDOH

We were up to a little crafting on the weekend. Pop over to ohdeedoh to see the process.